I'd be very curious to hear more about this. I've flirted on and off with note-taking on books for all the same reasons you mention, but I invariably feel guilty about progressing too slowly. In a weird way, I think this a quintessentially American affliction - like our obsession with throughput and productivity washes into our real lives as well. I'm just wondering what you do to fight that instinct. Specifically, I think the two things that get me are : (1) feeling bad about not reading enough and (2) worrying about being ultimately disappointed with a book and having wasted my time taking notes.
I feel much smarter after reading more slowly. When someone asks me, "What are you reading?" I feel much more confident in answering that question.
And the knowledge is less flimsy as well; I become a master, not a slave, of the material. I do not place the source material on a pedestal. I take what I need, and discard the garbage.
I can also cook the material much better. I am able to merge ideas from the book with my previous interests. The products from mental fusing turn out to be solid business ideas and mental models.
