İbrahim B. Karataş
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Conversing with the book
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Jenny Jones
I have books my mom used in English lit in college. I used them pursuing my degree in English lit 30 years later. All her notes in her handwriting in the margins I was inspired by and I cherish today.
İbrahim B. Karataş
Author
Jenny Jones this is a very precious legacy
Jenny Jones
This is what's missing from digital books.
Jessica J. Jess
Jenny Jones you can still leave notes on digital books, I like to check back to see if what annoyed me about a book is still what is annoying me this time
Id never write in a physical book, though.8
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Cynthia Lofay Rosiek
Jenny Jones With Amazon’s new kindle one has the ability to write notes right on the screen and, of course, highlight.
42 d
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Jenny Jones
Cynthia Lofay Rosiek Again, digital cannot match or replace my mom's own handwriting.
22 d
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Cynthia Lofay Rosiek
Jenny Jones Absolutely. I just thought you meant one could not notate on electronic books.
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Paul Byrne
Jenny Jones and audio books too!
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Gilad Ben Baruch
Jenny Jones ahhh, the index I add at the end of physical books to traverse my notes easier
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Mateo Hicks
This is why I started buying two copies of the same book
412 d
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Roxana Blu
Mateo Hicks Great idea!
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Vitamina Dee
It almost makes the book feel like a diary, sharing your thoughts and way of thinking. Seems pretty intimate
212 d
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Kathurima M'Inoti
A teacher once told me this would constitute an abusive relationship. I’ve desisted since.
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Vukadin Nišavić
I recommend using a pencil
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Νίκος Παπαδάκης
Oh no...this isn't respectful reading you just destroyed a book.
242 d
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Jay Frankie McGee
Wait, yall write in yalls books
. I couldn’t. I’m too scared to mess them up 
5 h
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Gilad Ben Baruch
How to Read a Book
(1940) by Mortimer J. Adler
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Kenneth G. Walters
I understand people doing this, but eek!
122 d
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Zeb Sansom
Kenneth G. Walters I hate seeing a book on my shelf I haven’t marked and underlined and highlighted. It implies it’s an important text I can’t quote verbatim from. And that’s a source of deep agony
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Fiona Clougher
Kenneth G. Walters see I DONT understand this at all. Unless you're in a book club or school or similar and are going to have lengthy discussions about it that you need notes for... I dont understand why people don't just read and absorb and enjoy. The author intended people to READ the book. Why interrupt your flow and enjoyment to scribble on it or add post it notes???? I don't see how it is savouring the book. To me reading is about absorbing words into your mind and imagination. You can even analyse it that way. But to get out a pen and start colouring the book in is a bizarre interruption to me.
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Natalya Krasnova
Tolstoi! Which translation is it? That is why I love proper paper books - to be able to fully live in it , just like you do in your photo!
132 d
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Creighton Wodarski
I need to do this with all of my history books!
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Written Words School of English ·
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This book has definitely been read and appreciated!
212 d
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Tanner Lynn
Waaaaaay too much writing on the page.
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Steven M. Potter
This always just felt like ruining a book to me.
62 d
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Kandy Crosby-Hastings
Steven M. Potter, it's personalizing and studying it for me.
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Allan West
This is how you savor every book-morsel, and slaked, emerge from the experience wiping your mouth with the back of your hand.
What better tribute could a author want? This is now a valuable dialogue authored by two people.
72 d
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Luluf Lu
I can never ever write on a book. Countless pieces of paper with notes written on them are tucked in pages.
52 d
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Miryana Heath
I have no problem with this type of conversation. It gives me visual memory so when I need to remind myself of a passage or a concept, I can find it easier. It somehow bonds me with books.
But to each their own. I knew a fellow who read his books barel…
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Suzanne De Young
As I librarian for many years, I frowned on writing in books. That makes sense since libraries are communities of sharing. Since I have retired, however, I love writing in the books I am reading. It seems like I am musing or commenting on the text o…
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Peggy Felix
And here I am… I can’t bring myself to deface a page. I’d write on a notebook instead. I feel uneasy even when I have to fold a dog ear when I misplace my bookmark.
