This is going to be a non-sensical post about all the ways I remember what happened in my books lol I read A LOT. And often times wayyyyy too fast. But somehow I’m still able to remember what each book was about. And that’s because I’ve discovered one thing: Mind Maps.
So by definition, a mind map is “a visual diagram that helps organize information hierarchically, where a central topic is connected to related ideas branching out from it, often using images, keywords, and colors to represent relationships between different concepts and facilitate understanding and recall of information.” So basically what I used to use to formulate my essays in school. Now it’s the same kind of concept, except there doesn’t have to be a hierarchy, just a way to help me recall the information. Most times when I see or re-read something, I can recall the entire scene that happened. And that’s what I’m shooting for here. It helps me in a way I wasn’t expecting. Above is an example. It says Mood Board, but it’s basically what I call a mood board. Why do I think there’s a difference? I’m not trying to capture an aesthic like mood boards. These are simply so I can remember.
So to make one, I just go back and write simple things down on the sheet as I read the book. (For the record, for those wondering, I use Goodnotes, but for a non-payment option, you can totes use Google Slides or another PowerPoint kind of thing. I got Goodnotes solely because of the different notebooks I can create.) Once I’m finished reading I normally go immediately to the next book. No cap, this is how I’m at 10 books now. I’m already 3 books ahead because I shotgun them thangs back to back lol (Actually its because I’m reading multiple for so long and then when I do finally do finish them its months later, but its all 3 at the same time lol) So anyway, by the time I go and want to write the review, it’s like 3 books later! But then by looking at just the words or quotes I wrote down can make me remember.
IDK if any of you will understand that, so I guess I’ll just show some examples lmao This is what they look like when I first start reading a book. So anytime an interesting fact comes up I always try to write it down on the page that I’m going to form into something. Once I finish the book I start looking at the words and trying to figure out which ones would be more striking and which one would be prettier to see and then i go find pictures of those things. I usually just search for whatever I’m looking for in Google and then use CC0 so that things that don’t have a copyright won’t come up. In the event that they do because someone else stole it from where it rightfully came, I always just skip that one and go to the one I like second. I go on and on like this until there’s only a little space left for me to write things out.
This is what a finished one looks like. As you can see I put all the pictures, I put some personal stuff on there, and I added some other things like the date it releases and other information about the book. I type in the information about the book since my handwriting is terrible lol I don’t want to have to like people messaging me and trying to see what this or that means. That would be embarrassing lol Lastly, after the pictures have been added, and the book info has been added, I’ll go in and also add some things I might have thought of or moods I was in or things I Googled while i was reading. In this case, the Zero to Hero and Bless my Soul were the songs I thought of when I read this. (I think they’re mentioned and that catapulted me into singing the song a dozen times a day in my head.) I also had to go in and Google what some of the muses were. I didn’t want to add all of them, just the ones who weren’t super active in this story so they could shine too. Idk, my decision making skills are all over the place, so yeah, come up with your own thing because clearly I just put any old random thing on there lol
I know this is the weirdest post ever, but I need your help! Should I make these accessible to the world and show y’all all of them? Would that even be something you want to see? I’m asking because there are a bunch of them for this year already. Like 9 or 10. It’s for the books listed above. Let me know if you want to see them!
So what do you think? Have you heard of these before? Would you like to see the others? Let me know in the comments!