Question 40 - Annotating Books

[Faye, The Dickens Junkie]

Do you write in margins? Does the very idea of it raise your blood pressure? If you do write in margins, what do you write? What can possibly move you to do such a thing? ;)

[Kassandra]

NEVER in my books...they are too pretty for that. Let me repeat, NEVER, not even textbooks. Having said that, in a notebook, I will write wherever there is room - margins be damned!

[Faye, The Dickens Junkie]

I'm more likely to write in the margins of a nonfiction book, but even then... hardly ever! It has to be something that really jumps out at me and makes me think, and then very lightly in pencil I might underline the passage and put a word or two in the margin to remind me what my thought was, for posterity's sake. ALWAYS VERY LIGHTLY, and easily erased. I never, that I can recall, mark up a novel.

[Melissa]

Yes, if I have a second copy in paperback, I will write a question mark, or underline favorite passages, or write the Latin quote in English, make a meaning clearer. I do this to books that I love and that have deep meanings. The margin of my Bible reads like a commentary. It kind of makes the book apart of me when I do this.

By the way Aitziber, I just received my paperback of The Charioteer, finally I can proceed with the marking. :)

[Mayme]

we had to do it in school quite a fair bit, so i'm rather nonplussed about it. which is pretty good, cause i buy a fair amount of used books (as i'm sure we all do) and those come in all manner of states with all manner of scrawl in them. I rarely erase any of it though, it seems almost like value added :D

[Srividya]

I NEVER write in my books and often use a notepad to jot down points and page numbers, where necessary if I really need it. I always shudder when I buy old used copies and find them having lots of stuff written in the margins, often stuff which have no relevance to the book or the story line!

Of course, during school days, I used to write in my textbook, often because we had to jot down notes during classes. However, I used to make sure that these were written only with a pencil and that too extremely lightly, so that I could erase it later.

However, when I am using the Kindle, I love the highlight tool and use it extensively! Sometimes I miss it when I read paper books :)

[Melissa]

I agree Mayme, with the used books, it does add value. Sometimes I wish I could talk to the previous reader.

[Mayme]

Melissa wrote: "I agree Mayme, with the used books, it does add value. Sometimes I wish I could talk to the previous reader."

once i found a really lovely gift card from the person who gave the book to the previous owner wedged in the middle of a copy of The House of the Spirits, and then i got really sad that the previous owner just up and gave the book away!

[Aitziber]

I'm with Maymee. I wasn't a margin writer before college, did it for about a year until I started using those sticky bookmarklet things* and now I don't write in the margins. I buy quite a lot of used books (it's my retail therapy) and I'm quite fine if they come marked. I don't know. Books are mass produced goods, they're hardly a one of a kind item. They become one of a kind when they're marked, actually.

* We had promoters giving us a bunch at the start of every school year, I wasn't about to buy something with that high a markup. :P

Good to hear that, Melissa. :) We've been having a discussion about different Charioteer editions, actually.

[Aitziber]

That said, if one does have a one of a kind book, like say a 19th century hardcover or a first edition of a highly famous book -- for all that's sacred, keep it as you found it!

[Melissa]

Yes, sacred indeed! Wow, if a person would be that fortunate! I'm happy to get a hardcover that is just older or a book with the pretty engravings on the front. :) *sigh*

[Roseanne]

I have a kindle and rarely read a paper book anymore but I never write in books. I was taught not to and I never got over it. My children have gotten me to put post its in books and I guess that is as close as I get to writing in a book.

[Jill]

NO! My books are off limits for all pens, pencils, markers, and other writing instruments. If someone were to mark my books, I would probably throw them off a bridge.... you know,... hypothetically. I can't even stand to put post-its in because I hate that it covers words.

[Faye, The Dickens Junkie]

Melissa wrote: "or write the Latin quote in English, make a meaning clearer."

Ohh, that's a good idea! I wish I'd been doing that all these years, heh.

Melissa wrote: "The margin of my Bible reads like a commentary. "

I did that with my Bible when I was a teenager, and I loved having a Bible that was so "well loved," but sadly I've lost that Bible and now have one with paper that's too thin to even highlight anything. I miss having all those notes and highlighted passages!

[Melissa]

Faye, I have several with notes and highlights, but my oldest Bible (with the most notes and highlights) had gone missing just to find out my oldest son was using it for his Theology class and was reluctant to give it back. I think at some point I will let him have this one!

[Sarah]

I can't stand writing in books or bending pages! Anytime I let someone borrow a book I give a small speech about how my books are my paper babies and if they come back with more than the usual wear and tear then they are in big trouble.

[Tracey]

I will never ever highlight, write, bend, ruin any of my books that way. If I need to mark something, I use post it notes.

[John]

If I find a typo, I will underline the wrong word, or the wrong part of the word, lightly, and write the correct word in the margin. I can't bear to let those errors remain, as if I hadn't paid the respect to the book/author! Am I wicked?

[Emily]

I try my best to keep my books in the condition i brought them in. I find it distressing if something happens to them like the spin breaking or the pages and covers getting creases in them.

[Faye, The Dickens Junkie]

John wrote: "If I find a typo, I will underline the wrong word, or the wrong part of the word, lightly, and write the correct word in the margin. I can't bear to let those errors remain, as if I hadn't paid the..."

That's actually kind of awesome, John. :D

[John]

Faye - that's kind, but maybe it's some kind of neurosis!

[A]

NEVER EVER...

[Raquel]

Unless I'm writing in a book to put my name somewhere then I see no reason or want to ever write in my books.

[Happy]

When I was a passionate teenager, I used to write thoughts in the margins, as if I were talking back to the characters - particularly Catherine and Heathcliffe. It wasn't often, just a line here or there, but sometimes a thing just needed to be said. I hope those copies are amusing somebody somewhere.

I highlight my Kindle reads now, but rarely go back to look. Sometimes it reminds me to read a passage aloud to my husband.

[Karolyn]

Only textbooks when I was a student. Never in books I read for pleasure.

That said, I always seem to enjoy a second hand book that's been marked up, I like seeing some other random reader's thoughts.

[Marina]

No, I don't, but I did write in my textbooks as a student.

[Deborah]

Non-fiction, yep - they are 'working books' and I interact with them. Fiction, never.

I read a lot of library books and I am amazed at how often people scribble their thoughts all over a library book - that is really rude!

[Jenny, Certified Bookworm]

Never. I may jot down quotes that I like in a seprate notebook. Although, like many others here, I dont mind a secondhand book with notes.

[Holly, That Geeky One]

Oddly, my view on this has changed recently. I used to be totally against any form of writing/marking a book. But recently I've started seeing reading as a more interactive, immersive experience, so I've started highlighting passages I love. I won't write on them at all, but highlighting just reminds me of sentences or things I really adore.

P.S. never ever mark library books...