Do you write on your books?

[kidvisions]

I'm about to read Othello for school, and I was thinking to write down the difficult words on the margin with some notes, but then I thought that it might be a bad thing to do.
What do you think? Are you ok with writing on your books? Do you do it? Why do you do it? If not, why not?

[Igu Soni]

No, because my handwriting looks horrible.

[peter_d]

Although exclusively with pencil, I usually write a lot in the books that I read. I underline passages that I want to be able to find back later. I write remarks in the margins when I have a particular thought on what is written and sometimes I put exclamation marks (when I like something very much, or find something very insightful) or questions marks (when I don't get something or even doubt something) in it. In Cees Nooteboom's All souls day I scribbled almost half a novel back to the author, so many interesting and recognizable things were there.



(wow! my 100th post:))

[lenz]

Virginia Woolf recommended making marginal notes and did in her own. But,please, not in borrowed or school books!
I wrote notes and underlined books at university since it was faster than writing in a notebook, but I don't now, since I often donate or sell used books and no one else is interested in my cryptic scribblings.

[kidvisions]

I used to do that, but then I thought it might be disrespectful to the author. Don't you think?

[lionel]

Are you ok with writing on your books? Do you do it?

I'm fine with it, although only as signed comments on the few very minor books I've written myself. On my own personal books, I leave post-its so I can return if necessary. After that - if they're not worth selling on - then I give em to thrift stores.

b (http://tonyshaw.blogspot.com)log

[miercuri]

I write my full name on every book I buy, along with the date when it was bought and the place. I use post-its as bookmarks and sometimes I scribble things on them and then leave them in the book.
But otherwise, no, I don't write anything on my books and I tend to frown upon those who write comments on library books. Occasionally, I even take the time to erase anything written in pencil on the books I take from the library. I once came across a vandalized library book, full of nonsensical scribblings in pen and the vandalist had even left his phone number and home address urging other readers to contact him. That seemed like a pretty desperate cry for attention.

[Igu Soni]

I actually find pencil underlinings rather charming in old bound-by-the-librarian library books with wispy pages.
Nit that I'd do it.

[stephendedalus]

From reading Nabokov's Lectures on Literature I learned he was a compulsive scribbler. My edition of the Lectures contains reprints of pages of his copies all covered with notes. He did not only write notes but also drew little sketches of characters and objects from the novels on blank pages. One of the advantages of this is that you can't lose these notes and they are always easily accesible. Even notes on stick-it's eventually fall out. So I'd say it's a helpful habit however many readers, including myself, seem to have some reservations about it.

[Bjorn]

I see no reason not to scribble in my books. They're my books, I get to sign them and personalize them.

[Sibyl]

When I feel the need to make notes I use post-its. When it has come that far I use so many post-its the book doubles in size and I have to make a word-document to keep track of the post-its.

[kidvisions]

When it comes to library books, I think it really depends on what's written on them. Some notes are very interesting and even helpful, and others can be very annoying.

[Eric]

You wouldn't snatch a book of your friends' bookshelves and start underlining in indelible ink. So don't do it with library books. Hasn't anyone taught you about sharing things? What you do with your own books is your own business. But it looks rather silly years later when you see all those neatly ruled underlinings, whose purpose you have totally forgotten but ruin the appearance of the novel you want to read again.

The set-books mentality of school with its underlinings and marginal scribblings is something you grow out of once you start reading books for pleasure, not just to pass exams.

[Igu Soni]

I think the main problem with writing in books is that you're gonna lose the freshness of a new reading because of reading your observations during this one.

[DB Cooper]

I do not write in my books. When I take notes its always done in a notebook, seems to make referencing easier for me. Also I have a strange compulsion to keep my books as pristine as possible. When I loan them to friends its always with the caveat that they return them in the condition that I loaned them in.

[SlowRain]

I make notes, make links, highlight, and dog ear my ebooks. My paper books are immaculate.

[miercuri]

Also I have a strange compulsion to keep my books as pristine as possible. When I loan them to friends its always with the caveat that they return them in the condition that I loaned them in.
I understand you completely. I've blacklisted two of my friends for not being careful enough. I doubt I'll trust them with a book ever again.

[Loki]

I generally try not to write on books, even if they're mine. I like them to be as "clean" (can't find a better word) as possible.
If I have to study them for university, I underline the most important parts so as to find them whenever I need to.
Also, I write at the sides of a book a title or short summary, just to help me find the parts I have to revise; but this generally applies to essays, not to novels or poems or whatever.

