Showing posts with label writing in books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing in books. Show all posts

February 22, 2011

Do you write in the margins of your books?

Obviously, I have to ask this question after pointing everyone to the Times article on "marginalia", writing in the margins of books as you read them. (By the way, here's a link to another Times article on the topic, written in 2001. It's a different take on marginalia.)

I'm ashamed to say that I've never written in the margin of any book that I've owned -- not once. I can't imagine writing in a book. I mean, how dare I influence the next reader? I don't have that right. Sadly, I have been totally co-opted by the "misguided teachers and librarians" mentioned in today's article, the ones who said only barbarians would do such a thing.

I do confess, however, an almost irresistible urge to correct the typos in a book. I can hardly keep my hands off the pens when I see a typo. I am a Master Hunter and it is my Quarry! An urge to make the correction appears in my mind along with a fuzzy plan to send the finished book back to the publisher when I'm done with it. In other words, to be a real smarty pants. So far I've managed to resist this urge.

Do you write in the margins of your books? If so, I commend your aggressiveness (but I'm still not doing it).