Does anyone else feel guilty about underlining, marking up, or writing in the margins of books you own, especially new hardcovers? How do you get around that?
― Leee, Tuesday, 3 February 2009 22:07 (sixteen years ago)
i used to be totally against it until law school. now i mark up most nonfiction i read, even if just underlining. in pencil only though. i got around it just by forcing myself to do it, pretty much. it improved my reading experience so i continued. it adds a tactile element! and makes me slow down because i read way too fast :-\
― straight b*tch (harbl), Tuesday, 3 February 2009 22:13 (sixteen years ago)
if it's something for my dissertation or something else im working with i have to do this. always a pencil though, for some reason that seems less intrusive.
― ryan, Tuesday, 3 February 2009 22:42 (sixteen years ago)
this always made me laugh because this used book was full of check marks, circles, x's, and asterix. I get near the end, and it turns out Suzanne and Gabriel were comparing collections back in 1998.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SLs59nEa4X4/SYjGhYnkDHI/AAAAAAAAADM/MY_aSc0Fwa8/s400/marking+up+books.jpg
Now I've been googling the full name of Suzanne, and I feel creepy.
― james k polk, Tuesday, 3 February 2009 22:52 (sixteen years ago)
I write all over my books. The scribbles make for nice historical timepieces too. When I reread a novel or history, I'll see stuff like "Bullshit" or "Hmm!" on the margins.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 3 February 2009 22:56 (sixteen years ago)
Last time I did was in college, and then I could only bring myself to annotate in pencil.
― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Tuesday, 3 February 2009 22:58 (sixteen years ago)
I don't like writing in my books. Instead I either use sticky notes or make more detailed notes on lined paper. Some of my uni courses used a lot of print-outs or photocopies which I had no problem writing on.
Actually if I buy a book secondhand and it's already a bit tatty I probably won't mind writing in it. It's just new books that cost lots of $$/££ that I can't bring myself to mark up :/
― salsa shark, Tuesday, 3 February 2009 22:59 (sixteen years ago)
I feel like Nicholson Baker must have written on essay about marginalia.
― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Tuesday, 3 February 2009 23:00 (sixteen years ago)
I put asterisks in the margins of pages I want to be able to return to easily, but I think underlining can be messy and misleading. Returning to books years later with underlining and written notes can be ... embarrassing.
― Fox Force Five Punchline (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 3 February 2009 23:04 (sixteen years ago)
Classic. I do it for both nonfiction and fiction, although the degree to which I do varies depending on my mood, the book, etc. I don't really think it devalues the book by marking it up -- quite the opposite, I would say personalizing it adds a level of charm. I always love to find used books that are heavily annotated.
― i fuck mathematics, Tuesday, 3 February 2009 23:06 (sixteen years ago)
It's sort of exciting when I find incomprehensible lists I've scrawled in the back of books.
― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Tuesday, 3 February 2009 23:07 (sixteen years ago)
Mostly in non-fiction, esp. where I am contesting a statement of fact. Also a lot in French books for vocabulary-building purposes - writing a word down helps in imprint on my brain.
― It is not enough to love mankind – you must be able to stand (Michael White), Tuesday, 3 February 2009 23:09 (sixteen years ago)
I come back to underlinings years later and think "boy was I wrong" or "why the hell did I think that was important?" Which is classic, obv. Also drunken notes scrawled on the blank pages are fun.
― The Tracks of My Balls (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 3 February 2009 23:12 (sixteen years ago)
i think i agree notes can be embarrassing to find later. this is why i can't write stuff in general, because i hate to read it later. but when i write in books i'm usually just repeating some idea from the text just so i am making a little summary of it to help remember it.
― straight b*tch (harbl), Tuesday, 3 February 2009 23:14 (sixteen years ago)
Being an english student, it's become a force of habit and i scribble on everything now. Actually, I was going back through my copy of Bleak House two days ago and found DINOSAUR! written on one page and it took me forever to remember the hell why (it was a clue in the crossword i nearly finished the day i was reading it, and for some reason decided to exclaim it in Dickens once I figured it out.) I still can't stop doing this though, it's force of habit.
― mother russia arsehaven good times (a hoy hoy), Tuesday, 3 February 2009 23:17 (sixteen years ago)
I bought a copy of Deliverance from a used book sale at my university a few years ago and it had all sorts of annotations from one of my former professors, then retired. It was like a free class! On Deliverance.
― robertwolf8080, Tuesday, 3 February 2009 23:30 (sixteen years ago)
I can do this in reference type books: there are post-it notes and pencilled underlines/comments here and there on my Norton's, for example, and I'll happily scribble notes onto books like a Strunk & White or a technical manual.
Can't bring myself to do it with fiction though. I dont read that to learn, I read it to enjoy, and can't think of many situations where I've wanted or needed to notate something. Again, though, I will stick a post-it with a note on *that* to make note of a fine quote or passage.