I do not have the problem of borrowing my books to anyone, since nobody wants them, nobody (nobody close enough to me) shares my passion; and although I like the idea of not having my books destroyed by some "vandals", I'm not happy with not having anyone to share my ideas with.

[kidvisions]

You wouldn't snatch a book of your friends' bookshelves and start underlining in indelible ink. So don't do it with library books. Hasn't anyone taught you about sharing things? What you do with your own books is your own business. But it looks rather silly years later when you see all those neatly ruled underlinings, whose purpose you have totally forgotten but ruin the appearance of the novel you want to read again.

The set-books mentality of school with its underlinings and marginal scribblings is something you grow out of once you start reading books for pleasure, not just to pass exams.

I never read just to pass exams!The proof is that I got so many bad marks simply because I didn't like some books and couldn't lie about it! I expressed my own opinion,and of course the teacher didn't like that! (Well, if she didn't like the books why did she pick them then?).
Even though I never write anything on library books, I still find certain things written by others interesting!

[kidvisions]

I think the main problem with writing in books is that you're gonna lose the freshness of a new reading because of reading your observations during this one.

That's why I decided not to write on Othello! I will write my comment on a notebook! That's much better!

[Daniel del Real]

I only underline some phrases and in paperback books, not all of them. Never ever in a hardcover.

[abecedarian]

I practically never write in my books. The main exception is my Bible, and even then I tend to stick to underlines. My handwriting is just too big and strange for me to be comfortable writing notes in the margins. That's what notebooks or notecards are for. If I find a passage worth remembering, I'll copy it into a notebook and make personal notes there. Just don't ask me where all the notebooks go...

[lenz]

What if it's an old paperback you bought in the thrift shop?

If a copy is needed for writing an essay or review, then an old paperback that isn't going to last long anyway can be sacrificed in this way, I think. Unless you want to save the scribbles for posterity, in which case, you might as well use a notebook in the first place.
I heard recently that most books, paperback and hardcover, are being made from cheaper paper than in past years and so, are disintegrating faster. This is a selling point for kindle and other digital book thingies. Conspiracy??

[abecedarian]

If a copy is needed for writing an essay or review, then an old paperback that isn't going to last long anyway can be sacrificed in this way, I think. Unless you want to save the scribbles for posterity, in which case, you might as well use a notebook in the first place.
I heard recently that most books, paperback and hardcover, are being made from cheaper paper than in past years and so, are disintegrating faster. This is a selling point for kindle and other digital book thingies. Conspiracy??


My eldest daughter used a copy of a book she loathes for a journal. It was a garage sale paperback that was not in terrific shape anyway. Some years ago, I read about Victorian era ladies using old, rejected books belonging to their fathers, brothers, or husbands, as their own copybooks. The practice was to cut out articles, recipes, quotes, etc. to paste into these books that would have been tossed otherwise. I'll have to find the book I got that info from...

[lionel]

I don't think anyone's mentioned Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell here, have they? This is a link to some of the Islington Library books defaced by them:

Joe Orton Gallery (http://www.joeorton.org/Pages/Joe_Orton_Gallery17.html)

blog (http://tonyshaw3.blogspot.com)

[lenz]

I don't think anyone's mentioned Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell here, have they? This is a link to some of the Islington Library books defaced by them:

Joe Orton Gallery (http://www.joeorton.org/Pages/Joe_Orton_Gallery17.html)

blog (http://tonyshaw3.blogspot.com)

Pretty silly stuff, but I've always liked the Sybil Thorndike as stone idol.
Excellent bio by John Lahr made into excellent film with Gary Oldham as Orton. Can the plays still shock?

[lionel]

Can the plays still shock?

Some people apparently still think so. Last summer, while taking a few photos of the site where Joe Orton lived as a child in Leicester, and where there is a commemorative plaque, the owner of the present property, who had known Orton in his youth, spoke to me for a while and gave me several photocopies, one of which included an advert for a 2007 Orton exhibition in which a warning is given here (http://tonyshaw3.blogspot.com/search?q=orton).

