What should you write down when you stop reading?

Write two things: the page you stopped on, and the question you are waiting to have answered. Add any character you met for the second time that session. When you come back, read the card, read the last page before your bookmark, and set a fifteen-minute timer. If you use a page-locked recap app such as Magic Bookmark, sync your page at the same moment you write the card.

The cheapest recap tool is the one you write yourself, thirty seconds before you close the book. This printable puts those thirty seconds on a card that lives inside the book, with the routine for coming back on the other side.

Side A: what do you write when you stop?

Date: ____ Page: ____
I am waiting to find out: ______________________
New name (second appearance): ____ who they are: ____
New name (second appearance): ____ who they are: ____
Next session: when ____ where ____

Keep it to those lines. A card that takes longer than thirty seconds will stop being filled in.

Side B: what do you do when you come back?

Step 1: Read side A of the card.
Step 2: Read the last full page before your bookmark, slowly.
Step 3: If names feel unfamiliar, check your cast card or a page-locked recap.
Step 4: Set a timer for fifteen minutes or one chapter.
Step 5: When it ends, fill in a new side A before you close the book.

When is a card not enough?

After a long gap, or in a book with a big cast, two lines will not rebuild the story. That is when a recap that stops at your page helps most. Magic Bookmark does this for supported titles in print, ebook and audiobook, on iPhone; Kindle Story So Far does it inside Kindle ebooks in the US. Both are desk reviews on this site.

Without either, reread the last chapter you clearly remember and skim forward, reading only the first and last paragraph of each chapter up to your bookmark.

How do you print it?

Print this page; the site header, footer and featured boxes are hidden in print.
Cut the checklist and steps into a card about the size of a bookmark.
Fold it over the page you are on so side A faces you when you open the book.

Questions people actually ask

What is the fastest way to remember where I was in a book?

Write the page and the open question on a card when you stop. It takes thirty seconds and works for any book.

Do I need an app to get back into a book?

No. A card works for short gaps. For long gaps or big casts, a page-locked recap app saves the most time.

How long should my first session back be?

Fifteen minutes or one chapter, then a new card before you close the book.

Sources

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