― one art, please (Trayce), Tuesday, 3 February 2009 23:33 (sixteen years ago)
Actually having said all that, I have just remembered the period of time where me and a bf bought a whole load of Blyton's Famous Five series from a secondhand store, and proceeded to terribly maturely cross out key words here and there, rendering the whole thing hilariously rude. At the time it was hilarious. I dont think I have any of the books now, sadly.
― one art, please (Trayce), Tuesday, 3 February 2009 23:35 (sixteen years ago)
HAMLET - INDECISIVE
― Lord Byron Lived Here, Tuesday, 3 February 2009 23:41 (sixteen years ago)
One must discriminate between annotating books and defacing them. It is rare for me to have a thought while reading a book which deserves to be preserved in conjunction with the writing which prompted it, but it sometimes happens. I generally prefer the end leaves for my notations, with page numbers referenced.
otoh, any book I would use a highlighter in is a book I have chosen to treat like a diseased slut that I am willing to discard after having my unholy way with it. Underlining is almost as bad. I invariably think when I see underlined passages in a book, "why the fuck did someone bother to underline that?"
― Aimless, Wednesday, 4 February 2009 01:21 (sixteen years ago)
i don't usually do this, just cos i might change my opinions later and it'd be a drag to have to erase everything.
finding cool annotations in books you buy used: classic.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 01:26 (sixteen years ago)
it's also sort of a memory and concentration aid...if you're reading something especially difficult then underlining or otherwise marking the page can help you break down a sentence or idea and imprint certain things on your mind. my copies of "The Critique of Pure Reason" or "Being and Time" are like 80% underlined...and while that annoys the hell out of me now (I'd have to buy a new copy if i was to re-read one of them) it was tremendously helpful getting through those books the first time.
I rarely actually write anything though. If I do that goes in a notebook.
― ryan, Wednesday, 4 February 2009 01:28 (sixteen years ago)
Only when I have a thought I feel is truly worth recording for when I reread the book do I annotate. Most of the time, these annotations are corrections or clarifications, not original musings.
― muomus (libcrypt), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 02:55 (sixteen years ago)
I generally prefer the end leaves for my notations, with page numbers referenced.
I do this too, but write on a separate sheet of paper; my question to you, Aimless, is, "How do you manage to find which part of the text your note references"? Which is why I underline -- I don't like to copy out long passages, and a lot of times I paraphrase beyond recognition.
I don't make any pretensions when I annotate -- it's almost purely to summarize a tricky argument or as a possible citation in something I'm writing. Also, Michael otm about it being a way of internalizing it through a physical action. Oh, and pencil only.
― Leee, Wednesday, 4 February 2009 04:17 (sixteen years ago)
vertical sidelining >>>> horizontal underlining
― Aimless, Wednesday, 4 February 2009 04:29 (sixteen years ago)
agreed.
― the chicano incarnation of benito juarez (primalfixations), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 05:11 (sixteen years ago)
fiction book = feel weird
non-fiction = go for it
― kingfish, Wednesday, 4 February 2009 05:15 (sixteen years ago)
a must for philosophy. I often overdo it, though. annotate the shit out of kant. I mean, you kind of have to.
― the chicano incarnation of benito juarez (primalfixations), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 05:20 (sixteen years ago)
Last annotated-by-someone-else book I got: second hand SF novel with way too many characters had, among other pencil scribblings, a hand-written dramatis personae in inside back cover (incorrect, full of question marks, and abandoned by ch.4).
I don't like marking books. Then again, I've begin to worry that for me reading a book is not so much understanding its content as reading most of the words approximately sequentially until I reach the end, with little idea of what happened in it. Maybe I could do with a little more note-making. It's a pain when you weed your shelves and have to spend ages erasing notes before books can go to the charity shop, though.
― a passing spacecadet, Wednesday, 4 February 2009 11:46 (sixteen years ago)
invariably think when I see underlined passages in a book, "why the fuck did someone bother to underline that?"
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 14:16 (sixteen years ago)
Up until I was in my 20s, I was pretty god damn anal about my books. You couldn't even crack the spine or I'd go absolutely mental. Then I read some guy's story. Basically he'd just write the finishing date. So the day he finished the book. I thought this was a great idea. And it sort of is: I can now remember when I finished Lolita. Or if I have actually read some damn book. Sounds silly? Well, I stopped doing this... and I re-read The Historian. When I finished the last 50 pages I realized that I had read the entire damn thing (instead of what I thought, namely half of the book). *sigh* Otherwise I don't write much in my books. Unless it's in non-fiction books: I sometimes put crosses besides the titles in the bibliography.
