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Do you do it? Only in textbooks? Is it blasphemy?
Do you do it to library books? If so, prepare to be lynched.
With books I own, I'm okay with marginalia so long as the comments are meaningful. I usually reserve it for cases where I have to write about the book in some way though, and generally try to take notes on a pad instead.
Apart from the essay writer's and book reviewer's convenience, there are a few other benefits to marginalia. One of them being that future scholars might learn something about the way people today engage with texts, as we have with Shakespearean and other literature. It's a slim chance of course; they'll have a wealth of other sources (like blogs!) to check on first.
Also, feel free to share your opinions on highlighting and underlining.
I overdid both in high school, but only on photocopies. It did help me find information quicker.
Posts: 1762 | Registered: Apr 2006
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I used to highlight excessively thinking that it was a study aid, but in the end it was utterly useless to me as a memorization tool. I apparently naturally parse subject matter as it is and there's no benefit to doing anything but reading the unsullied text.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Whoever owned my psychology statistics book before be will be in the innermost circle of that hell cmc. It's almost funny to see how much they marked up the book, except that it makes it rather difficult to read. This person went to the extent of writing what the author of the book did, but in their own words, in the margins. Kind of ridiculous. They also highlighted in multiple colors over the same sentences. In addition to underlining.
Lesson Learned: always look through the entire book before buying it used.
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posted
Highlighting also slows down your reading considerably. If it doesn't help you find quotes and source material later on, it's something that should ideally be avoided.
Posts: 1762 | Registered: Apr 2006
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posted
If I really need to make notes in a text book or other book for school (War and Peace is when I started this practice) I use yellow sticky notes. They help you find the page, provide you information and can be easily removed when you are done with them.
Posts: 247 | Registered: Feb 2007
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Sometimes I'm tempted to make my own scholia in my personal books. I really enjoy reading the ancient scholia, mostly because they add significant meaning and depth and transmission of meanings of texts through time.
But adding my own just seems like blasphemy. Depending on the type of text, I'll make notes - paperback copies get notes, nice pretty Oxford texts most certainly do not.
And I've only ever written in two library books, because they were wrong. Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
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I love writing my own and reading others' marginalia. In college, I preferred used textbooks for my classes which had some marginalia in them already, and would try to pick out one with strong opinions. I underline important passages – lightly – or make a line down the margin, perhaps with an exclamation point or *. I usually do it in pencil, but, in my favourite books, I have been known to use pen. I would never do it in a Library Book, unless it was to correct a factual mistake, and then only in pencil.
I would never UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES turn down a page and anyone who would ever do such a thing, or has ever done such a thing, could only be considered the lowest form of slime mold in any civilization, literate or otherwise.
Nevertheless, my spouse, my soulmate, my media naranja – turns down pages. I'm a tolerant creature.
Posts: 237 | Registered: Feb 2001
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If you call her "the lowest form of slime mold in any civilization, literate or otherwise," I've got to say that I think it's her who's a tolerant creature. Posts: 2762 | Registered: Sep 1999
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I mark in my books all the time, whenever and wherever I find it helpful to do so. It's a great idea, and works well for me.
Example: When I figure out what sort of device or instrument I need to buy in a paper catalog, I usually tab the catalog on that page, and underline the correct part number on the page, as well as jotting notes about related parts (say, if these contactors need overload protection from page 103). My own notes are far more valuable to me than reading the catalog text, of which there is a ton, and most of which I dont need. Even if next time I want to buy a somewhat different contactor, the last one will be an ideal starting point, saving me a lot of time reading and figuring out stuff again that I already did once before.
Another example: When I read fiction, I like it when the author uses words I don't know. But often while I'm reading, I don't have a dictionary or the internet handy. When I want to go back and find that word to look it up later, I don't want to have to reread the whole book again to locate it. So if there's a pen handy I just underline the word, make a mark on the edge of the book to indicate that page, and then I can quickly look several up at once later, when it's convenient.
