I love using tabs for poetry collections as a sort of expanded table of contents. They make it very easy to quickly see which poems stuck out to me. I hate using them to store actual notes on them, though. It irritates me to see them cluttering up books. When I'm annotating with a pen (I enjoy the way it glides on the paper,) I use marks like yours as well as notes. Marks for bits of the text I want to remember and notes for thoughts of mine that are valuable to me. Reading is about, above all, the experience, and annotating helps to preserve that.
I only write in (print) books for school or if I have to write about it. It's usually in pencil, but if a pen is the only thing handy... I do personal annotations with highlights on ebook. Yellow is unknown words or information I want to remember (nonfiction); Blue for good writing or standout prose; and Green for marking where I type personal thoughts/notes.
I too utilize color-coded highlighting in ebooks: pink for general information, yellow for interesting/important passages, blue for wry, funny, satiric stuff, orange for beautiful, poetic, profound language.
It was fascinating to see how a critic annotates a book. I don’t usually annotate my books, since the annotations can be distracting on a reread. But maybe if I used a pencil instead of a pen, it would be okay.
In books read in foreign languages, I always annotate (in the margin, by pencil) the translations of unknown words I've looked up. Comments regarding the actual content I write on post-its. My own thoughts about the book (and sometimes also important phrases/quotes) I write down in a separate notebook.
I feel comfortable typing out my thoughts in an app on my phone whether it's a quote or moment or an unkown word from a book that I found interesting. My physical handwriting is just too shaky. 🙂❤📚
I just go crazy with sticky tabs but I have a color key in the front of the book so I can go back and see which color goes with what feeling or quote but I don't highlight or write in my book other than on a post it but I might be trying to highlight in some of my books this this year just like I did with my ARC copy of The Fury by Alex Michaelides.
Fascinating topic. I carry a pencil, ruler and highligher pencil with me at all times. I annotate to help me concentrate. I underline good prose, record my thoughts in the margin. I use sticky tabs when there are pages I want to refer to when my book club meets.
I’m a professional editor, and I have to disagree about the first example. Reid is saying her father, Alex, and her stepmother, Sian, allowed her to use their cottage as a writing space. They were “lenders” of the cottage. If you make that “Alexander,” then the whole clause “of the perfect writer’s cottage up on a hill” doesn’t make sense within the sentence. The grammar is unconventional, but it’s correct.
Bravo. I've just this minute left Steve a similar comment before seeing and reading yours. Reid's grammar is fine. It's the fact that she doesn't understand how to separate off a subordinate clause properly in a compound-complex sentence that is the worrying thing...
@@stephenwalker2924 Haha - yes! I don’t know why writers are so scared of nestling clauses within commas when it’s appropriate. It may look a little clunky, but it avoids confusion like Steve’s here.
Typos in books drive me mad. If you spot one early it usually means it's riddled with them. The Penguin Classics version of The Idiot I have has so many I'm surprised it was published.
The new Penguin Classics of Joyce’s Portrait and Dubliners are pathetic too. Not only are there so many typos that I almost wrote an angry letter to Penguin, but the endnotes are often completely irrelevant. In one case for Portrait, the *exact same endnote* is given two separate times to explain the same thing - y’know, just in case you missed it the first time!
I write using a 0.3 mm (very fine) mechanical pencil. Most of my writing is in foreign language books, so I mostly write definitions and attempts to untangle difficult passages. I key marginal notes to words in the text by number, i.e., by placing a small superscript numeral over the word in question which matches the number of the marginal annotation on that page. I always write on the diagonal in the margins; it's easier not to be distracted by my own writing if it's on the diagonal. I bookmark my place in the book with a small post-it, and sometimes do the same for important points in the text. I never highlight. I note interesting passages with a wavy line beside the passage in the margin, so I never underline. I add little codes in the margin to note interesting or surprising or odd bits of text (e.g., three exclamation points arranged in a triangle).
I only anotate when I am furios about something , knowing well that the author who I would like to shout at does not hear me, and I certainly only do it in pencil. I dont do it in my Kindle although I have come upon many instances I would have liked to. Though I love to read the anotations I find in the used books I get
I often annotate ,especially when i am reading a book i will discuss with my book club. I annonate in pencil, mostly underline a turn of phrase i find witty or poignant or funny. When its a book i will need to refer to for work or a presentation i will often use those sticky flags.
