Writing on/in your books?

[aabbcc]

When you read your own books, do you tend to underline sentences, mark chapters, write your own thoughts in the margains, and thus intentionally over the time give some kind of your own 'artistic' input in the book? Or, on the contrary, you avoid making any kinds of marks on your own book, even light underlining with pencil, out of some 'respect' (couldn't think of another word :D) for the book?

[Pensive]

Nope, I am too lazy for that. Only sometimes I copy if there is something very interesting into a diary but that too disturbs my reading pace so I try to avoid it as much as possible.

[PeterL]

There have been a few times, maybe four, when I marred a book in that fashion. I don't see any reason for it, except when it clarifies something in the book.

[kiz_paws]

I am very guilty of this practice.... but I like to be able to find a passage of particular note FAST!

However, though I am guilty of it -- I bought a used copy of Hard Times and someone had obviously been studying it in a classroom setting (by the nature of the notes in the margins, kinda gave it away). This book was very distracting for me to read -- because I just couldn't ignore what the previous person had scrawled all over the place... :sick:

[Tersely]

I never write in my personal books. Usually I'm at home so if I want to remember something or look a word up, there's a scrap of paper to do it on. College books are a different story. I don't highlight, but I do put little notes in the margins. I like notes. :D

[Virgil]

I am very guilty of this practice.... but I like to be able to find a passage of particular note FAST!


Guilty? Why guilty if you own the book. I proudly mark up the books I own, whether highlihgting an excellent passage or an important spot. And I crosslink it by writing on the inside of the back blank page, a particular page number and a note. I do this in pencil. I do this for several reasons. One like Kiz says to easily find a passage, two highlight themes that keep coming up so I can detect a pattern, and three for beautifully written passages that I would like to go back to. Geez, all my college professors had notes in their books. Why would you not want to? I will go back and read important works, so I want to know what I was thinking on the first read.

[Etienne]

I take notes on papers for certain books (mostly for nice passages), and sometimes I underline certain passages in my favorite books, so that's usually never in the first read of a book. That's for literature, for philosophy, I use both notebooks which then refers to the book where underlining, notes, etc. are present.

[Rogers_68]

If something gets my attention I'll write in the book or underline it. I don't mind marked up books.

[Alexei]

I never write in my books I keep thinking I am ruining them this way. It's silly because I love it when I find an old book it was written on. I always read the notes carefully, I think this way I am going to learn something about the person who had used the book before me.

[annakarina]

If I'm studying a book for college, I'll sometimes photocopy a few pages and scribble on those. My pet hate is people who write on library books - it's so disrespectful and really distracting for other readers.

[Kafka's Crow]

Most of my books are in Adobe Acrobat format and I write notes, underline stuff etc freely. I try not to write on paper books, and mark only the more difficult books. I once had a first edition copy of Finnegans Wake and I thoroughly annotated it using Adaline Glasheen's A Census of Finnegans Wake:
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/JoyceColl/JoyceColl-idx?id=JoyceColl.GlasheenFinnegans

[amalia1985]

I always do that, I admit. It's a habbit I picked up in university, and it has remained ever since. Furthermore, I need to perform that "ritual" for my classes.

[Nossa]

I only write notes on a sticky note and stick it on the top of the page. I hardly write anything on the page itself.

[Rogers_68]

I have a friend who was once my English professor and she encourages writing in books (so long as you own it, of course), whether academic or recreational. To her it means that the reader is engaging with the book and not just skimming through it.

[Annamariah]

I just CAN'T write on my books, not to mention drawing on them. The only exceptions were the exercise books at school, in which were supposed to write anyway. So I did the exercises, and since the book was already "spoiled", I also drew on them and underlined nice words and stuff like that :D But I do feel bad if there is a mistake in a school book I would never write on otherwise, because of course I have to correct that mistake so that I don't accidentally learn it and give a wrong answer in an exam, yet writing on the book still feels awful.

I guess it's just some sort of respect towards the books. I couldn't imagine burning a book, no matter how boring or just bad it was.

[livelaughlove]

I used to hate writing in my books but it's a lot easier to study that way so I've evolved my practices a little bit :-P but I still don't like it. It disturbs my reading pace. I sometimes do highlight passages that I think are exceptional so I can go back later but that's about it. However, I am reading a spanish book right now so I'm writing in the words I don't know but not taking any other notes.

[kiz_paws]

I only write notes on a sticky note and stick it on the top of the page. I hardly write anything on the page itself.

