There is no point in reading unless it is to make the material one’s own; and that is rarely achieved on a first reading. Therefore, assimilation requires rereading and returning to what first caught one’s attention. That is why the intellectual must spend a good deal of time planning and implementing his personal method of organization. Notes and highlighted passages must become a living part of one’s study routine: they must be at hand when needed, and always in plain sight to prevent them from falling into oblivion. It is a matter of rereading them methodically and seeing that, with this practice, they take root within oneself.