How to Annotate HARD Books | Hegel, Heidegger, Joyce, Pynchon, and More

In this video, I'll show you some of my annotation strategies and examples from five hard books I've read over the years, in the process explaining why annotation can be especially beneficial when reading long, hard books. Hopefully, this will give you some creative or novel ideas. Enjoy!
Music is Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 8 Mvt IV Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra kzbin.info/www/bejne/a4HYqmqIgs-EgpIsi=9Km0KV6G69EkUoSs
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[@VorosMedve]

I’ve started using Niklas Luhmann’s zettelkasten system…and if you like complex books, you can’t go wrong with Luhmann (although, you will)

[@markusrobinson9081]

Same here. Digital or analog?

[@VorosMedve]

@@markusrobinson9081 analogue…the process of writing helps cement the arguments/concepts

[@mr.le-capibar]

Totally agree

[@bokramubokramu8834]

"if you like complex books, you can’t go wrong with Luhmann (although, you will)" What do oyu mean?

[@ComradeCyber-bm4cn]

@@bokramubokramu8834Probably referring to the difficulty of Luhmann’s texts and his strange writing style.

[@666Metalbassist]

I've just gotten into reading more difficult texts like Deleuze, Heidegger, and the like and I got to say this method of annotation is a massive game changer. Thanks for uploading this

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

@@666Metalbassist Glad you find it so! Those are the best guys to read so glad you’re enjoying ascending the ladder!

[@redlightoftryst1769]

I love that idea of creating a dialectic between your notes and the text

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

I’m glad you like it!

[@beanos5105]

@@gavinyoung-philosophy Hi! Loved this video! I am a philosphy student as well, and i am considering if i should actually go full paper books. I'd really like to, but the digital format has a crucial advantage that it seems to me paper books don't have: you can correct yourself. How do you avoid filling a page with unerasable marker lines and annotations only to later find you got it all wrong, and now your page is stuffed with unhelpful, even misleading annotations? Thank you!

[@bluespruce786]

I found that drawing bubbles around pertinent text, as opposed to underlining, creates a better flow when I'm re-reading something. Great video and thoughts, thanks for posting!

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

@@bluespruce786 I’ll give this a try! Sounds helpful

[@samibabar]

This is the best video for me as I started reading hefty history and philosophy books as I find myself fond of history apart from my engineering studies, and this would help me to make my books more accessible/more re-readable.

[@JackHodge-o8o]

How feasible is it to tackle complex works of philosophy why pursuing an engineering degree? I'm worried I won't have time/energy after all my studies.

[@samibabar]

@@JackHodge-o8o It's very fulfilling for me at individual level. Engineering is something that I want to have a profession into, because it interests me and technology dependency is future. But for me its incomplete for intellectual and cognitive development. Philosophy and social sciences should be read to understand different dynamics of self and society. It's majorly my own point of view, and thats why i can channelize my energies in philosophy too after my degree

[@calebmay3231]

Great video! I especially appreciate the emphasis you place on taking notes in a motivated, goal-oriented fashion, and on the importance of relying on our notes as a guiding tool. These ideas allow us not only to become better readers, but also to become more effective communicators, educators, and creatives.

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

@@calebmay3231 Well said! Thank you for your kind words and thoughts :)

[@kdjourney51]

Fascinating. Inspiring. Challenging. Drawn in. It’s nice to talk about the tribe on life long learning.❤

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

Thank you!

[@dellh86]

My handwriting is too big for marginality in the actual margins lol. Notebook on the side is an option. Also, I am glad you suggest not to do too much. Especially in literature, I find that heavy annotation breaks immersion and can even hurt reading comprehension.

[@bokramubokramu8834]

If anything books pages should be destroyed by annotations with no free space left. By wrestling and grinding, that's how you get to truly understand a book. Imagine the authors' reactions (after years or decades of hard work) if you were to tell them you'd rather miss the presented ideas than annotate the book.

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

@@bokramubokramu8834 Couldn’t agree more!

