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[Monocle]

Yesterday I got a used book from Amazon and opened it to find that some asshole had added a bunch of inane notes like "read on Friday" and penetrating insights such as "sarcasm" next to a sarcastic passage. All of it in pen. There is also so much underlining in certain areas that it looks like the book's former owner milked and possibly molested a squid over the pages. Am I wrong to be annoyed?

On one hand, I bought a used book on the cheap and got what I paid for: an intact, readable copy. On the other hand, I'm constantly distracted by the jungle of obnoxious squiggles that I can't ignore or erase.

I'm not dogmatically opposed to marking in books. I know someone who hugely improved his copy of Richer's Artistic Anatomy by color coding the plates and adding technical notes in the margins. Also, I own a little volume of seventeenth century literature with very articulate remarks that I wouldn't want to be without. But most of the notes I come across in used books are stupid and trivial, and heavy underlining and highlighting strike me as straight-up vandalism.

What's your position on writing in books, especially those you don't want to keep forever?

 

[daviyoung]

Write it on here and stick it like a bookmark, don't scrawl all over the page.

If I wanted a particular quote I'd write an approximate line number.

 

[Orrichio]

I agree. Some notes are fine if it's academic or actually helpful. though, if someone just writes"sarcasm" in the margins, that's defacing the book imo. Along with writing in them, I also dislike dog earing,i find it disrespectful for some reason.

 

[archnemesis]

I never write in books, but it would really be helpful to go through school textbooks with a highlighter marker. Even if I'm not going to sell it, it would feel wrong to ruin the book for someone else.

 

[Salazar]

I never do it and see it as a fucking impertinence most of the time. Anybody who does it in a library book is a prat. Anybody who does it in pen should be shot.

Geniuses (say, Coleridge) are exempt from these strictures.

 

[epmode]

Very annoying for sure. Ebooks solve this. Unless you're looking to sell, of course.

 

[Lissar]

I hate it, it drives me nuts. Whenever I buy used I look through the book thoroughly before purchasing. I once bought a book that had a whole paragraph with lines written straight through it. Did the paragraph offend the original owner? I have no idea, can't read it. One time I was going to buy a book, but found that it had been owned by two previous generations of book scribblers. For some reason the second owner re-underlined some of the same passages the previous owner had, as well as scribbling out their notes and writing in new ones. Made quite a lot of the book completely unreadable, so I didn't buy it for obvious reasons.

 

[RoadHazard]

Yeah, that's stupid and horrible.

 

[i_am_ben]

I do it all the time to my own books.

 

[markot]

I hate people who crease the binder thingy >_<

 

[Salazar]

I do it all the time to my own books.

Filth. There will come a reckoning.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Yeah. I never do that.

 

[coldvein]

i write in pen in the books that i own as well. i don't plan on ever getting rid of them either, so you guys don't need to worry about it, okay?

 

[-KRS-]

One of my school books actually even encourages doing that. Especially when picking out the important words in a text. Needless to say I wrote the words on my computer instead.

 

[SystemShock2]

It depends on how obtrusive it is. If it's just in the margins and can be ignored, I don't care. I think it can be a good practice for certain books, as it helps me think, analyze, and concentrate more on the book.

 

[bengraven]

I have a book from Amazon that someone was obviously using a text book.

Weirdest part was, the highlighting and underlining were on unimportant things.

For example:

At the beginning of the 19th century, the American frontier was approximately along the Mississippi River, which bisects the continental United States north-to-south from just west of the Great Lakes to the delta near New Orleans. St. Louis, Missouri was the largest town on the frontier, the gateway for travel westward, and a principal trading center for Mississippi River traffic and inland commerce. There is a dog outside the window right now. The new nation began to exercise some power in domestic and foreign affairs.

 

[AndyD]

Write it on here and stick it like a bookmark, don't scrawl all over the page.

If I wanted a particular quote I'd write an approximate line number.

