Hello everyone
I have been planning to write a little in this newsletter about the various books I am reading. A couple of years ago, an online acquaintance introduced me to the author Elizabeth Strout. I read and enjoyed three of Strout’s later novels, based on the character Lucy Barton, and now I am reading all her novels in publication order. (And, errrm, yes, I am doing a read through of all of Dickens too. Whoops!)
Actually, I’d been planning to read through Strout’s novels for the last 18 months. I’ve had all the books from the library, sitting on a bookshelf, getting renewed online every month. I’ve been… storing them for the library. Saving them room. Keeping them safe. Something like that. Anyway, after a couple of the books got reserved by other people, I decided I needed to crack on and read them.
Amy & Isabelle, Strout’s first novel, is a wonderful book, and it has given me a lot to think about. As with much of what I do, making notes on it and writing about it turned into a huge project, much more than I was able to achieve in one week. I have so much to say about this novel! Don’t worry - most of it will not end up in this newsletter. I just want to explore this novel and its ideas further, and writing helps me clarify my thoughts.
Which leads me on to the subject that I am going to talk about this week: the Zettelkasten system.
‘What the hell is the Zettelkasten system?’ I suspect a number of you are saying. Zettelkasten (German for 'note box' or 'slip box') is a knowledge system, popularly described as being 'invented' by German sociologist Niklas Luhmann, who was working in the second half of the twentieth century. He was a prolific writer, publishing dozens of books and hundreds of scholarly articles during his career, and he credited his productivity to his creation of an interlinked series of around 90 000 index cards, his Zettelkasten.
Although the claims that the sociologist invented the system are an oversimplification1 (people have been keeping their reading notes on index cards before and since Luhmann), by using a hierarchical, branching number system, and placing cards into a web of interconnecting ideas by cross-referencing the card numbers, Luhmann developed the system further than others. It allowed him to build his ideas from the bottom up and let them unfold, rather than forcing his ideas into a pre-determined structure. He described how most of his thinking happened ‘within the slip box.’2
And so it is Luhmann’s method that has gained popularity in recent years, especially since technological tools have made linking between pieces of text so easy. The expanded 2nd edition of Sönke Ahrens’ 2017 book, How to Take Smart Notes, was my introduction to the method. I wrote in my newsletter dated 31st May 2024 that I have piles of old notebooks, as well as various computer files, filled with notes and writing. I needed a system that would allow me to retrieve these notes and ideas, and make more connections between them. Reading Ahrens’ book in June 2022 convinced me that I needed to try the Zettelkasten/Luhmann method.
There is the much quoted proverb that the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago, and the second best time is now. I wish I had known about these methods twenty years ago, and I definitely wish I had started my own Zettelkasten two years ago, when I read Ahrens’ book. However, I got started last week, using the software Obsidian (which, to be fair, makes the whole affair much easier and wasn’t available when I was in my 20s). I have seen a series of tweets by someone who has used Obsidian to build their Zettelkasten over the last couple of years, and it is fascinating to watch the images of his web of knowledge and ideas increasing.
The process of creating Zettel is as important as the interconnections between them. Each one should contain a single idea, written in full sentences and in your own words. It is so easy, when you are reading, to just underline or highlight sections, or even to copy out quotations into a notebook (I have reams of these). What is harder, but far more valuable, is to think about why a word or sentence or passage deserves your attention and to explain your thoughts during your reading in your own words. That is what I am endeavouring to do in my Zettel, on a whole range of topics, from the novels of Elizabeth Strout to local history, from ADHD to knitting, and all the many other subjects I wander into…
And what is the point of all this? Honestly, I’m not sure that I know. Except that I do know that I regret not developing the ideas I have had from the wide range of books I have read. I knew I wanted to write and create from my earliest years, and collecting my thoughts, ideas and snippets of writing into a system that is useable seems like it could help. This is the second best time to do that.
Have a good weekend. Maybe plant a tree, or something?!
Emma xx
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Bye for now! Emma
Ahrens, S. (2022) *How to Take Smart Notes*. Hamburg: Independently published.
Really interesting read!