[@radioforthebirds]

Well, you also have to imagine the authors reaction to you basically ruining the hard copy for anyone you might pass it on to in the future. There are non-destructive ways to do your note-taking and thinking about a book. Keep one of those $1 notebooks next to it or something.

[@borninvincible]

Thank for sharing. I'm just getting into this. Appreciate it ❤

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

@@borninvincible Glad I could be of some help!

[@CrownedAnarchy]

Seeing those art flaps triggered an audible gasp, that's so cool. 100% doing that from now on

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

@@CrownedAnarchy Glad you think so!😁

[@santiago-oz4qc]

enjoyed this video v much and your take on different annotations, thank you!

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

I’m glad! Thank you :)

[@potat8089]

Awesome video man, I subscribed! ❤

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

@@potat8089 Thanks friend!

[@אוך]

For your German thingy in Being and Time, in this context "determine" would be a correct translation for bestimmen but what I would really recommend you to look into if you already haven't are translations of Husserl's works and how many concepts he created cannot be properly translated into English and even if translated, then quite poorly done so. Just found out about your channel, loving the content! :D

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

@@אוך Thanks, I’ll check that out!

[@beanos5105]

Hi! Loved this video! I am a philosphy student as well, and i am considering if i should actually go full paper books. I'd really like to, but the digital format has a crucial advantage that it seems to me paper books don't have: you can correct yourself. How do you avoid filling a page with unerasable marker lines and annotations only to later find you got it all wrong, and now your page is stuffed with unhelpful, even misleading annotations? Thank you!

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

That’s the best part: seeing how your thoughts change, accepting the irreversibility of mistakes (at least in a sense) and accepting going in blind nevertheless. Maybe I’m being too idealistic about it, because you’re nevertheless right that you have much more control in digital media (in least in certain cases).

[@beanos5105]

@@gavinyoung-philosophy i guess that can be an upside ahahaha. Thank you though!

[@bluespruce786]

How old is the table? Those are very interesting tool marks running across the grain.

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

Your guess is as good as mine!😬

[@phothar93]

If you’re reading for the first time, how do you know which lines are important

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

@@phothar93 Usually I am somewhat familiar with what the thinker’s general project or influence is, so I can use that to help guide what I’m on the lookout for. For example, most know that Hegel is famous for theorizing about the dialectic and Geist, so those were some basic things I was on the lookout for. Aside from that, I just mark things that strike me as advancing their argument, presenting novel perspectives, eloquent language, useful definitions, etc. There’s ultimately no way, you’re right, to know what’s truly important while reading for the first time, so just go by instinct!

[@johndoe-rq1pu]

Soak them in lukewarm water first. No more than thirty seconds.

[@NothingYouHaventReadBefore]

Salt to taste.

[@PS2Reviewer]

What abot Infinite Jest? Is it on par with Finnegans Wake and GR or is it meme, or do you think Wallaces vision for it was different than Joyce's and Pnchon's.

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

@@PS2Reviewer That’s next on the docket of hard, big books! I’m eager to have an answer to the questions you raise here :)

[@bradybilliot6819]

IJ is relatively easy imo although I haven’t read the other two just portrait of the artist by Joyce and cry lot and against the day for Pynchon. IJ is very verbose and has a fun structure but the words he chooses are probably the most difficult part because DFW was a huge fan of the dictionary and chose a lot of obscure words

[@PS2Reviewer]

@@gavinyoung-philosophy Great, very much looking forward to your thoughts on it!

[@WhiteRussianDolls]

I believe DFW had FW as inspiration for the eternal ”Entertainment”.

[@tomastraslavina3160]

Great video! Very helpfull;)

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

@@tomastraslavina3160 Thank you, I’m glad!

[@alannolan3514]

Thank you - if you have any tips for triangulating digital resources (finwake, fweet), the book and your notes for the wake please let me know!

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

@@alannolan3514 Hi, could you be more specific with what you need? If you’re just looking for digital resources for the Wake, there are PDFs online if you just search for it.