The worst is when people write bible verses or quotes in the margins in library books. If the book mentions a gay couple or murder I don't need you to write "sin" and a bible verse every time.

It angers me so much, I usually have to stop reading.

 

[FINE-LINE]

This. I only highlight in textbooks and rarely at that.

 

[coldvein]

The worst is when people write bible verses or quotes in the margins in library books. If the book mentions a gay couple or murder I don't need you to write "sin" and a bible verse every time.

that's hilarious. i think i'd actually like that. i like finding other people's weird writings in used books.. like "who am i?" etc. etc.

 

[daviyoung]

The worst is when people write bible verses or quotes in the margins in library books. If the book mentions a gay couple or murder I don't need you to write "sin" and a bible verse every time.

What? Would that be those used by, say, theology students. Or extremely vocal Christianity-pushers?

If it's people writing that as a sort of Christian propaganda, or even as a joke, it's really worrying.

Out of interest, where are you?

 

[Pand]

This is why I like my Kindle so much. I can highlight and add annotations to my liking, and it doesn't bother anyone (including myself). There's even an option to show other people's highlights of a particular book, which can be very interesting.

But yeah, in normal books it's the most annoying thing ever. Worse than bent pages and spines.

The worst is when people write bible verses or quotes in the margins in library books. If the book mentions a gay couple or murder I don't need you to write "sin" and a bible verse every time.

Do you get your books from a psychiatric institution?

 

[IamMattFox]

I used to highlight and note my books to hell and back in college just so the next person who got them would be annoyed.

I hate it too.

 

[Locke_211]

I didn't like this, but when I started teaching Literature and had to read a large number of books in a very short time, it just became so much quicker and easier to do this than to write out the quotes separately, which I did throughout my PhD. I underline important passages, with page numbers in the margins of the sections that the passage relates to or plays off elsewhere in the novel, and keep a list of page numbers on the front page of the absolute most important bits.

But only in pencil! I don't think I could do it in pen.

 

[Lord Ghirahim]

You are a bad person if you do that.

 

[AndyD]

What? Would that be those used by, say, theology students. Or extremely vocal Christianity-pushers?

If it's people writing that as a sort of Christian propaganda, or even as a joke, it's really worrying.

Out of interest, where are you?

Not places where it would make sense. I found notations in Game of Thrones and Hunger Games for example.

I am in the bible belt, Nashville, Tennessee. I think it's isolated to our library, and recent, as I never had these issues in Alabama or Georgia when I lived there, nor here before 6-8 months ago.

As Pand said, this is one of the main reasons I got a kindle.

 

[MC Safety]

I used to highlight and note my books to hell and back in college just so the next person who got them would be annoyed.

I hate it too.

I would purchase used textbooks in college, and would invariably get the ones where the previous owner highlighted EVERYTHING.

 

[Bomber Bob]

i love my kindle

my notes and hilights are sync averyware

 

[Locke_211]

What I really, really can't stand is getting a book from the Uni library and finding it underlined! That's the most heinous crime in the world, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Thagomizer]

I do it, but only with school books and only if I intend to keep them. Books that I read for pleasure don't get written in, with the exception of poetry- I always write in poetry books, but in those cases, I buy the really really cheap ones they expect you to write in so I'm not defacing a nice book. When I want to read poetry without annotations, I go online.

Writing in a book and then selling it to someone else is annoying and inconsiderate.

 

[Tunavi]

Yeah, that's stupid and horrible.

I sense sarcasm

 

[iapetus]

I don't much care. I'm more angry at people who sell books in shitty condition as 'Very Good' through Amazon. Fuck you!

 

[speculawyer]

I suggest you get over it or not buy used books over the internet.

 

[Angelo]

As an English student, I tend to underline important passages and write few inscriptions here and there but I rarely overdo it as I always keep a reading journal handy for longer expositions.

Marginalia is crucial tool for the book critic, after all, and many great writers tended to practice it whenever they read books and novels by other writers; Nabokov, for example.

