Do you write on your books?

[BloomingRose]

I know many people that usually write down some notes or underline particular sentences while reading, and I was wondering if you did the same. If so, why do you do that?
I don't write on my books because I consider them too good to be ruined by my writing. To me, there's no need to highlight specific sentences or paragraphs if you got the whole idea.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Oh, the truth is that I write in some of them, usually if I have duplicate copies of the text. Why? I write in books in order to track my thoughts or note interesting points, underline keywords, ask questions or just to capture anything else that I consider fruitful. It is not just about being a student too, (though that is part of it) I think I am likely to do so with any text that I am wanting to get to grips with on a deeper level providing that it is not a crisp new edition of a decent book, because I’m unlikely to want to deface it if that is the case.

I mean it depends what you are reading the books for as well really. If you are a student with a task at hand it might not be enough just to try and capture the whole thing. Underlining words or sentences can save you a lot of time in the end, think of it practically – often I have to scamper back through a book to try and find a particular word or phrase and it can be a real pain if you can’t find it, trust me. If you are just reading for pleasure or it is smaller text it might not be necessary to do so.

With that said, the vast majority of my books aren’t marked with my horrible scribbles at all, thankfully, but I know it as fact that if you do write in your books or jot down notes you are far more likely to remember important parts of the text, so for me there is always a trade off between writing in them or not.

As of late I have taken to writing key points in a separate hardback journal, I hope to be able to continue the habit because I think it is good practice to do so.

[no-angels]

when i was at middle school i used to write down my name and my boyfriend's name on my books at university i just preferred writing down my name and surname on my books in order to just distinguish my books from others

[Lumiere]

I prefer to read books one at a time, to focus on them entirely, and then never look back. I am tempted to grab a highlighter when I read something, (an image, a sentence, a passage, an idea), that especially thrills or intrigues me, but for some reason I cannot explain, I don't like to look back on them. I enjoy them for a moment, and then move on to the next book. Also, I rent most of my books from the library, and I don't think they would appreciate that.

[dfloyd]

is a sacrilege. Not writing in a book was forbidden in the public schools I went to. If you wrote in a required book, you had to buy it at the end of the term. Otherwise, you turned it in and the required books were supplied free of charge.

[Hank Stamper]

apart from defacing our french textbooks at school with puerile hieroglyphs, i have never written in my books - always use a notepad

[LitNetIsGreat]

Playing the devil's advocate a little, but what about the argument that books are nothing in themselves, they are just printed pages glued together. What really counts is the meanings and feeling which they gave to the reader. These things occurred whether a reader would write on the books, use them for toilet paper, or hung them on the wall as a prize possession. Furthermore, if you write on a book you get more out of them in terms of memory, and therefore the whole experience - so shouldn't every single reader who cares about the reading experience write on their books?

[tailor STATELY]

I think books with our thoughts and questions scrawled neatly in them can be valuable to those who might inherit them; giving our progeny/other an insight to what we were thinking when we read certain passages. Journals and foolscap, while valuable aids, may be separated all too easily from that which we read.

[stlukesguild]

While I avoid those books with sloppy highlighting, crude underlining, and messy notations scrawled in the margins, I most certainly agree with taylor STATELY that there is something to be said from passing on one's thoughts in the forms of notations written in one's books. Such annotated books owned and written in by various writers, historical figures, scholars, etc are quite sought after. Indeed, the act of jotting notations on a text has a long history... going back to the at least the medieval scholars, theologians, rabbis, etc... who added their comments as a sort of running commentary or dialog:









Of course I have rather neat handwriting and am extremely careful when writing in my books... and there are certain books in which I will not write.

[JBI]

St Lukes, you'd be surprised how much writing is actually done in the margins of those illuminated texts, or other classic documents. For instance, the major Sir Thomas Wyatt manuscript has some kids math homework in the margins, and there are untold amounts of messages, from interpretation to "writing this book was painful, you better like it" inside medieval margins of fully illustrated manuscripts.

[Lily Adams]

Those are gorgeous manuscripts!!!

I write in my books. I put my name and the year I read it in the front and will underline and write notes in the text. I don't find it sacrilege at all. There are many other copies and I am not "ruining" a significant amount. It is fun! Plus I can look back at them and see what I was thinking when I was reading them. I also dog-ear interesting pages. I want to fully understand and enjoy the book as much as I can. My boyfriend thinks I am terrible because of this...oh well. :P

[Red-Headed]

I dislike defacing books in any way. Sometimes I write notes in the flyleaf with pencil, but apart from that I just won't do it. I have lost count of the second-hand books I have bought that have been defaced by badly scrawled notes in Biro or haphazardly highlighted in luminous green! Think of others who may inherit the book after you when you have that urge to annotate with a Bic retractable!

I believe there may in fact be a peculiar hell reserved especially for people responsible for defacing books, I certainly hope so...

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

I do write in my books which, for the most part, consists of bracketing or underlining a passage or paragraph that made a strong impression on me. A caveat to this; I typically do not make marks or notations in distinctive, hardcover presentation type books. “Coffee table” books if you will. In this case, I often use “post its” to mark an important passage or entire page.
Another technique I have begun to use consists of keeping a typewritten record of important passages, vocabulary, my perspective on a particular line or paragraph, etc., as I make my way through a book. It is important to note the page numbers and perhaps a general location on the page. Upon completing the book you may then print the document and insert it into the book for future reference.
Consider this; the notations you make today will add to the sentimental value of the book if you choose to pass your library on to potential descendents who develop a passion for reading, you will have left behind clues for them to gain insight into your soul.
As a personal example, I have several of my Grandfather’s (1894 – 1977) books in which he added brackets or parenthesis around important passages. Here is a photo from my Grandfather’s copy of Oliver Goldsmith’s “The Deserted Village” from the book; “Goldsmith’s The deserted Village and Other Poems”, Riverside Literature Series, Copyright-1894.

[inbetween]

to Red-Headed
then that'll be the spot for me
every text and book I've read for school is full of notes, I highlight passages and jot down whatever comes to my mind (but always pencil only - I'm just too lazy to change the writing tool). that helps me to work with the text.
in books I read for my personal pleasure you can only find highlighted sentences that might serve as good quotes (in my view)
and of course vocablurary... since I'm no native speaker of the English language I write down translations and sometimes the usage of words foreign to me.
apart from that I never write anything on my books but that might change when I start to read philosophical texts for fun ... guess I'd mark where I agree or disagree with the author and summarise passages to understand them...
whatsoever, I don't deem my thoughts unworthy to be written down on a book and just apart from that, when I bought it it's mine and I can do with it whatever I like and the author knew that. and whoever inherits books from me inherits books I have used so they bear the sings of usage, whatever they may be
so I'm really looking forward to seeing this place in hell, heaven would have bin too cold for me anyways

[stlukesguild]

As a visual artist I am very much attuned to the visual aspects of the book. I rather agree with Mallarme and hate those anthologies which split a sonnet or other short poem in half over two pages in order to save on paper. Thus I am quite meticulous about how I write in my books. I will use highlighters (yellow only) in certain cheap paperbacks but in most books I will only write... as neat as possible... in the margins.