Reddit reviews Remember Everything You Read: The Evelyn Wood 7-Day Speed Reading & Learning Program

This looks like a case for the Evelyn Wood technique. This book is probably at your local library and is worth reading, especially if you're interested in how to take more effective notes.

I'll give you the TL;DR version of the note taking method she has in the book:

• Dedicate an entire page to one main topic
  
• Start your notes from the middle of the page with a horizontal line stating the topic
  
• Whenever you identify what might be a subtopic, draw a branch coming away at an angle from that main topic line
  
• Continue drawing additional branches as needed
  
  Lets say you're in a meeting at work and your topic is designing a new logo. Your main topic line in the center of the page would say "designing a new logo". You and your co-workers identify some things that it should be, so you branch off the main line with a line that says "should be". From the "should be" branch you add things talked about in the meeting (like "warm feeling", "inviting", "round", "symmetric"). You also identify things it should not be so you branch off from the main center line at a different angle and write "should not be" with words coming off that such as "sharp angles", "poor contrast", etc.
  
  Later when you look at the paper you start by looking in the center: what are these notes about? Oh its about designing the new logo. What did we say it should have? What did we say it shouldn't have? Those are easy to find since you placed those branches immediately connected to the center topic line.
  
  How about another example:
  You meet a girl on the subway and have a 10 minute conversation with her. In the end you get her phone number. Since you don't want to look weird by taking notes during the conversation, you wait until she's gone and jot these notes down on your handy pen-and-paper notebook you keep in your pocket.
  
  The main line says the girl's name. You have a branch off the main line that says "contact" with her phone number. Make another branch from the main line that says "Likes" and from there write what you found out she liked ("Oh you listen to <some band> too? I love them!"). Do the same with a "Dislikes" branch as necessary. Make a branch called description if you want.
  
  I hope you find this information useful. I used it in college after reading the Evelyn Wood book.

Here are the books I had in mind when I wrote that, but lacked the time to look up:

http://www.amazon.com/Evelyn-Seven-Day-Reading-Learning-Program/dp/B000M7ZCC2/ref=sr_1_3

http://www.amazon.com/Remember-Everything-You-Read-Learning/dp/0380715775/ref=sr_1_1

http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Rapid-Reading-Peter-Kump/dp/073520019X/ref=sr_1_2

I did a word search in this thread for the titles of these books but I did not see them. If they've somehow been mentioned already, sorry.

How to Read a Book

Yeah yeah, a book called how to read a book. This book has a lot of information to help you filter out the crap you don't want to read from the crap you do, and in the back it has a huge list of good books to read. This book is a good place to start.

Remember Everything You Read

If you google speed reading, Evelyn Wood's face appears. This is a book about speed reading with a focus on education, and it reads like one of those "the secret" type success gimmick books, but even if you don't care about reading faster, get this for the all-important retention techniques.

There is a lot more to the skill of reading than knowing the language in which the book was written. These two books are like keys to locked doors.

> pique my interest

The more you know!

Also, you can get a used copy of Evelyn Wood 7-day speed reading book for $0.01 plus shipping on amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Remember-Everything-You-Read-Learning/dp/0380715775/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1300807072&sr=1-1

I read it, I practiced what it preached, and I read faster today and remember more of what I read. Helped like you wouldn't believe in law school.