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Do You Guys Write in Your Books?
“Most intelligent people do, Jason.” So I was told by another Member, when I said that I don’t. I guess it goes back to my schooling, when we were told that Very Bad Things would happen if we defiled the holy works of Wiley or Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Also, I always considered it kind of cranky: my grandmother would talk back to the author in her marginal notes (exclamation points were plentiful) and I always wanted to tell her, “You know, he can’t actually hear you…”
But it’s undeniable that these things can enrich the reading experience. Marginalia can be a source of knowledge not only about the text but about the context.
So: have you ever found any little gems in a used book? Do you go back and re-read your books and notes? What have you garnered from that?
Published in General, Literature
I never have. I’d be more tempted to try using that function of my Kindle if it weren’t so difficult (with my current Kindle) to type accurately.
Oh, a fellow Classics Major. I threw in the towel after my MA. Didn’t think there would be any professor gigs for me when I finally clawed my way through a dissertation. That, and the academy just didn’t seem like the place for me.
Where did you study and did you do more on the Hellenic or Roman side of things?
On a cool note I once found a book in a used bookstore called “Attack on the Liberty” about the mistaken attack by Isreali forces on the USS. Liberty. It had an inscription in it that made it clear it was given by one of the crew members that was actually on the ship when it attacked.
I buy a lot of thrift store books, and I love finding other people’s dedications, receipts, notes, flyers for AA meetings, what have you. A favorite is a library checkout pocket and card from the Utah State Tuberculosis Sanitarium. The ones that give me pause are old social security numbers. When I started college in ’93, they were still using that as your student number, and many many old books have them.
Oh, I’m just a B.A.. I did more Hellenic stuff in translation, but my Latin is far, far better than my Greek. I went to Middlebury, which had, during my time, a small but quite fine department. I think they have since expanded, though it can never be as it was under the late, great Eve Adler. My year, I was one of two Classics majors; there were a few more Classical Studies majors (they do one language, only).
Write in a book? Are you crazy? If I were to profane the written word with my scribbles I am sure that many specters of past Catholic school nuns that were my teachers would poof into existence just to rap my knuckles with a ruler.
You ever seen the nun scene from the Blue Brothers? That would be it.
Twenty-first century schoolboy, looking over his father’s shoulder at today’s Ricochet posts:
Myself, I’ve always been a book writer/scribbler. As I grew older, the comments/notes became more utilitarian and less fanciful, and are now pretty much confined to helpful reminders of recipe alterations in cookbooks and craft books. I don’t find myself doodling my name and encircling it with daisies, cats, or dogs any more.
That’s kind of sad.
I got a book about craps. Someone had given it to their father as a birthday gift. From the condition it was clear he had never cracked the covers. Which is a shame, it’s one of the better books I’ve ever read.
I never write in books. I almost always get annoyed when someone else has written in the books. Especially used college textbooks; someone highlights the first half a chapter and then evidently drops the course.
On the other hand, I borrowed a biography of J.P. Morgan from my brother, and it was enlightening seeing what he underlines and doesn’t. A chapter on business, numerous sections underlined. A chapter on the family, maybe one or two. A chapter on business and politics, underlines, stars and exclamation points. A chapter on art, dead silence.
The most I can find myself doing is getting a PDF copy of the book and marking it up in Acrobat.
I can’t bring myself to defile a book.
I wrote all over my books in grad school; the end papers and blank pages are full of my summaries and commentary, and the text is usually underlined, highlighted, and annotated. I have a tendency to lose or misplace index cards and separate sheets of paper, so it was safest to take notes in the book itself.
Back when I traveled more often, I would use plane/train ticket stubs as bookmarks. It’s fun to run across those in a book fifteen or twenty years later!
I would never mark anything in a library book or in a book belonging to someone else, and I can’t bring myself to dog-ear a page ever… for some reason that does feel like vandalism!
Not really. Well, sorta kinda.
When I am doing research for a book I am writing I tend to do one of two things:
Normally I remove the post-it notes and toss the printed copies when I am done. I suppose if my status changes from unfamous author to famous author scholars centuries hence will weep, but I suspect I have a better chance of winning the powerball lottery’s jackpot than becoming a subject of scholarly interest centuries from now.
Seawriter
Only in technical books that I own and use as a reference. Usually something about a bug, a tip, reference to a library, something that changed in a later version.
More commonly I’ll use small post-it notes on the page edge with a few words or just as a ‘good stuff’ marker; a book that accumulates a lot of those may have the references copied to a journal or notes file.
There are two kinds of books I write in/highlight; hardcover books that are permanent study guides, and softcover books that I want to study but consider disposable in the future. I usually get these kinds of books used anyway, via Amazon or Ebay, and they’re usually either textbooks or very cheap paperback versions of classics, i.e. the 3 buck paperback classics you can get at any chain bookstore. If I think the book is important enough to keep, and I want a primary copy that must not be defiled with pen or pencil, I’ll get multiple copies of it. I have several Bible translations… about half a dozen Bibles in all… but there’s one hardcover study Bible I’ve had for decades that has been read, used, marked up, and generally put through the wringer so much, that the hard covers have since come off, and what’s left is the interior on a bare binding. I still use it, a lot, and go back over my notes quite a bit. I’d never consider writing in my other Bibles, though. I’ve got a cheap paperback copy of the Communist Manifesto that is marked all to hell and back. And many of the used texts that I get… often once in college assigned reading duty… have highlighting in them already, so, no guilt for marking them up.