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 14:27 (sixteen years ago)
Think I need to get over thinking of books as sacred artefacts - I mean I pretty much only buy paperbacks and the world is full of mass-market paperbacks. My main reading time is on the bus to work, except I don't like taking new books to read on the bus, as the getting them out and shoving them away and having them rattle around in my work bag gets them rather battered. So the books I really want I buy new or get as presents, daren't take anywhere, and end up not reading.
(Not over this enough that I didn't think bad thoughts about the woman opposite me on the bus holding her paperback all the way open)
― a passing spacecadet, Wednesday, 4 February 2009 14:51 (sixteen years ago)
Isn't there a funny bit in Pnin about this?
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 15:09 (sixteen years ago)
Oh yes, here it is:
Again the marble neck of the homely Venus in the vestibule of Humanities Hall received the vermilion imprint, applied in lipstick, of a mimicked kiss. Again the Waindell Recorder discussed the Parking Problem. Again in the margins of library books earnest freshmen inscribed such helpful glosses as ‘Description of nature,’ or ‘Irony’; and in a pretty edition of Mallarmé’s poem, an especially able scholiast had already underlined in violet ink the difficult word oiseaux and scrawled above it ‘birds.’
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 15:11 (sixteen years ago)
this always made me laugh because this used book was full of check marks, circles, x's, and asterix.
Okay, even funnier given what that book is...
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 4 February 2009 15:14 (sixteen years ago)
what about obelix?
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 15:36 (sixteen years ago)
Cacafonix would have been more appropriate for said text.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 4 February 2009 15:44 (sixteen years ago)
eskimo
― DavidM, Wednesday, 4 February 2009 17:48 (sixteen years ago)
"eskimo" isn't even in Moby Dick
― Fox Force Five Punchline (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 17:51 (sixteen years ago)
IIRC, the dominant spelling in Melville's day was esquimaux.
― Aimless, Wednesday, 4 February 2009 18:02 (sixteen years ago)
It would never occur to me to do this unless I was reading something for assignment.
― The Reverend (rev), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 18:06 (sixteen years ago)
I did it with Ulysses, because I was reading it for a class and I wanted to be able to easily find passages to refer back to in class discussions. I'm glad I did, though, as it helped me trace certain themes throughout the book that I otherwise would've... not necessarily missed out on, but certainly not grasped as fully. It helps to be able to think "hey, isn't this passage kind of similar to that one in chapter 5...?" and then go back to chapter 5 and actually find the passage I'm thinking of, rather than just giving up and saying "yeah, probably; I don't think I completely imagined that."
Despite this helpfulness, I have since largely abandoned the practice.
― georgeous gorge (bernard snowy), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 18:46 (sixteen years ago)
IRC, the dominant spelling in Melville's day was esquimaux.
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 20:06 (sixteen years ago)
the difficult word oiseaux and scrawled above it ‘birds.’
dude has got to be joking, right
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 20:09 (sixteen years ago)
I'm impressed by how many of the hundred Suzanne and Gabriel own!
I think I'm agreed on the pencil only, generally non-fiction (usually philosophy) count. Although even then I'm a bit squeamish. I have started writing my name and the year on the first page, though, cuz I like when I find that in second-hand books, and want to share that minor joy when I kick the bucket.
I recently bought a copy of 'The Plague' and was a bit horrified when I opened it and saw that someone had been annotating in pen, but they gave up after three pages. Habit! Unenlightened! Banality! Mechanical serial units of movement 14 diff tasks! (wait, what?)
― Ralph, Waldo, Emerson, Lake & Palmer (Merdeyeux), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 20:16 (sixteen years ago)
Yeah, dude was joking.
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 20:21 (sixteen years ago)
Always annotated/marked up textbooks I was teaching from. Used to draw pictures on the inside back covers of storybooks and Peanuts paperbacks; stopped doing this when I was about seven. Otherwise, no.
― M.V., Wednesday, 4 February 2009 20:24 (sixteen years ago)
i am totally aspie about writing on books, never do it myself and hate it when second-hand or library loaned books have it in them. I write notes with page references, mainly for novels, and fold the bit of paper up and put it at the start of the book when I'm done reading.
― Bone Thugs-N-Harmony ft Phil Collins (jim), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 20:29 (sixteen years ago)
i missed out the words "on a separate piece of paper" there.
Looks like "esquimau" is not in Moby Dick, but it is is Psmith, Journalist:
In New York one may find every class of paper which the imagination can conceive. Every grade of society is catered for. If an Esquimau came to New York, the first thing he would find on the bookstalls in all probability would be the Blubber Magazine, or some similar production written by Esquimaux for Esquimaux. Everybody reads in New York, and reads all the time. The New Yorker peruses his favourite paper while he is being jammed into a crowded compartment on the subway or leaping like an antelope into a moving Street car.
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 5 February 2009 15:04 (sixteen years ago)