One more example: When reading non-fiction, (for instance Goedel, Escher, Bach), it's really important for understanding to work out the things under discussion for myself while I'm going along (like the MIU system). When I do this once, I can quickly reorient later by looking at what I've done (for instance, trying to derive the theorem MU, and jotting down ideas of why it's not working). Another thing I did was write in the inside cover a list of the axioms of propositional calculus, for ease of reference. This makes any nonfiction book much more valuable to me, to do this.
Your own notes inside a book instantly reorient you and recall to mind a chain of reasoning, or thought process, that you spent time and puzzled out earlier. When you see your own notes, you know that passage is 100 times more useful to you than the book text itself, because it represents something you took time to work out earlier. It must be something you're interested in and care about.
I think the admonition by teachers and librarians not to write in books is a big mistake. Unlearn that lesson! Writing in your books is useful, constructive, and smart!
posted
Obviously, the Half-Blood Prince can scribble in my chemistry textbook anyday.
I made some comments about this subject over in the Dogear thread. I hadn't realized this thread existed.
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Tatiana: I think the admonition by teachers and librarians not to write in books is a big mistake. Unlearn that lesson! Writing in your books is useful, constructive, and smart!
Writing in your own books is super. Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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I use it on difficult readings to summarize paragraphs.
Lewis used it effectively in one of the versions of Pilgrim's Regress. At the top of each page was a margin note saying what happened on the page. Cute.
Posts: 1877 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Oh and when I read procedures, which are mind-numbingly boring documents defining how you have to do everything, when you do engineering work on Nuclear Power Plants, my brain simply can't retain what I've read. What you definitely don't want to have to do is read through a whole procedure more than once. So I've begun printing them out and summarizing them on the title page (which is usually mostly blank), the first time I read them. Then I can reread the summary to study for tests, or to recall the whole contents again quickly, for any reason. Then I only have to dip in to the actual text for individual paragraphs that may need clarification when I'm in the midst of performing a task. This is by far the least painful way to interact with engineering procedures.
Again, jotting my own notes on a printed copy turns out to be the best approach.
One more case is textbooks. When I was in school I would study for tests like physics, chem, calc, etc. (any problem solving courses) by working problems of each type, then making a single sheet as I went that contained formulas I needed, or other very concise information that I should just memorize. I would often be reading over and over that one sheet, memorizing the contents, on the way to campus and right up until the time of the test, when we would have to put our books and papers away. Then I saved those sheets and used them to study for the final.
I finally realized that the sheets themselves were priceless, and instead of writing them on loose notebook paper, and later losing them, I should just write that information inside the covers, and on the end sheets of my textbook. Anywhere there is a fairly large open area to write, in fact. I wish I had thought of this earlier in my college career, because now only for the last few courses do I have this in place. For all the others, those sheets are long gone. It goes without saying that I kept all my textbooks in useful subjects, for later reference. Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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The missionary text for the LDS church now is called "Preach My Gospel". It it a very interactive book, filled with wide margins with lines for note-jotting, and whole lined pages between chapters. There are lots of questions throughout the book prompting you to come up with personal responses to difficult questions. For instance, in the chapter on becoming more Christlike, it asks what qualities you feel you need to work on most, and what steps you can take to do that. My copy is gradually filling up with thoughts and inspirations that have come to me while I'm reading over and over this book. It's enormously helpful to me because it was done this way.
I can't say enough good things about Preach My Gospel! Every Latter Day Saint should get a copy. They're $6 from the church distribution center. Follow the link above to order a copy. And the thing that makes it most valuable of all is that it invites you to make it your own book by writing your own thoughts, hopes, aspirations, wishes, and musings in the margins. Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
I made a note in a psychology book that referenced a Money study on gender with something like "This study was a failure." Because it was. ^^;;
Posts: 3060 | Registered: Nov 2003
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I find myself commenting on other people's margin notes like that Phanto. Especially if they say something outragous. I had a copy of the Canterbury Tales that had a whole debate between maybe three or four readers going on in the margins, all using different colored pens. It was great.
Posts: 3420 | Registered: Jun 2002
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