Why should I make highlights while reading? What should be highlighted? And how will they be used? Without an answer to these, highlighting quietly turns into a habit that feels productive while producing nothing.
The types of highlight
Resonance — the classic meaning. These are the lines that connected me with the book, my own personal feeling toward them. A line lights up not because it is objectively important, but because it touched something already in me.
Asterisks — marks on ideas and concepts that need further digging to understand. These are not keepsakes; they are open loops, flags planted on the spots where I owe more thought.
When to highlight
Highlights should serve a purpose of future action, not collection out of the fear of missing out. If a highlight has no future in it — nothing you will revisit, reuse, or act on — then you are only hoarding sentences. (A distinction I borrowed from a friend’s thinking.)