[Stiffelio]

I wrote on books I used to study from at school or college. But I now keep my 'reading books' quite immaculate, except for writing my name on one of the front pages after reading the book. If I need to take notes I either use post-its or flags as markers, or else I write on a small spiral notebook, the pages of which I tear, fold and keep at the back of my book. The only exception where I might write on a book are some short story collections. As I don't usually read this kind of book in one go, I mark a dot or a tick next to the story title that I have read. I may also mark with one or more dots or stars if I really liked the story. Always in pencil!

[Flower]

I agree with other people, if its your book, you are free to do how you please.

Having said that, I find myself underlining books I have to review a lot but feeling awful doing it in my other books...especially the ones I treasure the most!

[Liam]

I don't mark, underline, or write in anything that has cost me over $50, in case I ever go bankrupt and need to re-sell my library for some quick cash.

[Omo]

I don't write in my books; I take a notepad if I really feel the need to comment on/mark something, which happens rarely. I do, however, like it when I find notes from other people on the margins of a second-hand purchased book.

[saliotthomas]

I sometime scetchs in my books, like in the airports, or stuck somewhere with just a pen and a book.
I don't own 50 S book or i would sell them each time i'm broke, which is often.
Very seldom underline, last time was with Yourcenare, and a few things in Maalouf and Gary.
Plus it's are to write or underline audio books.

[Liam]

I don't own 50 S books
Mine are mostly art catalogues and scholarly editions/anthologies, which are sometimes pricey. I meant, I don't write/underline in books like these:


http://press.princeton.edu/images/k7581.gif

[titania7]

I don't think anyone's mentioned Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell here, have they? This is a link to some of the Islington Library books defaced by them:

Joe Orton Gallery (http://www.joeorton.org/Pages/Joe_Orton_Gallery17.html)

blog (http://tonyshaw3.blogspot.com)

Thanks for this, Tony. I love Joe Orton.

I like your avatar, too. Kafka was a beauty.


Best,
Alexis


"Be not astonished at new ideas, for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by man."
~Spinoza~

[titania7]

In keeping with the topic of this thread. . .and also for those who are curious . . .I do indeed write in my books. I write in them with great abandon, as a matter of fact. And I don't feel the least bit guilty about it, either. Life's too short to take it that seriously.

~Alexis


"I hear, I know. I see, I remember. I do, I understand." ~Confucius~

[lionel]

Thanks for this, Tony. I love Joe Orton.

Why doesn't that surprise me, Alexis? Maybe because I've come to expect surprises? :)


I like your avatar, too. Kafka was a beauty

This is a much appreciated comment. Thank you, he was indeed an amazing creature.

And all the best to you, Alexis.

Tony

[JTolle]

A women once told me that there were two types of readers: One who sees the book as something more than itself, that it represents creativity and imagination and effort, and so hold their books in such regard that they must keep them pristine and clean as vessels for those distillations of the mind; And one who sees the book as representative and continuously influencing, thus malleable and real and alive, so that they must feel themselves at work with their books, so they beat them and use them and abuse them, live with them and respect them thus.

I'm not sure how much I agree with her but I thought it a beautiful sentiment. I think I'm skeptical because I see myself not as either, but as a something in between.

I hate people who dog-ear pages; I cringe when I hear spines breaking; People are obliged to hold my books a certain way (spine facing any surfaces it may touch). Yet I write compulsively in my books (always in mechanical pencil), observations, words I don't know along with their definitions, cite references and allusions, and I underline favorite sentences and paragraphs, quote appropriate material. I like to never forget a thought or a realization.

But I never write in library books, or borrowed books, they're not mine to tamper with.

[waalkwriter]

No, I do not. I can't bring myself to even highlight quotes. I use those little sticky tabs to get future essay references, (when such things are necessary).

[Heteronym]

Sometimes I do. If I find a word whose meaning I don't know, I underline it to look it up on the dictionary another time (I seldom do it :D). Or if I think the book is worth reviewing for the website, I make little notes on the margins. Or sometimes I just underline whole passages I loved.

[My name is red]

Not on my own books but i love leaving little notes for the next reader on the books i've borrowed from library :rolleyes:

[pesahson]

Not on my own books but i love leaving little notes for the next reader on the books i've borrowed from library :rolleyes:

I don't write in library books. I may use a pencil to underline some phrases but then always erase it. But I don't mind finding somebody's underlines or notes. It makes me wonder what made this paragraph important for that person. I prefer old worn out library books to new anyway.

[ReadCentral]

hii,,,
i sometimes write the meaning beside the difficult words or underline the word to refer for the meaning so that word can be used further ....