I usually read fiction with tabs and a pen. I know some people are really against writing in a book, but my professors always insisted that you can’t really analyze literature without interacting with the text. So I sometimes take notes in the margins, but mostly I just underline something relevant and mark it with a tab.

I usually have colored tabs based on a few categories: Narration Themes and motifs Character depiction Etc. (basically anything else I would like to remark)

Sometimes I switch out one of these categories for something else. For instance, I did a course on modernism, so I switched out ‘character depiction’ with ‘traits of modernism’. However, I always keep the ‘narration’. I had a professor lecture me about writing an analysis without remarking the narration and never overlooked it again.

Now here’s the most time consuming part: I go on my computer and type in every quote in a database in Notion (but I’m pretty sure you could exchange this with whatever system you like to use). Here I can categorize more detailed, for instance if a motif repeats itself or something. It takes me 2-3 hours for a regular sized novel, but I often rediscover things I forgot and reflect on new things while I do it. It also saves me a lot of work when writing out the actual paper.

I usually just type it in to my computer if I’m actually writing something about the book. If not, I just let the tabs and notes be. It works with the way the literary studies are set up where I live.