I have a very weird book hobby; I collect pre-1950 school and college textbooks, and especially ones dating from WWI to the end of WWII. You’d be surprised how good they are. I picked up a middle school science text, circa 1936, that was more fun to read and more informative than any text I had at that level of school. Lots of practical stuff like “How a Dynamo works” instead of just dry theory. Often I’ll find an interesting note from 1939 scribbled here and there. I’ll see “property of” and wonder what that person’s education and life were like back then. I’ve got a bunch of old Bluejacket’s Manuals from the 30’s and into the 40’s, and it’s interesting to see the history of the Navy evolve from one year to the next ,like seeing the Nazi flag listed as a foreign naval jack in the 36 edition, but then listed in the “Belligerent Nations” section just a few years later.
I make notes in textbook-style books. I did this a great deal when I was teaching, adding side notes, keyword reminders to related items, pronunciation tips, etc. I would even buy my own copy of the class novels to mark up as my personal teacher’s edition. I still do it now that we are homeschooling. (In fact, my daughter takes an almost creepy delight in writing in her math book.)
Outside of that context, I can’t say that I write in books. I’m not much interested in the e-note features of my Kindles; I prefer notebooks. I actually have a long-running vocabulary notebook where I jot down new words and their definitions. (—Wow, that even looks nerdy :)
I do not, nor do I put bumper stickers on my cars.
I’m with Locke On – technical books end up being written in with abandon. Notes, elucidations, warnings, diagrams, rebuttals, and maledictions, plus highlighted passages and the occasional coffee ring abound.
(Is that a blood stain?)
I’d never do that with a work of fiction, or any other book I was reading for pleasure.
“Percival
I’m with Locke On – technical books end up being written in with abandon. Notes, elucidations, warnings, diagrams, rebuttals, and maledictions, plus highlighted passages and the occasional coffee ring abound.
(Is that a blood stain?)
I’d never do that with a work of fiction, or any other book I was reading for pleasure.”
*****
#BoxOf64 #WithTheSharpener
I do most of my book reading on Shabbat. No writing allowed.
Also, I borrow most of my reading from the library.
And besides, on those few occasions where I have made notes in the margins of a book, when I re-read the book and come across he notes later, I usually find my earlier self was incorrect, off base, smug, or all of the above. Not something I like to be reminded of.
I used to, now I just note a few words and the page number of a particular item of interest on a piece of scrap paper as I read and then write or type up a set of notes that I leave in the book for later reference.
I believe I started to shift away from actually writing in the books when I once went back looking for a passage in “Free to Choose” and was distracted by all the times I had underlined the word (and forms of the word) bureaucrat. I’m not sure now why I started doing that…maybe it was a subconscious form of self-conditioning to reinforce the proper level of revulsion for those despicable creatures.
Chairman Mao say a book hasn’t really been read if it hasn’t been marked up. CS Lewis opposed the activity.
I kind of agree with both but more with Mao. To read is to have a conversation with the author. Marking up isn’t so much about what you write but about paying attention to the details. It’s like nodding while someone is speaking. You are engaged.
Also, certain books lend themselves to marking. I have a copy of Crucible of War about the 7 years war. Lots of people to keep track of so I keep notes in the front and back covers with a cast of characters. I also take the book with me on visits to Fort Pitt museum and take notes in the book when I come across something that connects.
I tend to dog ear pages in books of poetry and essays. Stuff I’d like to return to. But almost never touch a novel.
Oh, I also like to put bumper stickers on Arahant’s cars.
Follow up: If you wrote a book, would you be upset if someone vandalized your book with markups and dog ears? Or would it make you feel good that someone read the hell out of your book?
I’d rather have it marked up, because that would imply they actually engaged with it.
What I think is weird is highlighting. Because you’ll often see books with one solid page after another of yellow. And people sit there doing that in class with the most *serious* look on their faces while they do it.
I’ve noticed that people who highlight are usually people who have a difficult time recognizing what is important.
I never have and never will. The one exception was my senior year in high school when we were required to make annotations in our copies of The Kite Runner. I used sticky notes for comments, but found no alternative for highlighting certain quotes. I did so in a manner for which the word “begrudgingly” is not adequate.
My justification is that I am only borrowing my books, and that I might donate them later to a library or give them to a friend or family member. I would hate to see someone else’s handwriting in the margins were I to receive one secondhand.
We were all but damned to Hell if caught underlining or writing notes in textbooks, first grade through 12th.
Wife never reads a book without pen in hand and notes in margins, not even if it were a dime store novel.
My dad said that Aristotle held that writing was a crutch the use of which weakens the memory. I infer that writing in the margins of a text enervates in spades. Not sure his attribution is correct, but possibly there’s something to it. Whenever I’ve tried it, note taking in general did seem like an enemy of close reading and understanding. As for other people, apparently I’ve only ever gotten the used books of dullards and psychopaths, sometimes wrapped into one commentating bundle. An exception was the comment of a dear aunt who wrote “Lord, what a mistake!” next to her marriage entry in the family bible, but you probably had to know her. And I thought Fermat’s comment that he had a proof but not enough space in the margin for it was a truly fine joke.
That is like scientific studies have shown that those who are taking pictures at an event do not remember the event as well, because their focus is on the camera.