Book Reviews to Aid Memory

This may all sound so familiar:

I go to the library, or over to a friend's house. I return with a few books or magazines that appear to have some information that will be of benefit to me, just as soon as I can alot some time to the genre it has to do with! Maybe not today, but soon, so I hope. I read, or should I say browse thru these morsel laden compilations of paper. Because I'm not going to actually do the technique now, I just want to see if I should revisit this publication when the timing works. So, I have spent, perhaps even wasted, a fair amount of time. I have enjoyed it, but I can only remember bits and pieces three weeks later, when I have returned from the library. Now I don't have the book, and I really don't want to purchase any more at this time. But two days later, I'm all up in the air because, NOW I have the time and inclination to utilize that information. Oh, I could return to the library, find the book, check it out and get back home in time to actually flip thru the pages to get to that elusive information. But, alas, I didn't pick up the right book. This one was about the 'other' type of shibori folding, or what have you! This was my dilemma in the past. No longer,,,

About three years ago, I was getting into surface design on cloth. I would come home with several books at a time from the library. Try to read all of them. Try to remember all of the information. Forget most all of it, and couldn't remember which book had what information! Yikes, this was irritating to say the least. Then a lightbulb moment! I hit upon a unique concept. Probably never before known to man!! Or, did I actually do this 50+ years ago, in school? Hmmm,,,

Well, I do them a little different now. You will tweak this for your own use if you choose to give it a try.

* Make a photo copy of the cover of each book, or scan and utilize your computer for as much of this as works for you
Make sure you get the title in case you want to look for it online, author's name might also be helpful
* I date this piece of paper. It's funny how I can remember that I read the book during the winter, but the name of
it may elude me totally
* I put the photo copy inside the book.
* I keep a pen handy for taking notes as I browse. I put pg# and brief description if I want to come back for
expanded notes. Otherwise I make notes as I go.
* I keep these in a three ring binder where I can browse thru them when I am looking for information. It's funny, but sometimes just seeing the cover of the book will jog my memory
* Now refer to the notes on the back of these when you can't remember which book held that special technique or instructions for a project

I have found this works for me in many ways. I don't bother with trying to get at everything as soon as I've read about it. I can enjoy browsing thru the book. When I choose to come back for more information later, I can find the pages I want to explore. Notes on some books read, No new info, but very inspiring pictures. And I think one of the biggest helps is this. Even if I don't get the chance to browse thru the book before it's return I will have a picture of the cover so I can look for it on a future library visit. 

And sometimes you can let them inspire you to just create something,,,

Take a few minutes to be inspired by the cover of a book. The font, colors used, etc, etc, etc. 

So, with this in mind,

Let's Create Today,

Luann