41 d
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Ναντίνα Κούλη
This could be one of my books , while lately I’ve added the receipts of my morning coffee adding notes …
32 d
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Babis Charalampidis
I hope that’s some sort of analysis. Otherwise, going through a book like this is like listening to a music track and pausing it every 10 seconds.
22 d
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Kandy Crosby-Hastings
Babis Charalampidis, that may be true for you, but it is not for everyone.
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John MacQuarrie
I am reading that now.
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Victoria Wilkinson
John MacQuarrie me too!
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Dave Cannon
It seems here you’re inviting your future self to dive even deeper into the text, or even if you don’t intend to make a second reading, the exercise alone allows you to digest it more thoroughly.
Sometimes I’ll also mark up a book for the purpose of making the information more accessible, so I don’t have to read it again. I’ll flag the few big ideas of each chapter with a star or a quick underline and write a 1-2 sentence summary on each chapter title page
21 d
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James D. Keeline
This kind of writing in a book is called "marginalia." Sometimes it can relegate a book for the discard bin such as a college textbook where a struggling student highlighted every third paragraph.
But other times, when the notes are made by someone important who is interacting with the text, this can make the copy more significant.
When Owen Gingerich made a census of the first edition of Copernicus' famous work, he noted information about past owners, the bindings, and any marginalia. The idea was that there were few in the world who could understand the content at the time and knowing more about the people who purchased, owned, and interacted with the book was significant. He described this project in a book called THE BOOK NOBODY READ.
I have a very ordinary copy of TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA. But it is special because the artist-translator Ron Miller used this copy ro make his own corrected translation of the story for his illustrated edition published by Unicorn Press. It has extensive marginal notes and corrections.
Another book I have is a copy of BETWEEN BOER AND BRITON by Edward Stratemeyer. The previous owner was a specialist in English-language fictional accounts of the Boer war. His Ph.D. dissertation covered this topic and his interest continued. When I first pulled the book off the shelf, I saw markings throughout. I was ready to pass on it. Then I realized that he was commenting on the text. I bought the book and on the way home I learned more about this past owner. It made the book more interesting.
Another Stratemeyer bookI have is the lyrics for a comic opera called LOVE'S MAZE which he wrote. It was a copy he owned and has pencil corrections throughout. His brother did the music for the opera.
Doug Dorst and J.J. Abrams published a book with extensive marginalia in multiple hands and colors along with many bits of ephemera inserted amid the pages. The book is called simply "S" and the marked up book looks like a library copy of a title called THE SHIP OF THESEUS.
Some books with marginalia are also "association copies" and often these are the most interesting examples, transcending the struggling student marks in a book.
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Aga SAga
I don't treat books like THINGS.
Never, ever done/do notes on them! Even they are only mine, I would like to leave them in a great condition, not distroyed.
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Kandy Crosby-Hastings
Aga SAga, your destroyed is someone else's personalization.
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Carol Wellbourn
If you use Post-Its in library books please remove them all before you return it!
22 d
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Paul Byrne
I’ve taught literature for many years and this picture is an example of what would be expected as part of a student’s (and teacher’s) close reading of a text. An alternate way (not for a novel this long of course) especially for poetry is for students …
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Brian Christian III
Two types of readers, and I'm one who just can't write or highlight in a book. Probably because I would see other people's notes in school library books, and be judgemental about them, lol, so I didn't want to be subject to that myself!
22 d
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Pamela Skotnicki
I can’t seem to do it unless it’s a textbook. Kinda wish I had/did/do.
