Friday Thoughts: To annotate or not to annotate

There always seems to be a debate about this – whether or not you should highlight or annotate books as you read. I’ve heard phrases such as but the writing still belongs to the author and you are damaging that or you should treat books with respect before when people have seen me do it.

I was at an author event in London the other month. When people all stood in the endless queue to get their books signed, I didn’t. I’ve been to enough events to know that standing up doesnt make the line move any quicker! Instead, I sat down, pulled out my current read (at that point, it was Cursed Child), pulled out a pen, a highlighter and started reading. And when I went to write something in it, I heard a scandalized gasp from the queue.

…That didn’t stop me.

I’ve highlighted in books for years. I have a rule, though – I only highlight on second reads, because if I’m reading it a second time, chances are I’ll never get rid of it. Books I know I’ll give away don’t get things in them, because I know others don’t always like it.

I like going back over things years later and finding little highlighted snippets that meant something to me before. I’ve always said you can understand a lot about a person on what they would highlight in a book, because it shows a side to them that isn’t always seen.

I only started annotating this year though, and I started with the Harry Potter books (the 2014 editions, even I wouldnt write or highlight in my very original copies!) and Cursed Child. I find annotating interesting. You can mark down anything, from sarcastic responses, to angrily shouting at characters, to your own thoughts on what is happening. All of which can be found in one of the four snippets of my notes here … or even my really over the top thoughts about characters, of which are here (I’m actually writing an entire post for the Malfoy family, I am obsessed)

I’ve realised that I really enjoy annotating books. Writing in the margins doesn’t mean you look after the book as much, or you don’t love it as much. It’s just another layer of reading; a review of the words that you don’t always show to other people. And I like the idea of one day, someone stumbling across an old, annotated book and reading it and piecing together the person behind them. And it’s funny, going back and reading over what you’ve written before to find something you’ve completely forgotten.

So, I’m all for highlighting and annotating (your own) copies of books – are you?

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One thought on “Friday Thoughts: To annotate or not to annotate

  1. Helen says:

    I prefer most of my books without notes, or cracked spines etc. I normally use these removable post-it marks if I want to highlight a sentence.
    However, I am currently reading letters Astrid Lindgren and her friend wrote to each other, i.e. a non-fiction book. And I found that I really like to annotate and higlight this book. Because it’s more like a diary, stories of their everyday lives as well as comments on current events.

    Like

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