Do you annotate? ✏️

[Tamahome]

Wow, watching this video. Her annotation is on steriods. Do you do it? I could understand it in the sense that humans are forgetful and passive. You can just use removable colored tabs that have different keys or transparent sticky notes. Erasable pen?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XxBT...

[Trike]

Absorbing the nuances of books:

It’s got a good beat and I can dance to it.

(For those younger than 55 who don’t get the joke: https://youtu.be/n7RuIga3vdk?si=5SFEN...)

Seriously though, what she’s doing looks like homework. I mean, sure, if a particular book speaks to you, have at it. I do highlight quotes that resonate sometimes. But to do this kind of extensive underlining, annotating, flagging and who knows what else for *every* book? Seems more of an impediment than helpful for me.

I’m not casting aspersions. I do weird things, too, like my penchant for keeping extensive lists which are utterly useless. But for me this would slow down my consumption of media, and frankly not every book warrants this kind of attention.

Does anyone really think Scalzi does this sort of in-depth nuanced craftsmanship? He’s said that he’s written books in less than 2 weeks. Bradbury famously wrote Fahrenheit 451 in 9 days. A Study in Scarlet, Logan's Run and A Clockwork Orange were all written in 3 weeks. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was written over a weekend.

Different strokes for different folks. I get it. I’ve been taking photos avidly since I got my first camera in 1976. I’ve heard lots of people say that focusing too much on taking pictures causes them to miss out on the experience they’re having in the moment, but for me it’s the exact opposite. I find that having a camera with me, or just using my phone with the intention of documenting a moment, makes me hyper aware of my surroundings, as if my vision expands to a full 360 degrees and my situational awareness increases a hundredfold. When I’m just sitting somewhere without a camera I tend to miss stuff. Someone will say, “Wasn’t that train loud?” and I’ll be like, “There was a train?”

So maybe this helps people. It wouldn’t for me, but you do you and don’t worry about other people.

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

I don't annotate fiction.

I do with non-fiction. I have read dozens of training manuals over the years and they are, usually, badly written, confusing or don't do the job of explaining things very well.

I will annotate those heavily to make them understandable for me and, then, for the person I have to eventually train.

For other books I prefer to use coloured tags for important pages. My car manual is about 50 mm (2" thick). I have the important pages tagged.

[Tamahome]

I've been trying a little bit, owning the reading experience a little more. It's kind of fun to deface the property. I want one of those pens with a thin line.

[Phil]

Well, to start with, my books are my holy objects. I would never deface them by highlighting or underlining. I get annoyed when a page or cover gets creased and friends often comment that books I've read still look like new.
Second, I read for pleasure, even the non-fiction. It looks like she puts way more effort into analyzing as she reads than I do. I do like to sometimes read heavy books that make me stop and think for a minute but I don't need to make a job of it.
Many years ago I kept a "quote book". I wrote down quotes from books and movies and music and conversations that I thought were deep and meaningful or maybe just funny. Looking back on it 40ish years later a lot of it was pretentious bullshit that a 22 year old thinks makes him an intellectual but a 60 year old is just embarrassed by.
All that being said, don't let me yuck your yum. If this adds to your pleasure then wallow in it.

[Seth]

Phil wrote: "Well, to start with, my books are my holy objects. "

This isn't me at all. The great pleasure of reading an owned book (instead of one borrowed from the library) is that I can give the spine a satisfying crack to keep it open easily, I can dog-ear pages, and other equally destructive things. Still, I haven't annotated a book since I've been in school. It really helped then, and would probably help me be more analytical about books now, but would remind me too much of homework.

[Mark]

Trike wrote: "I do weird things, too, like my penchant for keeping extensive lists which are utterly useless."

https://www.startrekcomics.info/

[Mark]

Phil wrote: "I would never deface them by highlighting or underlining. I get annoyed when a page or cover gets creased and friends often comment that books I've read still look like new."

I've bought a lot of used books over the years. If I read a book that's had a hard life (notations, creased pages, etc) and come to love it, I will look for a nice copy, maybe an ARC, or a hardcover with a nice dust jacket.

[Trike]

Mark wrote: "Trike wrote: "I do weird things, too, like my penchant for keeping extensive lists which are utterly useless."

https://www.startrekcomics.info/"

Nerd! …come sit at my table. 😎

Sons of Star Trek? Color me intrigued, Q Jr.!

[Tamahome]

Merphy Napier puts a little summary after each chapter. I'm tempted to just do a little one-liner.