I am not studying an organised history course and it is not part of my job. I don't have deadlines for my studies so I'm not really asking about how to read about a subject quickly.
I find while I'm reading books that I end up with a desire to make notes about what I'm reading. I might want to make a note of a name or dates to help me to better understand the order of events. I often want to look into something that is mentioned as a throwaway comment or footnote in more detail.
Do you have a system for making those notes? Do you use software to help organise them or just a paper notebook?
Here's my thoughts on the subject, but in general I'd recommend setting a clear objective for what you want to do. It's really difficult just to read and read and read without any idea what your doing it for. Setting an objective (present a paper at a local historical society, join in a non-professional seminar) just because it gives you some direction other than 'Ooh, that's interesting!' Ultimately that has to come from you, there are people who are perfectly happy just absorbing information and keeping track of trivia but you seem to want more....
Good luck!
Ahhh a fellow traveller of the leisurely path to historical understanding! Hobby historians for pure pleasure! We are researchers of a like bent. History-making is a journey, not a race.
I write notes by hand in a notebook when I am reading. I prefer this to the computer because the computer is distracting, and I want to use my reading time mostly for reading. I write my notes in a pretty flat prose structure, although I will occasionally make simple charts for things like cast lists, prices, or dates. I will occasionally quote the author, though rarely more than one or two sentences. If you find yourself quoting more it is probably more useful to make a scan of the section you like or just buy the darn book (98% of my reading is from the library.)
I will try to write down names and numbers that I want to add to my searchable computer notes later (which are pretty sparse), and I will also try to summarize the author’s main arguments, usually with some of my own commentary. I start each section off in the notebook with a bare-bones citation and then the notes start flowing. I use goodreads as a sort of more detailed citation keeper + complete record of books read (including the garbage ones with people kissing on the covers) so I'm not very careful about citations. So something like this:
Title. Author. Date.
Author claims castrati were “hep cats” and they invented the modern world and everything in it. (pg. 76) I find this a bit specious.
If I find a thing I need to check up on later (like a footnote or a citation to find) I will make a star in the margin.
When the notebook is full I make an index of all the titles inside the front or back cover. Reading notebooks are pretty delightful because you can go back and thumb through them and remember all smart thoughts you had. I don’t know if this works for anyone besides myself, but I like to do very “deep reading” when I’m reading, so it keeps me focused, constantly trying to distill the information and judge whether or not it is worth being written down. I actually very rarely consult my reading notebook when I do answers here because I just remember most things, especially major arguments of certain people/books. If you research disparate things it might behoove you to keep them in different notebooks.
It depends.
I make copious use of the note taking features of e-reading software, together with highlighting (Google Play Books isn't bad, while the Nook app is. No idea about the Kindle apps).
Other notes are kept in a notebook, with book and page references, or post it notes stuck on a page. Eventually they get transferred into a wiki for easy crossreferences.
Books themselves are organized from the general to the specific ad a collection grows.