[@123456789tube100]

How much time did you spend each day reading phenomenology?

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

@@123456789tube100 Anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours I’d say. Took me about 5 months so it’s definitely a dirge😬

[@NWong]

Thanks for the insight into your reading process. Did you mark up Finnegan’s Wake like that on your first reading? If so, how do you do that without breaking the flow and enjoyment of the book? More importantly, how do you know what’s important to mark up if it’s your first time reading a fictional book?

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

Yup, the annotations are the result of my first read. In terms of not interrupting the flow, I would basically go paragraph by paragraph: read a paragraph, go back and annotate what I found necessary to, etc etc. It’s definitely not easy to know what’s important on a first read. Finnegans Wake is unique because most of those annotations are just jotting down connections and references that sprung to mind, but most of the time it’s just being cognizant of the themes being developed in a book and noting passages that serve the greater message of the text.

[@justincheatham6070]

I think the next step for me to up my reading is giving myself this system with multiple types of markers. I generally stick to pen for underlining and writing down occasional thoughts in margins especially since it is easier to remember (or find) a pen and the book, but I definitely find it hard to go back to texts especially to track down passages I want to recall from a text (without resourcing to maybe finding a pdf copy and ctrl + f the book which is not always promising for various reasons).

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

@@justincheatham6070 Yeah that’s certainly a long-term challenge of trying to make your memorable passages locatable for your future self without obtusely inflating your annotations to the point of comedy. The flags are rather helpful for that for me, but ultimately there’s no easy way to do the ctrl + f function in a physical text😔

[@zamplify]

I have never written in a book. It would have to be post-its.

[@Glotaku]

What is a hard book? It’s either written with pace or it’s poorly written

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

Hard books can be written with good pacing. I don’t see how your distinction rules out what many would consider hard books.

[@Glotaku]

How is it a hard book if you’re ushered through it with great pacing? If you mean hard to fully grasp that’s fine but I don’t see how anyone would struggle to read a well paced book other than reading too fast for their comprehension level

[@Glotaku]

Great video btw looks like you make good content

[@potat8089]

​@@Glotaku I felt the same way about "hard books" as a label, until someone suggested to me that it may not come as easily to everyone as it does to me. Maybe you and I are simply harder thinkers? Food for thought

[@franciscofarias6385]

@@Glotaku Why are you saying a good book means a book you read easily? This by definition excludes hard books, sure, but this is not what people mean by "good". Also the pace of a story is separate from how fast you as an individual goes through it.

[@FloyDJode]

Can't wait for part 2: Annotation strategy for hard R

[@daanisch]

wait you read and understood Finnegans Wake? I thought it was mostly word salad unless you could empathise with the book only by having survived an episode of psychosis

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

@@daanisch It’s definitely comprehensible if you know how to go about reading and preparing! I have a guide to FW on my channel if you’re curious. But yeah, definitely not just word salad (in my opinion).

[@daanisch]

@@gavinyoung-philosophy you won't have to read the same sentence twice if you try to read it the moment you get out of bed

[@ElonMuskrat-my8jy]

I can't remember who said it but someone described it as an intellectual LSD trip.

[@WhiteRussianDolls]

I don’t think Joyce himself understood all of Finnegans Wake… ”(hic sunt lennones!) at pointblank range blinking down the barrel of an irregular revolver)”

[@s.e.5891]

i know it's off topic, but you have really pretty hands

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

@@s.e.5891 Why thank you 😜

[@microwavedchampagne]

this type of reading for a thousand plateaus is kinda ironic. nice video tho.

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

@@microwavedchampagne You may be right!

[@bluespruce786]

All books are work books!

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

@@bluespruce786 Love this!

[@lS-je3ud]

I stuck it through this first section, but like most of these videos that are clickbait, we clicked to learn how, and you have stated circularly that it is that you've had had done, but how so; in that it is that is, how evidently that you've had: that you've had, instead of how.

