Writing summaries is more important than reading more books
I can't speak for others, but for me this headline and idea is exactly and perfectly wrong, so I suppose I just want to reach those for whom this generates unnecessary "guilt" or something like that.<p>As a voracious reader, I've personally found that I got the most out of books when I <i>stopped</i> trying to summarize and highlight. I <i>very rarely</i> do either anymore.<p>I realize that what happens is sort of a Darwinian "survival of the fittest ideas" in my head, often subconsciously.  Once I relaxed and decided, "If the stuff in this book is good enough, my brain will keep it FOR me" both my satisfaction AND utility of books increased dramatically.<p>(which is to say, it's not that I never write anything down. It's that if I do, it's not tied to the book, but to the "thing" or "topic" that I'm interested in, with a reference TO the book)