The dreaded research

I am in research mode and it is not fun. It is one of those necessary evils of writing. I write romance/fantasy books that are set in historical times. They aren't true to history, but they still need to be historically correct when it comes to people and places. I also write about ancient history, which is even more of a challenge because there are holes in most of the history and experts disagree on timelines and such things. So what does a person do? I read different books on the same subject to get a middle ground on the information. I also read books that are recommended by experts. Amazon.com is a great place to find out about a book before buying it because there is a wealth of information in the customer comments. I buy most of my books because I live in a small town that doesn't have a huge ancient history section. I also conduct research online as well.

Now what to do with all the information that will soon leave my brain? I discovered that if I take some notes while I am reading a book, it helps my brain to retain the information. The only problem with that is I have been writing my notes in whatever notebook happens to be nearby at the time. Bad idea! I can't find what I am looking for. So now I am in the process of typing the notes into the computer and organizing them into categories. I should have done this in the beginning. I am slapping myself right now for being stupid.