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

What would you rather me do, annotate a book from cover to cover for you on video? The point is I have already annotated these and am taking you through my system and thoughts to explain what best worked for me. This is how you always use language: to describe something which has been, but which is now immortalized through language. In no way is this clickbait, for I am telling you how I tailor my annotation style to suit more difficult texts and thereby presenting suggested techniques.

[@boxcutter0]

Useful alternative approaches to consider

[@EsatBargan]

Martinez Robert Moore Angela Perez Amy

[@james-e9n9s]

Reading your notes while someone else is talking…

[@tubsy.]

Fiction is NOT meant to be read only once. What gave you that idea? Fiction can be incredibly deep and complex, maybe even more so than just sterile logical argumentation. Brothers Karamazov and Master and Margarita for example are like bottomless wells that you can keep re-reading and continue to find something useful every time.

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

@@tubsy. I never said fiction is meant to be read only once. I said that a lot of the annotation videos I see on KZbin are from people who have the idea of reading a book only once. For them, literature isn’t necessarily a life-long process of re-reading, but for me it is, thus why I annotate so heavily and specifically.

[@speeksasfada]

Yeah even poems, just a little words can be vast lessons philosophy

[@redlightoftryst1769]

Now I don't feel so bad for completely destroying nearly every single book i own

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

Haha you’re in the right crowd!😁

[@princegobi5992]

Just don’t sell them to second hand stores please nothing worth than finding a nice copy of a rare title on the secondhand market and it being annotated

[@JamesThomas-wf6qm]

Honestly, Hegel’s syntax was objectively poor. He was a terrible writer.

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

@@JamesThomas-wf6qm He definitely wasn’t generous to his readers, that’s for sure

[@wes5614]

My God, I hate when I get a book off ebay and it ends up looking like this. You could always write in a separate journal.

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

@@wes5614 Well if you get someone else’s copy that’s this crazy, yeah, that’ll just be a hindrance. Writing in a separate journal means that every time you want to go back you have to find said journal, locate multiple books, lay them out simultaneously, etc; having them in the book allows them to be right next to the text and join the text with greater ease.

[@Gruso57]

And you could always get books not on ebay. See how this logic works?

[@bokramubokramu8834]

Don't be such a baby

[@wes5614]

@@Gruso57 you paying? Probably a Biden voter

[@Rednines]

I get elated when I pick up or order a philosophy book and there are annotations and notes inside

[@johnryskamp2943]

You can go to youtube and listen to Joyce reading Anna Livia Plurabelle. Follow along with the text. He was supposed to read the entire thing, but it didn't happen. GR is a poor man's Ulysses. Joyce's novels are at least 1/3 too long. He has a hero but nithing for his hero to do. If you want to join the 20th century, read the book A. Garciadiego, Bertrand Russell and the Origins of the Set-theoretic 'Paradoxes.'

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

@@johnryskamp2943 I’m aware of such a recording. It’s proven quite helpful in nailing down his pronunciation tendencies and rhythm and whatnot. Ulysses and GR are very different. I know they’re often compared to one another and modernism/postmodernist exemplars respectively, but they depart from one another aesthetically and literarily in many regards. But you’re right, Ulysses is pretty awesome, and I’ve covered it here on the channel. Maybe they are long. Any book that’s over 300 pages tends to feel long to me, so I try to tune out that voice telling me to stop and just realize that, like life, not every single second needs to be maximally stimulating and captivating. Joyce’s characters do everyday activities; that’s what makes them truly heroic and also truly real. They struggle with personal guilt, workplace troubles, sexual and romantic fantasies, hunger, and so much more. I find that everything they do is both enjoyable and rewarding because it’s so real :)

[@ElonMuskrat-my8jy]

Bertrand Russell is a megalomaniac and a psychopath. He advocated for d3p0p and technocracy.

[@amandasantoso843]

your approach of dissecting books is so palatable 🤍 i can’t wait to put this to the test

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

Thank you :) Wishing you the best!

[@redlightoftryst1769]

I love that idea of creating a dialectic between your notes and the text

[@jung9399]

pseud