21 d
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Katarina Tomšič
Interesting comments. Maybe now I see that kind of readers different. Because I am so sensitive on my books that I cant even imagine to use more than pencil on them. An even this very rarely…
This kind of books in my opinion were always victims for me …
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Azalea Therese
This is why I loved my dad's library so much specially after his death. He had at least 5 degrees I know of & a masters. Many of his books had his notes so when I used them for my homework, it helped me out so much. So long as I could read his handwriting. He was notorious for having a doctor's penmanship
. This is also why I love buying old books for my own library, specially the language ones. Finding useful notes is a gift!21 d
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Agung Waspodo
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Paul Briody
I don't write in my books.
21 d
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Maria Sepers
I went through 16 years of education without making a single mark in any of my books. That is what notebooks for each subject are for. I graduated college with a 4.0 average, so I guess my method works...at least, for me!
214 h
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John Johnson
Mortimer Adler always advocated having a conversation with a book’s author, but I was always at a loss for words.
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Luis Vivanco Saavedra
That's what I call working a book.
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Xose Manuel Alvariño
The old argument, "scribbling on books VS not scribbling on books." I tried it years ago but couldn´t, felt I was part of some desecration. In the end, though, like so much, it´s a matter of choice.
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Lygia Grigoris
Careful analysis...
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Sisi Shi
Please don't do that to a library book (unfortunately I see it quite often) . It is too massy for others to read it. But if it is your book do whatever you want with it.
4 h
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Sezan Mahmud
I read like this. I enjoy so much underlining and making notes on the books
18 h
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Alfred Marais
I did this in my early twenties but quickly stopped.
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FA DI LA
That's the reason i don't share the books i own . I'd rather buy you another copy than share the one I'm reading
12 h
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Donald Livingstone
I always believed that books were sacred objects, that they must be handed down to posterity in pristine condition, and that you must NEVER write in them, or underline or highlight anything, or -- God forbid!!! -- turn down the corners of a page. Adle…
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Meropi Kyriazi
It is a no from me....
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Sa Ma
I mean, ok if it was an essay or a school book, but it's Anna Karenina, leave the beauty of those pages alone
5 h
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Amanda Jeans
it was ingrained in me as a child not to mark up books ... Can't do it ...
22 d
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Konrad Tademar
No. I hate when people treat a book like a print out. Sorry this is vile. You can use post it notes or pencil, but this kind of treatment goes against everything I was taught growing up.
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Dagnia Prieditis
Never ever wrote in a book.
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HjMazlan HjMuslim
Well read book & perhaps way too much scribbling that makes the reader happy & contented.
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Carol Allen-Gordon
Yes!
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Trace Miner-Jåcobsøn
My Bible looks like this!
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Amanda Arkebauer
I had notes in my copy of Jude the Obscure I lent it to someone and I never got it back.....I always regret that. Wish I had my copy back
23 h
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Valentina Elbereth Elentari
I am always so torn about writing in the book. Lots of notes. Lots and lots of notes.1 d
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Za Za
Book name plz
9 h
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Victoria Wilkinson
I am reading this copy below atm if it wasn't so nice I'd have scribbled on it too!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anna-Karenina-Leatherbound-Classics-Edition/dp/1435139623/ref=asc_df_1435139623/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=338909445333&hvpos=&hv…
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AMAZON.CO.UK
Anna Karenina: (Barnes & Noble Collectible Classics: Omnibus Edition) (Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classic Collection)Anna Karenina: (Barnes & Noble Collectible Classics: Omnibus Edition) (Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classic Collection)
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Joel Selby
And what a book to converse with!
2 d
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Phoebe Jane Rubillos Tambis
This is epic! Hahaha
1 h
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Michaela Jean Amores Hicap
REAL REAL REAL REAL
11 h
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Don Shull
I suppose. In the way that the squirrels that were in my trees and in my attic—but are now in my freezer—are appreciated.
4 h
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Marina Vacherand
That’s deep reading!
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Jerry Seriatos
Conversing with and by the English language
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Jamshid Muslimov
Why??? Anna Karenina…
2 d
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Nick Flaherty
What in the House of Leaves is going on here?
