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Reading notes template

Updated on October 28, 2026

Reading notes keep the essentials of a book or paper so you never have to read it all again. With the full reference, the main idea, a summary by chapter and quotes with page numbers, they work for a college paper and for remembering a book you read for fun.

Reading notes

Title: Pride and Prejudice
Author: Jane Austen
Edition: publisher, city, year · Pages: 432
Read in: October 2026

Main idea

In one or two sentences: what the author wants to show with this text.

Summary by chapter or part

  • Chapters 1 to 3:
  • Chapters 4 to 6:

Quotes

  • "passage copied exactly as written" (p. 35)

Concepts and characters



My take

  • What I found convincing:
  • What I found weak:
  • What it connects to:

To use in

  • Literature essay

How to use it

  1. Before you start reading, create the note with "Use this template" and fill in the full reference: title, author, edition and pages.
  2. When you finish each chapter or part, write two or three summary lines in your own words.
  3. Copy the quotes you find important exactly as they appear, in quotation marks and with the page number.
  4. At the end, write the main idea and your take. That is the part that helps most to remember the book years later.

Tips

  • Always separate what belongs to the author (quotes, in quotation marks) from what is yours (summary and opinion). It prevents accidental plagiarism in papers.
  • Write down each quote’s page right away. Searching for it later in a 300-page book takes a long time.
  • Keep your reading notes in a folder (reading/2026) with one note per book: search (Ctrl+K) finds an author or concept in all of them.
  • For academic papers, add a line with the method used and the main findings.

Summary, review and reading notes

A summary says what the text says, without opinion. A review evaluates the text, with arguments. Reading notes are your raw material for both: they bring summary, quotes and comments together in one place. That is why they are worth doing even when nobody asked. When it is time to write the review or the paper, the quotes already have pages, the summary is ready and your opinion already has a first draft.

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