Book notes
Book notes your AI organizes: send highlights as you read, and it keeps the quotes, the big idea and what you'll do differently.
For readers who want to remember more than the cover a year later.
Free. Use template opens Amber Notes and adds the note. No Amber Notes yet? Download it for Mac.
30 September 2026
Book notes
What stuck from each book: the big idea, the lines worth keeping, and what you'll do differently. Newest book first.
Books
Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
"The day will never arrive when you finally have everything under control." (p. 31)
- The to-do list is infinite by design. Finishing it isn't the goal.
- Pick your three big projects; everything else waits.
The big idea: life is short and attention is finite. Trying to do everything guarantees the important things get squeezed. Choose what to neglect, on purpose.
- Keep a list of three active projects, no more
- Do the most important thing first, before email
The note after a few days of talking to your AI. Tinted lines are what it added, the way Amber Notes shows an AI's changes, with Undo and the earlier version kept in the note's history.
What the prompt does
Your AI creates a note called “Book notes” in your Reading folder, or finds the one you already have, and learns how to keep it. What stuck from each book: the big idea, the lines worth keeping, and what you'll do differently. Newest book first.
Paste it once into a chat in ChatGPT or Claude with Amber Notes turned on, or into Claude Code.
Then just talk to it
- Starting Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman.
- Page 31: "The day will never arrive when you finally have everything under control."
- I finished it. Wrap it up.
Show the full prompt
First, look for a note called "Book notes" in my Amber Notes with search_notes. If there isn't one, create it with create_note in the folder "Reading", using exactly the markdown at the end of this message, the <!-- pane-table --> line included (it gives the table's columns their types).
Then: Use my Amber Notes note "Book notes". When I start a book, add a heading for it at the start of "Books" with append_to_note (at_start), like "### Title by Author". As I send you highlights and thoughts, add them under that book's heading with append_to_note: quotes as > quotes with the page number, my own thoughts as bullets. Keep my words; don't polish them. When I say I've finished, add "**The big idea:**" in three sentences and two to four things I'll do differently as a checklist.
```markdown Book notes What stuck from each book: the big idea, the lines worth keeping, and what you'll do differently. Newest book first. ## Books ```
The note you start with
This is what the prompt creates in Amber Notes: an ordinary note with the headings ready. Your AI fills it in from there, and you can still edit every line yourself.
Today
Book notes
What stuck from each book: the big idea, the lines worth keeping, and what you'll do differently. Newest book first.
Books
How to set it up
- Add the template to Amber NotesChoose Use template. Amber Notes opens and adds the "Book notes" note to the folder you pick.
- Connect your AIConnect ChatGPT, Claude or Claude Code to Amber Notes once, and choose Read and Edit so it can fill in the note.
- Give your AI the promptCopy the prompt for your AI and paste it into a chat. Then tell it what happened, in your own words.
- ChatGPTPlus, Pro, Business, Enterprise or Edu, on the web. A few minutes in Developer mode.Connect ChatGPT
- ClaudeOpen Amber Notes in Claude's connector directory, choose Connect to Claude, then Allow.Connect Claude
- Claude CodeOne command in your terminal, or the button in Amber Notes on a Mac.Connect Claude Code
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