Marking Up Your Books

Submitted by tolkienfan2759 t3_z65ukw in books

Anybody else enjoy marking up the books you read? I've only recently discovered what a guilty pleasure it is, because I mostly read library books. But I bought one (it's always a risk to buy one, becuase they're so frequently not what you hope they will be), Alexander Lee's From Hierarchy to Ethnicity: The Politics of Caste in Twentieth-Century India (2020), and have been happily marking not just the margins but the text itself in blue ink. Yes: INK. Did I say guilty pleasure? Good. No one else will ever be able to decipher my scribblings; they're wordless question marks and underlines and circlings and corrections - and maybe I won't even be able to, a year from now. But it just feels so luxurious to write whatever I want in a book I own... I'm the king!! I am!! Me!! lol now don't judge, but don't hold back, either...

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GESNodoon t1_ixzijaw wrote

If it is mine, I will do whatever I want with it. I do not take any pleasure in it though; I do not think.

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Tayreads608 t1_ixzjmxi wrote

Like, my books got dirty even when I was trying to keep them clean so why not embrace the fact that books are something to use and experience in whatever way the reader sees fit or feels comfortable. As long as you own them, do whatever you want to them. Some of mine look super nice and some are so marked up and doodled in that you almost can’t read them.

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Separate-Grocery-815 t1_ixzl18y wrote

I love writing in my books! I usually only buy physical books that I want to annotate—if I don’t think I’ll annotate or reread a book, I just borrow it from my library. I definitely don’t retain everything I want to remember from books, so my annotations are a great way to remember things that stood out to me by just picking up the book and flipping through it. And it makes me feel like me library really represents me (:

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Crapital_Prunishment t1_ixzldqu wrote

I don't do it myself, but I don't dislike finding them in used books. It's kind of like peering into the mind of a previous reader.

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techneqsincer8y t1_ixzoltw wrote

Yes I have full-on rants in my books, writing paragraphs horizontally in the empty spaces on the sides sometimes. Could almost double as a makeshift journal. That's how I know I had fun reading it. Can't lend those books to acquaintances, though. 😅

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tolkienfan2759 OP t1_ixzp0br wrote

Replying to Real_Razzmatazz_8096 (#710,736)

well, I'm def not what you'd call an "early adopter" of technology... I like to make sure NOBODY else is having issues with something before I start up. I mean, I got a job helping people fix their cell phones before I had ever owned one

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opeathrowaway t1_ixzp11b wrote

I mark up all my nonfiction I’m learning from, but not my fiction as I just read them for pleasure.

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Whiney_Whippet_0719 t1_ixzp1rc wrote

I have my highlighter primed and ready for a certain report due out in January. Can’t wait!

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techneqsincer8y t1_ixzqde5 wrote

Replying to tolkienfan2759 (#711,087)

Yes! One time I lent one of my husband's work friends a scrawled-up copy of The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus and only realized afterwards that I had jotted some stuff that was way too intense. 😅 Luckily he didn't mention it.

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tolkienfan2759 OP t1_ixzqzj7 wrote

Replying to techneqsincer8y (#711,337)

lol too funny... but heck, I'm going to have to read that one... I've begun to appreciate more and more the role of the absurd in our lives... did you enjoy The Nose, by Shostakovich? It's kind of like that, only different...

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Rey_Tigre t1_ixzrs8r wrote

I had to mark them up for school, so I try to keep the ones I buy for personal reading clean, since I’m not doing research

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techneqsincer8y t1_ixzty8m wrote

Replying to tolkienfan2759 (#711,573)

Oh interesting! I think Samuel Beckett wrote an opera into one of his plays that I wanted to read. I read a little about the specific structure of an opera before when I heard this (Beckett's one of my favorite authors) and I found it interesting but I don't have that info at the forefront of my brain ATM.

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daven_callings t1_ixzu4gw wrote

I do frequent underlining and margin notes with my poetry and theology/psychology books. Some ficiton books, I'll mark a sentence or paragraph in pencil if I'm particularly moved by it.

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KaplowitzMedia t1_ixzvg43 wrote

Unless it's a collectible edition, I've always read with a pen. I actually refuse to borrow books for the most part, as I don't get as much without leaving my (illegible) notations.

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Frosty_Mess_2265 t1_ixzx71s wrote

Have to admit this made me physically recoil lmao. I try my best to keep my books pristine, even some of my favourites still don't have creased spines. I lent a book to a friend recently and he gave me back a different, brand new, copy because he accidentally spilt coffee on it. I wouldn't have noticed at all if he hadn't fessed up.

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NoRegrets-518 t1_iy01mso wrote

It's not that I enjoy it, but it seems like the best way to work with books. I used to take notes either in notebooks or on the computer, but it took a long time and sometimes I didn't have the quote right plus it took a long time. Now I take notes all over the books, list the most important ideas in the backs and on the covers with page numbers. Then, I have everything all together, my thoughts and the original quotes. Also, it my computer is around, I will try to put a sentence to a paragraph down to get my thoughts out.

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tulip79 t1_iy04d84 wrote

I just spent 18 days in the hospital. The containers, plastic wrap, cups, etc, that my drinks and food came in to my room from the cafeteria every day all had stickers on them that said what the food was, and the date it was prepared. After every one of my meals, I took the stickers off the containers and put them on whatever page I was on reading in my book. Now, if I ever go back to reread these books, I will remember where I was. And I’ll remember that I am the queen! I am! Me!! I can mark up my books however I want! 😂I get it, my friend!!!😃

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Temporary-Ganache545 t1_iy07b7d wrote

I generally read library books on my kindle, and there's the highlighting function that automatically words and passages. I can access those even if I don't have the library book checked out.

If I read a physical library book, sometime I use sticky notes and leave my notes in there for the next person. I'm not ruining the book, and it's an interesting little find for the next reader :)

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NiceDetective t1_iy0mbxy wrote

I don’t mark my books because I give away or sell them (in Australia, I can normally sell most books for 1/3-1/2 of what I paid, which goes straight back to more books!)

It does look like fun though, especially on TikTok you see these complex annotation systems that people use.

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Cycle-Fancy t1_iy296oa wrote

not even a guilty pleasure for me - a genuine means of interacting with the text!

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Sensitive_Tension_23 t1_iy2t5hb wrote

I love underling passages and writing in my paperbacks! Hardbacks are an entirely different thing (for me), but marginalia is how I "talk" to the author while I'm reading

.

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opeathrowaway t1_iy5atbi wrote

Replying to Ok-Construction9149 (#730,820)

Quackery by Lydia Kang

The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth by Thomas Morris

It Ended Badly by Jennifer Wright

Rabid by Bill Wasik

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

Road to Jonestown by Jeff Guinn

The Upside of Stress by Kelly McGonigal

How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi

Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X Kendi

The Body Keeps Score by Bessel can der Kolk

These are just the audiobooks I enjoyed most, might be a nice start. I read lots of clinical psychology and social justice so my picks are rather narrow.

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LutherDean956 t1_iyckerc wrote

Yes! I sketch little drawings and make notes and commentary, and reference page numbers of different parts of the books connected points.

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