You have just saved me! Thanks! :banana:

[Bakiryu]

Never! Books are art! Would you ever write on the Mona Lisa or a Vermeer? of course not! I keep sheets of paper by my side and write at my leisure.

I only write my name, year, age and book number on the front (using the dewey decimal system sometimes :p)

[RyanMB]

I've been dating, naming and signing every book I read since the age of 16 on the very first page when you open them up, no matter what the page may be.

[Virgil]

I just CAN'T write on my books, not to mention drawing on them. The only exceptions were the exercise books at school, in which were supposed to write anyway. So I did the exercises, and since the book was already "spoiled", I also drew on them and underlined nice words and stuff like that :D But I do feel bad if there is a mistake in a school book I would never write on otherwise, because of course I have to correct that mistake so that I don't accidentally learn it and give a wrong answer in an exam, yet writing on the book still feels awful.

I guess it's just some sort of respect towards the books. I couldn't imagine burning a book, no matter how boring or just bad it was.


Never! Books are art! Would you ever write on the Mona Lisa or a Vermeer? of course not! I keep sheets of paper by my side and write at my leisure.

It's not disrespectful at all. It is you and the book living your lives together. :) It makes the book part of the family. If anything it's paying the book incredible respect, the honor of what's written as being meaningful and significant.

Let me make clear I'm only talking about books I own. If I don't own them, such as library books, it would be sacraidge to write in them.

[LadyWentworth]

No!!! I just can't do something like that! I never even wrote in my schoolbooks like everyone else always seemed to do in school. I really couldn't care less about those books. But if I couldn't mark those up in any way, I would never do that to what I own. I always like to take very good care of everything I own. I have this obsession with keeping things immaculate! :) In fact, I can't even bend the covers back! I want everything to remain as nice as possible.

[Lily Adams]

Nah...I just never have. No notes or anything. I do, however, write my name somewhere in the front and the year(s) I read/re-read it.

[LadyWentworth]

Nah...I just never have. No notes or anything. I do, however, write my name somewhere in the front and the year(s) I read/re-read it.

Well, I do admit to "marking" it with my name! I am guilty of that, but I have one of those presses to put my name into it. So, yes, that way, I am guilty. But as far as writing in them, NO!

I actually like the idea of writing the years in there that you've read them, though!

[The Intended]

I always fold in the bottom corner of a page when I come across a passage I like, but I never actually write in a book. The first time I read Dracula it was my teacher's copy and she had scribbled notes all over it, (until about page two hundred, I guess she lost her steam) and I found it very distracting.

I occasionally do give books a letter grade on the inside font cover- A, B, etc, if I intensly love/hate it.

[Pensive]

I have no problem with books having something written on them (the ones we own of course) as long as it's not preventing me from reading the text. I buy second-hand books at times and they can have quite a lot written on them and mostly I have no problem with that.

But erm once when I started to learn how to write, I heard some swear-word and I thought of trying it in my hand-writing. As I was quite little, at that time, I practiced it over a book and then later I forgot if I had ever even written anything on it. A few months back, one of my cousins took the same book and came across those words. We had a good laugh about it. But now if it would have been some specific people reading the book, I might have found myself drowning in a little bit of embarrassment. Swear-words don't look nice on a book. :p

And I also remember writing on my brother's register and books (when I had just learnt how to write), "A bad boy owns this book." But hey, I was just a kid then. :p

[aabbcc]

I only write notes on a sticky note and stick it on the top of the page. I hardly write anything on the page itself.

Another one you just saved! :D Great idea.

[Hira]

I don't normally write in my books, the passages that I find good I normally write on a piece of paper, if I am not particularly lazy at that time or even save them in my phone if I can't take the trouble of goin to fetch a piece of paper or a notebook. My textbooks are completely filled though. With notes and notes and notes.

[thelastmelon]

I don't think I've ever written in a book, or underlined or anything.
I prefer the books the way they are and notes or lines in the book bothers my reading.

[Virgil]

Nah...I just never have. No notes or anything. I do, however, write my name somewhere in the front and the year(s) I read/re-read it.

That is such a cool idea, i'm going to have to do that myself. :thumbs_up :thumbs_up

[PabloQ]

I find myself all over the map on this topic. I've got in trouble as a lad for drawing a picture inside a Bible. The issue wasn't the matter of the picture, but that I would defile the book with my markings. Now I feel like I'm in a confessional admitting that I can force myself to write in a book at all.
I frequently find myself reading a passage that I find particularly lovely or thought provoking and want to mark it, but I don't. However, recently, I found several passages in a The Ambassadors by Henry James that I wanted to come back to if I had an opportunity to discuss the work or James in some forum. For the first time, I dog-eared the pages. I think I'm on the way to recovery and I'll soon be marking the works up as Virgil suggests. I'm looking forward to it.