Personally speaking, marginalia helps me foster a stronger intimacy with the book I'm presently reading. For example, I remember when I had to re-read Jane Austen's Emma for a class that I took last semester and I was delightedly surprised by my notes and indexation that I have scribbled on the text, for not only made the process of re-reading Emma enjoyable and easier, but also thoughtfully nostalgic as I continued to revisit my written reflections that I had accumulated on the first read. Obviously, the books I tend to scribble on are mine to keep, and I never dare selling them to anyone seeing that I, too, understand the frustration of obtaining a book that have been clumsily vandalized.

In case anyone is curious, here's an example of a proper use of marginalia: A Year in Marginalia: Sam Anderson

 

[∀ Narayan]

I highlight key parts in my textbooks. It helps a lot when I'm studying. I don't really mind if someone else highlights lines in their books.

 

[Monocle]

Marginalia, as I gather it's called by enthusiasts, is like graffiti. Some of it is meaningful or entertaining, most of it is obtrusive. Both forms of expression are personal stamps on public items.

OK, it might be a stretch to call books public items. Or is it? Books tend to pass from hand to hand. They end up in libraries or on other people's shelves, linking readers who might share no other connection in strings that span generations. Is it an imposition on future readers to turn a book into a diary for your spontaneous impressions? Do past readers' personal notes interfere with present and future dialogues between reader and author? Barring rare exceptions, I believe so.

Personally speaking, reading is an active process. I engage with books, write long notes, mark dozens of words and passages. Yet I record them all outside the pages, because they are for me and not the next five strangers who will own those volumes. A folded page of lined paper is the best kind of bookmark I know because it can double as a handy log for my reactions. Post-its with little arrows or keywords work as well as underlining and they can be repositioned or removed. A pocket-sized notebook is a convenient place to keep notes: I can key them by chapter, page number, or even individual line and they'll correspond to any copy of the same book. Best of all, a text file lets me compose, format, and revise notes with such flexibility that a pen and blank margins look like a mallet and a chisel by comparison.

Preserving books doesn't mean you have to condemn yourself to a life of passive reading.

I suggest you get over it or not buy used books over the internet.

If you think this thread is about me, you've missed the point.

 

[Bleepey]

I used to think it in considerate of me to underline books i owned, then i realised i don't owe the person after a damn thing. It's my shit.

 

[Gramercy.1]

My dictionary is full of underlined words that I have had to look up. Some times I'll just pick it up and read the underlined ones to see if I can remember their meanings. I also underlined and wrote in the margins when I was in college. I kept all my books, but not all of my notes, so when I re-read them those little markings help jog back my memory. I don't believe I ever written in novels though.

 

[plasticpassion]

I don't mind it as long as every other line isn't highlighted or underlined. A few random markings or words are tolerable.

 

[SolKane]

This is nothing short of vandalism:

"I didn't call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone - he stretched out his arms towards the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward - and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness."

symbolism

 

[Vox-Pop]

I circle main points just to remember. I use a pencil however.

 

[bjscott05]

In textbooks I hate it.

In personal books it doesn't bother me at all. A critical/analytical approach to reading doesn't seem wrong to me.

 

[wenis]

If you think this thread is about me, you've missed the point.

I doubt he thinks the thread is about you persey, but his statement still stands...get over it or you know...don't be cheap and buy new.

I write in books that I've read a bunch of times and consider them keepers that I would never give away. For the most part though, I give away a lot of my books after I've read them so that others can enjoy them.

 

[Gramercy.1]

I circle main points just to remember. I use a pencil however.

Depending on the quality of the paper, pencil and highlighters tend to fade over time. Pen for me, black only.

 

[Escape Goat]

I sure do.

 

[fadetoblack]

Yeah I absolutely do it when I'm working on a piece of criticism or something. But then, I never really sell my books, and when I die and the books move on to their next owner, hopefully by then they will already be old enough that the marginalia will have some historical value.

