In our May “how can we help you?” thread, a reader asks:
I’m coming to the realization that I need to build a system to organize papers I’d like to read if I’m actually going to find the time to read them. Would love to hear from PhilCocoon readers about what kind of infrastructures they’ve designed for themselves/their reading lists. What does your reading list look like? Do you plan what to read in advance or do you read on a whim?
Good questions! I don’t have any system beyond this: When I come across a random paper that I want to read, then I download it to my desktop and read it. If I find it of interest but don’t presently have any writing project related to it, I have a folder labeled “Readings”, with subfolders organized by topic–so I’ll throw it in there. But this isn’t the typical case. Far more often, I organize what I read around papers that I am currently writing or paper ideas that I have formed in my head and plan to write. In this case, I have a folder labeled “Papers in Progress” organized by paper title/idea. Then, as I read on that topic, I throw the readings in the relevant folder. That’s it for me!
What do readers do?
Leave a Reply