Thursday, April 3, 2014

BTT (#41) ~ annotating books

Deb @ Booking Through Thursday asks about mark-ups:
"Do you write in your books?  Highlight?  Make notes?  Or do you like to keep your copies as pristine as possible?"
First, let me say that I teach from books.  It helps to have notes about or at least highlight sections of a book I may want to quote.  Friends who have Kindles assure me I can make notes in them, but I have noticed they cannot quickly find what they need.  And they can't flip back and forth easily.  So yes, I do write in the margins of my books, including my Bible.  I underline, occasionally highlight, definitely make notes in the margins, and use post-it notes to guide me to important points I want to share while teaching my students.

On the other hand, I rarely mark in novels mostly because (1) I rarely teach from a novel and (2) I rarely keep my novels.  In fact, if my library has a copy, I usually borrow novels I want to read.  Naturally, I can't mark in library copies, though I may annotate them using temporary post-it notes.  The only people I know who keep "pristine" copies of books are collectors.  Although I "collect" books in the sense that I actually have thousands of books, I don't collect books just to have them.  I use books for a specific purpose:
for the ideas I find in them
for learning
for discussions
for sharing the knowledge gained
for clarity

5 comments:

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

Thoughts to ponder! Thanks for sharing, and here's MY BTT Post

Hazel said...

I actually like to look at a Bible which has been marked, highlighted with notes everywhere. It tells me the owner studies it which is a good sign (to me at least).

Bonnie Jacobs said...

Thanks, Hazel. I imagine YOUR Bible has notes in the margins, too.

Amy said...

Most of the novels I read I get from the library, like you, and therefore can only note something with a post-it. But my non-fiction books, which I generally purchase, are very marked up with underlinings, post-its, highlighting, stars, sometimes a word or two... It's interesting to look back at books I have had for a long time and see what points I found most important.

Bonnie Jacobs said...

Yes, Amy, exactly. What we mark in books changes as our lives change.