Robert Pattinson is a busy man. The actor is currently filming the fourth series of his critically acclaimed vampire saga The vampire diaries, and in addition to his TV appearances, he has two books coming out this year. On April 23, 2019, he will publish Twilight – The Complete Trilogy, which serves as an omnibus collection of his first three Twilight novels, and one month later, on May 23, he will release Dangerous. Needless to say, the man has a lot on his plate, and perhaps, something to distract him from his busy schedule — aside from his latest book — is a system he has invented to keep track of his notes while reading.
The Actor’s Bookmark System
The first installment of Pattinson’s bookmarking system appeared in a tweet on March 26, 2019. In the tweet, he described how he uses the system, which was subsequently retweeted more than 40,000 times and liked more than 70,000 times.
The tweet reads:
I’ve been using a system devised by my brilliant assistant to help me keep track of what I’ve read.
It’s not a complicated system. When I read an interesting passage or paragraph, I simply take a photo of the page with my phone and add a brief note.
I find it helpful to keep track of what I’ve read and find it easy to refer back to my notes when needed.
I think it’s a brilliant system.
Since then, he has continued to use the system and has even promoted it on social media. For example, on April 3, he tweeted:
Using this system, it’s easy to keep track of what you’ve read.
You simply take a photo of the page with your phone and add a brief note.
Then, as you progress through the book, you can go back and look at previous pages or quotations. Alternatively, you can create folders and sort by topic or title, or use tags to group related pages together.
It’s a brilliant idea and I’ve been using it ever since I first encountered it. I think it would be a great help for students too, especially in higher education where it’s easy for books to get lost in piles of unread volume on a crowded bookshelf.
The purpose of the system is to help readers remember key events and characters while reading, which I think that it accomplishes perfectly. It also makes it easy to find precisely the page or passage that one is looking for because everything can be searched and located using keywords or tags.
Why Is It a Good Idea?
Pattinson’s bookmarks serve as a useful tool for readers because they provide a visual indicator of where the reader is in the text. It’s an easy way to find one’s place in a lengthy book or article without having to search for pages or paragraphs marked with bookmarks — something which would be more time consuming without the tool.
If the text is not available in electronic form (e.g., a digital copy purchased from a library), the bookmarks can also be used to navigate the text during reading. This is especially useful for students who are reading the text for the first time or who are struggling with the text due to lack of familiarity. The bookmarks make it easy for the reader to go back and reread interesting passages or events in the book. They also make it possible for the reader to follow the narrative thread more easily because it’s easy to see which events led to which others. Simply browse the list of bookmarks to see where the threads begin and end.
In addition to helping readers remember important details while reading, the bookmarks can help generate interesting questions about the text. The question mark at the end of each link invites the reader to explore the text further, stimulating the imagination and provoking thoughts about the subject matter. The ability to flip back to specific pages and review key events and characters is also beneficial for students, particularly those in higher education, who may be assigned a particular text and are expected to present a detailed analysis of the same. The ability to easily find all occurrences of a particular word or passage provides additional utility for students reading for a research paper or who are in the process of drafting a lengthy essay. The ability to highlight key words and phrases is also beneficial for students who are writing their own essays or who are in the process of drafting their own papers. The bookmarks can make these tasks easier by providing some introductory notes to guide the writer in the process of creating the work.
There are a variety of features which make the system more appealing for students. First, the link to the photos is always available in case the reader wants to return to a particular page and ensure that they have not missed anything. Second, the ability to add notes to individual links makes it possible for the reader to add their own thoughts about the text, potentially identifying key events or characters that they were not familiar with when starting the reading process. Third, the fact that students can add their own bookmarks, make notes, and add additional links makes it possible for them to keep track of all the interesting information while following the text. Fourth, the fact that this system is designed for students, in particular, those who are reading in higher education, makes it a useful tool for any student, regardless of whether they are pursuing a university degree or are simply taking interest in the subject matter for personal reasons. Fifth, the fact that the system can be customized with the addition of a photo album makes it even more appealing. The ability to add a photo album with photos of the pages that have been marked is useful for both students and non-students. Sixth., the fact that this system is designed to work with any book makes it a useful tool for readers in other media. This is particularly beneficial for students who want to use the system with a textbook that is not available in electronic form, but whose print version still exists in a college or university library. Finally, the fact that the system can be accessed from any device makes it an ideal tool to use while on the go. Simply print out a copy on a small wireless printer and bring it along with you on a plane trip or when traveling by bus or train to ensure that you do not forget a single detail while reading.
The Downsides
The fact that there are no downsides to this system is a drawback because it means that it is inherently flexible and can be adapted to a variety of uses and situations. This makes it susceptible to abuse. Anyone who is using this system inappropriately could find themselves drawing unwanted attention to themselves. It would be best if there were some limitations imposed upon the system to prevent it from being used in an improper or illegal manner. This could be as simple as preventing users under the age of 18 from creating an account or using the system to plagiarize. Forcing a user to input their email address to access the album, or limiting the number of photos which a user can upload to prevent them from creating a phishing trap is also an option.
Overall, this is a great system because it combines a variety of practical and beneficial features — something which would not be possible if any one of the individual features were to be developed independently. The fact that it is flexible enough to be used for a variety of purposes and situations ensures that it will never be completely useless, but also makes it easy for someone to discover its limitations and potentially misuse the system. For these reasons, it is not a good idea to use this system in place of regular bookmarks or notes taken throughout the text. Still, it is a valuable tool for those looking for a simple and effective way to remember important details while reading as well as for students, particularly in higher education, who may be expected to provide in-depth analyses of texts that they have read.