I use a pencil to annotate on "real" books, and on my Boox ereader I attach a note that can be called up at touch and handwrite a note. Also on the native reading app i can write in the ebook itself. I'm so obsessive that some notes also go in my daily journal too. For readalongs I have a thick notebook in which I put page numbers where i have made note or highlighted something. I know it seems excessive, but it keeps me engaged and concentrating on the book. My annotating obviously has a different reason to Steve, I read for pleasure and learning, and my annotation is to remind me of a point or to highlight a particularly well written or interesting passage. At 77 my memory needs a little help. It intereststs me on rereads to see what I thought last time, or sometimes many reads ago.
No. I just can’t. I have OCD (actual OCD, not just as a saying of a perfectionist) so I just can’t. But I use notebooks. Also the expections are a huge Wide Margin Bible and two studyBibles that I bought just to write in. So I read other Bibles, but when there’s something I want to write I do it in the Wide Margin. And the two study ones I write as I read it. One is chronological and the other is just a regular.
I just finished reading C. J. Sansom's Dissolution and I filled it with annotations - because it absolutely bristled with silly mistakes, mostly continuity errors that should have been caught. For example, on page 65 our hero, Matthew Shardlake, passes the monastery church and hears the monks chanting Vespers inside. Then, on page 76, on the same night, he joins the monks in a room where they're playing cards and drinking liqueur. He's told it's "just a little relaxation before Vespers." How many times do they chant Vespers in one night? In the same scene, he meets Brother Hugh, the chamberlain, described as tall and cadaverous, and Brother Jude, the pittancer, who's plump and has a wart on his face. Throughout the rest of the book, Hugh is still the chamberlain and Jude is still the pittancer, but now Hugh's the plump and warty one and Jude is tall and cadaverous. One more example, a howler: on page 243, Shardlake has discovered a sword that he believes was the murder weapon. He gives it to his assistant to take to their room in the infirmary while he, Shardlake, goes to see the abbot in the abbot's office. When he gets there, he says, "I laid the sword on his desk." Really?? So, yes, I pencilled in lots of things like "cf. pg. 65" and "Did anybody actually read this book before it was published?" The plot, the characters, the historical detail, the atmospherics - all were excellent. The copy-editing was just plain pitiful.
I don't annotate my books. I have always had a problem with marking of any kind in books. I have many files and notebooks full of notes taken from books, but I don't write in books themselves.
What a wonderful video Steve! I was nodding along all the way, particularly when you mentioned leaving breadcrumbs!
I love using tabs for poetry collections as a sort of expanded table of contents. They make it very easy to quickly see which poems stuck out to me. I hate using them to store actual notes on them, though. It irritates me to see them cluttering up books.
When I'm annotating with a pen (I enjoy the way it glides on the paper,) I use marks like yours as well as notes. Marks for bits of the text I want to remember and notes for thoughts of mine that are valuable to me. Reading is about, above all, the experience, and annotating helps to preserve that.
I only write in (print) books for school or if I have to write about it. It's usually in pencil, but if a pen is the only thing handy...
I do personal annotations with highlights on ebook. Yellow is unknown words or information I want to remember (nonfiction); Blue for good writing or standout prose; and Green for marking where I type personal thoughts/notes.
I too utilize color-coded highlighting in ebooks: pink for general information, yellow for interesting/important passages, blue for wry, funny, satiric stuff, orange for beautiful, poetic, profound language.
It was fascinating to see how a critic annotates a book. I don’t usually annotate my books, since the annotations can be distracting on a reread. But maybe if I used a pencil instead of a pen, it would be okay.
In books read in foreign languages, I always annotate (in the margin, by pencil) the translations of unknown words I've looked up. Comments regarding the actual content I write on post-its. My own thoughts about the book (and sometimes also important phrases/quotes) I write down in a separate notebook.
I feel comfortable typing out my thoughts in an app on my phone whether it's a quote or moment or an unkown word from a book that I found interesting. My physical handwriting is just too shaky.
🙂❤📚
I just go crazy with sticky tabs but I have a color key in the front of the book so I can go back and see which color goes with what feeling or quote but I don't highlight or write in my book other than on a post it but I might be trying to highlight in some of my books this this year just like I did with my ARC copy of The Fury by Alex Michaelides.
Fascinating topic. I carry a pencil, ruler and highligher pencil with me at all times. I annotate to help me concentrate. I underline good prose, record my thoughts in the margin. I use sticky tabs when there are pages I want to refer to when my book club meets.
I’m a professional editor, and I have to disagree about the first example. Reid is saying her father, Alex, and her stepmother, Sian, allowed her to use their cottage as a writing space. They were “lenders” of the cottage. If you make that “Alexander,” then the whole clause “of the perfect writer’s cottage up on a hill” doesn’t make sense within the sentence. The grammar is unconventional, but it’s correct.