[Annamariah]

It's not disrespectful at all. It is you and the book living your lives together. :) It makes the book part of the family. If anything it's paying the book incredible respect, the honor of what's written as being meaningful and significant.
I know, but I just can't do it :D Let's say books are as much a part of my family that I couldn't write on them any more than I could write on my children :lol: (But hey, I DO hug my books regularly, they need love just as we do! Am I the only one crazy enough to hug books? :D)


I always like to take very good care of everything I own. I have this obsession with keeping things immaculate! :) In fact, I can't even bend the covers back! I want everything to remain as nice as possible.
Me too! I'm always very careful especially when I read paperbacks so that they will stay as good as new :)

[1n50mn14]

I love writing little notes in my books. Mainly to remind myself of how it made me feel at the time. The writing has to be very neat and color coded though. (e.g. political references are red, religious are purple, personal are green, etc.)

[Idril]

Nah...I just never have. No notes or anything. I do, however, write my name somewhere in the front and the year(s) I read/re-read it.

I do that too. I buy labels at B&N and put them in all my books and then write the month and year read in the corner somewhere. I started doing the labelling thing because so many of the books I was loaning out weren't coming back. :rolleyes: I figured even if they don't give the books back, at least they'll feel guilty whenever they see my name there. :p

Like Pensive, I buy a lot of used books and I kind of like the writings in the margins. I'm assuming they must have been read for school because the notations are generally academic in nature and sometimes they point out some really obscure theme I would've missed other wise or just observations that didn't occur to me. There certainly is a point where the notations are a bit much and become a little distracting but for the most part, I find them fascinating. As for making my own marks, I don't do it often because I have a book journal and if there is a particular line in a book I like or a thought I want to remember, I write it in there but I don't always have the journal with me so I have been known to make a few notations in that circumstance. I also, occasionally, like to underline names as characters are introduced, especially in books with many characters or books with foreign names that aren't easily remembered but all my markings are done in pencil so they are easily removed if necessary.

[ntropyincarnate]

I never wrote in my books until last year (my first year of high school) when I took a literature class. But now i really like to write in my books, it makes them feel more like they're my books. I like books that look well-used. If I was offered two copies of the same book, one a nice, new, perfect, hard-bound copy, and the other a paper-back, falling apart, torn, bent, and written in, I'd take the second one.

and...I hug my books :D

[ClickForth]

okokok

[Annamariah]

and...I hug my books :D

That's great! :banana: I really was afraid I'm the only one.

(Besides I have no one else to hug here, since all my friends live in another town :( I haven't hugged anyone except my books for over three weeks!)

[Wakaba]

when i used to see a word i didnt know, i would look it up and write the definition next to it...now i know everything :eek:

[Lily Adams]

Well, I do admit to "marking" it with my name! I am guilty of that, but I have one of those presses to put my name into it. So, yes, that way, I am guilty. But as far as writing in them, NO!

I actually like the idea of writing the years in there that you've read them, though!


That is such a cool idea, i'm going to have to do that myself. :thumbs_up :thumbs_up

Thanks, guys. :D I actually got it from John Adams, who would do that...

[NickAdams]

Never! Books are art! Would you ever write on the Mona Lisa or a Vermeer?

Unless you're Dali.
http://www.aiwaz.net/uploads/gallery/self-portrait-as-mona-lisa-1614-mid.jpg

[Ultravox]

I cannot bring myself to scar the pages of my books, unless it's one that I shall be requiring as an exam text. In terms of recreational reading I just can't do it. I try my hardest to keep all my books is as pristine condition as I can, call it a minor obsession if you will. If there's anything particularly poignant, a reference that I have no background knowledge of or a term with which I am unsure of its meaning I'd sooner jot it down on a scrap of paper than on the book itself.

[LadyWentworth]

Thanks, guys. :D I actually got it from John Adams, who would do that...

Well, that is something that I never knew about the man! Leave it to Johnny to come up with an excellent idea like that! :D

[aeroport]

Guilty? Why guilty if you own the book. I proudly mark up the books I own, whether highlihgting an excellent passage or an important spot. And I crosslink it by writing on the inside of the back blank page, a particular page number and a note. I do this in pencil. I do this for several reasons. One like Kiz says to easily find a passage, two highlight themes that keep coming up so I can detect a pattern, and three for beautifully written passages that I would like to go back to. Geez, all my college professors had notes in their books. Why would you not want to? I will go back and read important works, so I want to know what I was thinking on the first read.

