Do/can you write on the pages of books you’re reading?
I don’t mean other people’s books, that is graffiti if not desecration.
I mean your own books.
The thought occurred to me while reading Quiet, the Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain.*
There are so many good lines, paragraphs, sometimes whole pages I want to remember that I’m itching to underline them or make notes in the margins.
But I can’t do it.
Blame it on my upbringing by parents who instilled in me a love of reading and such respect for books that I can’t deliberately mark a page.
* Published by Viking 2012.
Homepaddock 
Simple remedy. Buy a e-book reader like a Kindle or a Nook. They allow you to highlight and search your highlights, while still feeling like a real book. Somehow, it does not feel as “sacreligious” as marking a paper book.
Works for me, anyway!
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MacD – Electronic marking wouldn’t be as “sacreligious” but I’m not yet converted to that medium. I’ve got an iPad but have read only one book on it, I still prefer real books to virtual ones.
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Over the last year I have been quite active borrowing fiction from the Hastings library. I am amazed at the number of people who make notations on pages. There is one person in particular who `corrects’ spelling and grammatical errors – sometimes the grammatical changes mean the passage makes less sense than the oriiginal.
Having said that I must confess to placing a `wee’ line under a particular page number as a quick check as to whether I have read that particular story.
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I do it a bit, but most of my books are purchased second-hand and others have often got there before me. It can be fun to speculate on what attracted the previous owner to a particular line.
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Post it stickers HP..
They do the job well..
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I have bought a couple of books from Book Depository in the UK (online) by Keri Smith that encourages writing in the books! One is called “This is not a book” and each chapter encourages various other uses… and the most recent is called “F NISH TH S B K” and has lots of really cool things to do in it. Interactive books 🙂 just for fun (as books should be). As for writing in other books, that would be an annoying pet hate and I would never do it (bring on post it stickers, yes Adam2314)
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PDM – if you can’t remember if you’ve read a book would it matter if you read it again?
Will – I guess some remarks from previous readers could enhance the reading.
Adam – brilliant idea.
Kate – oh dear, you’ve just added more books to my I-want-that list 🙂
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