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Heatherene Merrill
This rt here! Love it. I do it as well
18 h
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Nur Hidayah Abu Bakar
My dad used to write on his Quran. He passed away 2 years ago. I still find it comforting to read his notes
19 h
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Ron Steinman
A truly shared and enriching experience.
2 d
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Daniel Szomor
If you know, you know
42 d
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Anas Habibu Sale
This is how a literature students read a book.
8 h
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Rara Aguja
Ronaldo hahahaha
14 h
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Wisanu Wanasawaeng
This book written by Leo Tolstoy!!! It deserves to do hardwork with it. After time pass, you can proud of yourself what's meaning with your life.
1 d
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Álvaro Noldor
Terrible.
16 h
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Pelobookworm Forgroupsonly
I love this so much
2 d
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Lance Lennon
I’m not a great fan of annotating and underlining though I must admit that I have done in some texts, always in pencil. Having said that I have come across old volumes that have been annotated and find the annotations quite fascinating, like looking in…
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Elmira Kotscheva
Very well, might be a textbook. This a a good, healthy approach to learn it all. When I am reading a travel diary, biography or some adventurer‘s book, I use to check Google Earth, Wikipedia and other sources, also historical / ancient maps and www.beh…
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BEHINDTHENAME.COM
The Meaning and History of First Names - Behind the NameThe Meaning and History of First Names - Behind the Name
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Kathurima M'Inoti
The responses that this post has elicited just goes to show how diverse we’re in our views and approaches. Nothing less is to be expected from bibliophiles
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Alba Lux
Intimacy
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Penjelajah
Activ
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Jackie Swenson
Written Words School of English My husband loves 'Running and being' by Dr. George Sheehan. He dog-eared and under-lined the first one after many years and then purchased another copy. to continue his reading habit.
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Jackie Swenson
Written Words School of English My husband loves 'Running and being' by Geogen Shahan - he dog-eared and underlined the first one and purchased another paper back to continue reading it.
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Irena Janjic
As much as I wanted to love this classic I just can’t. Maybe I need to re-read it again.
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Helen Richards
When you are studying it’s okay but some of the page tabs cover script. It is annoying that I can’t read it all, because reading someone else’s perspective is interesting.
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Paul Ricchi
Why is everyone acting as if they owned this book? Bulletin: You will never read this copy, and the owner’s annotations are not your concern.
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Paul Ricchi
If it is your book, you have every right to annotate it.
It is not destroyed, it may even be enhanced.
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Linda Wolfe Zaner
Whoa! To each his own
2 d
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Queen Soleil
Been wanting to do this. Will start soon.
1 d
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Cynthia Lofay Rosiek
Who is the translator of your volume, and do you like the translation?
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Kandy Crosby-Hastings
I am an annotater too.
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Nicole J. Williams-Ford
That’s what I do sometimes.
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Jade Elyzabeth J
is what I've been doing with my school texts now.
I was inspired by a photo similar to this and got brown stickies
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Barbara Berrien
you did that with Anna Karenina!
I am in awe! Now I feel so superficial....
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Sa Ma
A bit too much ain't it?
5 h
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Athina Stavrou
Leo Tolstoy would be proud . This book proves that you really studied Anna Karenina .
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Maria Hocker
Someone else does this ?
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River Elora Wolfe Davis
Okay usually all this would bother me because you know it's usually all bright colors. I have this thing aboit a lot of color and chaos... I dont like it. but these colors are oddly calming and I like it.
1 d
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Antonio Carlos Vianna Braga
Minimalistic nec plus ultra. I have neither the precise calligraphy nor the courage.
16 h
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Tamara Kohler
Umm no
1 d
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Alonnis Chev Cent
What does it mean " conversing" ??....having an exchange of ideas with the book ?....expressing thoughts from each other ?...." conversing " means talk...speak...chat....consulting....discussing ....deliberating with the book ??....
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Jeanne Berry
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