 

[Alrus]

My textbooks are full of notes and highlighted lines. I paid a ton for them and I'll probably keep using them for quite a few years. There's no way I could go through some of them without highlighting while reading, especially when they're cluttered.

At first I felt bad doing it because it was "ruining" the book. Then I realized I didn't give a shit and that everybody did it.

I never understood underlining/notes on regular books though...

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

I bought it, I write in it. At some point, the whole 'read this, pick up notebook, make note, return to book' is just a bloody waste of time. They are mine and I am keeping them, so there is no harm to be done.

As my reading speed has picked up (not much, but at least it's not godawful at this point), underlining has also turned into 'lining in the sideline' with only underlining of the truly remarkable or of special interest to me.


But I guess that suggests that books can be remarkable. Actually, they're not. All of the books I read, link to other research, other books, other data and so on. None of them stands alone and in that sense none of them are remarkable. Also, none of them are actually out of print.

I used to avoid underlining like the plague though. And when it's not mine or rare, I will still avoid doing so. But other than that it's foolish to believe that products you buy today are going to last forever or must not be used / consumed.

 

[LProtag]

Buying books for school used I always always dismayed to see writing and highlighting in them. All my notes go into a notepad file with the page/location noted. Works just as well and my book stays nice and clean as well as gives me a quick reference/study guide.

Oh and if I'm using it for current research, sticky notes for passages that I might quote or are otherwise extremely relevant for my work.

 

[Ultima_5]

I always high light important statements / equations in my engineering books. Damn things are impossible to use otherwise.

In gen edu classes I just use sticky notes

 

[SolKane]

Thread reminds me of that Billy Collins poem:

Sometimes the notes are ferocious,
skirmishes against the author
raging along the borders of every page
in tiny black script.
If I could just get my hands on you,
Kierkegaard, or Conor Cruise O'Brien,
they seem to say,
I would bolt the door and beat some logic into your head.

Other comments are more offhand, dismissive -
"Nonsense." "Please!" "HA!!" -
that kind of thing.
I remember once looking up from my reading,
my thumb as a bookmark,
trying to imagine what the person must look like
why wrote "Don't be a ninny"
alongside a paragraph in The Life of Emily Dickinson.

Students are more modest
needing to leave only their splayed footprints
along the shore of the page.
One scrawls "Metaphor" next to a stanza of Eliot's.
Another notes the presence of "Irony"
fifty times outside the paragraphs of A Modest Proposal.

Or they are fans who cheer from the empty bleachers,
Hands cupped around their mouths.
"Absolutely," they shout
to Duns Scotus and James Baldwin.
"Yes." "Bull's-eye." "My man!"
Check marks, asterisks, and exclamation points
rain down along the sidelines.

And if you have managed to graduate from college
without ever having written "Man vs. Nature"
in a margin, perhaps now
is the time to take one step forward.

We have all seized the white perimeter as our own
and reached for a pen if only to show
we did not just laze in an armchair turning pages;
we pressed a thought into the wayside,
planted an impression along the verge.

Even Irish monks in their cold scriptoria
jotted along the borders of the Gospels
brief asides about the pains of copying,
a bird signing near their window,
or the sunlight that illuminated their page-
anonymous men catching a ride into the future
on a vessel more lasting than themselves.

And you have not read Joshua Reynolds,
they say, until you have read him
enwreathed with Blake's furious scribbling.

Yet the one I think of most often,
the one that dangles from me like a locket,
was written in the copy of Catcher in the Rye
I borrowed from the local library
one slow, hot summer.
I was just beginning high school then,
reading books on a davenport in my parents' living room,
and I cannot tell you
how vastly my loneliness was deepened,
how poignant and amplified the world before me seemed,
when I found on one page

A few greasy looking smears
and next to them, written in soft pencil-
by a beautiful girl, I could tell,
whom I would never meet-
"Pardon the egg salad stains, but I'm in love."