This exactly.
It also makes things much simpler when one is using the text to write an essay. My Moby-Dick is in quite a state after that one... My prof for that class actually showed us, at the beginning of the semester, the four-color pen (!) he uses when studying a text ("And when I want to get serious about my underlining, I use the black ink..."). I only use a pencil, though.

[Erichtho]

I only write notes on a sticky note and stick it on the top of the page. I hardly write anything on the page itself.

I have the same habit. Other than that I only write dedications in books when giving them as presents.

[Lily Adams]

Unless you're Dali.
http://www.aiwaz.net/uploads/gallery/self-portrait-as-mona-lisa-1614-mid.jpg

THAT IS BEAUTIFUL. "Bob", leave it to Dali.


Well, that is something that I never knew about the man! Leave it to Johnny to come up with an excellent idea like that! :D

He would write "John Adams' Book (insert year)" which is what I do. Great man, as you know. :D

[ampoule]

If I know for certain that I will be passing the book on to someone else to read, I will not mark in it in any way. As someone mentioned earlier, it is very distracting. However, if it is a book I am going to keep forever, I am very free with markings. In fact, it is very obvious which books I have loved for their pages are earmarked, folded, and underlined with pictures, questions, comments, etc. On the books that are read in my book club I list the members and their rating on the inside front cover.
I love reading inscriptions in old books.

[Quinn_]

-----

[Kent Edwins]

I've started doing it quite a bit, recently. It all started when I began reading Plato and felt the need to interject my feelings into the conversations. Now, the only time I don't mark up books if if they are strictly for pleasure and have no real literary of philosophical value (sci fi and fantasy).

[bazarov]

Writing!?!?!:flare: It's a crime!!! If you have a need to write, write your own book, do not destroy someones hard work.

[Dori]

Personally, I never write in my books. But I do enjoy trying to decipher a previous owner's marginalia.


Writing!?!?!:flare: It's a crime!!! If you have a need to write, write your own book, do not destroy someones hard work.

Marginalia is quite acceptable. Pointless scribbling and doodling is, well, pointless. :D


No, never. I hate it if my books are marred in any way whatsoever. I'm not at all a fussy person, but I am fussy about books in that way.

So you aren't fussy, but you are. Got it. :lol:

[Oniw17]

I don't do it, because I sometimes sell my books to used book stores or give them to the library and I hate buying books or taking them out and finding that they have someone's name in them or notes on the top of pages where new chapters start.

[miss_chau]

I always use post it notes, unless I'm so struck by a passage or quote that I know I will not regret highlighting it with a marker.

[Eric Cioe]

I have a friend who was once my English professor and she encourages writing in books (so long as you own it, of course), whether academic or recreational. To her it means that the reader is engaging with the book and not just skimming through it.

I think your professor is right.

I can't read without a Pilot V7 in my right hand. Even really simple books that I've read have a few lines underlined in them. My copy of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason probably has more of my writing in it than Kant's. Underlining and taking notes helps me concentrate. I do it in the book rather than on other sheets of paper to ensure that all of my notes are together with the text, and that my interpretive comments are half an inch from the text they are interpreting.

To me, not writing in books you own is like not moving furniture into your house. The books themselves aren't really artwork. It isn't like drawing on the Mona Lisa unless you're making marginal notes on the author's manuscript.

[NotWoodhouse]

I use marginalia for the books I read for school (as long as their mine) but not if they're recreational. I don't know why, it's just the way I've always done it.

[dauthi]

I write in my own books, but I do not write in books if they are going to be handed on or sold later. I love having little notes to the side to help me decipher what's going on, and I definitely love reading previous owners' marginalia, because it's like having another person expressing another set of ideas with you. However, I also realize that many people do not enjoy having scribbles written in their books, so I don't do it if I might hand on the book to someone else.

[hellsapoppin]

``do you tend to underline sentences, mark chapters, write your own thoughts in the margains``


Yup. Do it all the time! It helps me a great deal since I am a recovering amnesiac and have always had a poor memory --- this helps me remember the story a lot better!

Yet, it has another good side that most would not normally consider: when I was in law school, I would take down lecture notes on the book margins. When the professor gave a test, it was usually on matters discussed in class and the notes provided the test answers. After the semester was over I would sell my books to under-classmen and they all reported that my notes were extremely helpful when they were in class. And it helped their test scores, too!