Bravo. I've just this minute left Steve a similar comment before seeing and reading yours. Reid's grammar is fine. It's the fact that she doesn't understand how to separate off a subordinate clause properly in a compound-complex sentence that is the worrying thing...
@@stephenwalker2924 Haha - yes! I don’t know why writers are so scared of nestling clauses within commas when it’s appropriate. It may look a little clunky, but it avoids confusion like Steve’s here.
@@valpergalit Couldn't agree more. (I like your use of the dash, btw. Very -- dashing!)
That’s right up there with “invincibly anti-systematic”.
Typos in books drive me mad. If you spot one early it usually means it's riddled with them. The Penguin Classics version of The Idiot I have has so many I'm surprised it was published.
The new Penguin Classics of Joyce’s Portrait and Dubliners are pathetic too. Not only are there so many typos that I almost wrote an angry letter to Penguin, but the endnotes are often completely irrelevant. In one case for Portrait, the *exact same endnote* is given two separate times to explain the same thing - y’know, just in case you missed it the first time!
I write using a 0.3 mm (very fine) mechanical pencil. Most of my writing is in foreign language books, so I mostly write definitions and attempts to untangle difficult passages. I key marginal notes to words in the text by number, i.e., by placing a small superscript numeral over the word in question which matches the number of the marginal annotation on that page. I always write on the diagonal in the margins; it's easier not to be distracted by my own writing if it's on the diagonal. I bookmark my place in the book with a small post-it, and sometimes do the same for important points in the text. I never highlight. I note interesting passages with a wavy line beside the passage in the margin, so I never underline. I add little codes in the margin to note interesting or surprising or odd bits of text (e.g., three exclamation points arranged in a triangle).
This is such an unique insight! I might incorporate part of your approach to my own!
I only anotate when I am furios about something , knowing well that the author who I would like to shout at does not hear me, and I certainly only do it in pencil. I dont do it in my Kindle although I have come upon many instances I would have liked to.
Though I love to read the anotations I find in the used books I get
I often annotate ,especially when i am reading a book i will discuss with my book club. I annonate in pencil, mostly underline a turn of phrase i find witty or poignant or funny. When its a book i will need to refer to for work or a presentation i will often use those sticky flags.
I use a pencil to annotate on "real" books, and on my Boox ereader I attach a note that can be called up at touch and handwrite a note. Also on the native reading app i can write in the ebook itself. I'm so obsessive that some notes also go in my daily journal too. For readalongs I have a thick notebook in which I put page numbers where i have made note or highlighted something. I know it seems excessive, but it keeps me engaged and concentrating on the book. My annotating obviously has a different reason to Steve, I read for pleasure and learning, and my annotation is to remind me of a point or to highlight a particularly well written or interesting passage. At 77 my memory needs a little help. It intereststs me on rereads to see what I thought last time, or sometimes many reads ago.
No. I just can’t. I have OCD (actual OCD, not just as a saying of a perfectionist) so I just can’t. But I use notebooks. Also the expections are a huge Wide Margin Bible and two studyBibles that I bought just to write in. So I read other Bibles, but when there’s something I want to write I do it in the Wide Margin. And the two study ones I write as I read it. One is chronological and the other is just a regular.
🎉🎉 15.9 subscribers. We are nearly there 🎉🎉🎉
I just finished reading C. J. Sansom's Dissolution and I filled it with annotations - because it absolutely bristled with silly mistakes, mostly continuity errors that should have been caught. For example, on page 65 our hero, Matthew Shardlake, passes the monastery church and hears the monks chanting Vespers inside. Then, on page 76, on the same night, he joins the monks in a room where they're playing cards and drinking liqueur. He's told it's "just a little relaxation before Vespers." How many times do they chant Vespers in one night?
In the same scene, he meets Brother Hugh, the chamberlain, described as tall and cadaverous, and Brother Jude, the pittancer, who's plump and has a wart on his face. Throughout the rest of the book, Hugh is still the chamberlain and Jude is still the pittancer, but now Hugh's the plump and warty one and Jude is tall and cadaverous.
One more example, a howler: on page 243, Shardlake has discovered a sword that he believes was the murder weapon. He gives it to his assistant to take to their room in the infirmary while he, Shardlake, goes to see the abbot in the abbot's office. When he gets there, he says, "I laid the sword on his desk." Really??
So, yes, I pencilled in lots of things like "cf. pg. 65" and "Did anybody actually read this book before it was published?"
The plot, the characters, the historical detail, the atmospherics - all were excellent. The copy-editing was just plain pitiful.
I don't annotate my books. I have always had a problem with marking of any kind in books. I have many files and notebooks full of notes taken from books, but I don't write in books themselves.