14 ms·
A corollary to this is, when reading books, mark them up! Don’t be precious with them. Destroy the spine so it’s easier to read, fold pages, write the important
by postalcoder 2mo ago
A corollary to this is, when reading books, mark them up! Don’t be precious with them. Destroy the spine so it’s easier to read, fold pages, write the important stuff inside the front cover of the book. Cross out stuff you disagree with, draw a big circles around the stuff that resonates.
Not only does it make consumption a lot more engaging, it makes a revisit of that book extremely rewarding.
Don’t get caught up trying to figure out the right notation or highlighter color for a line. Just mark them up and later it’ll make sense.
Edit: I think the broader point that some of you may be missing is that I’m not prescribing a particular form of notetaking. I’m saying that reading is made more rewarding with active engagement. How you best engage is up to you.
- dw_arthur 2mo agoIf I'm really studying a book I'll have an office supply store cut the spine out and make the book spiral bound. It's pretty cheap to do it too, like $10 or something.
- jboss10 2mo agoMichael Stevens (of Vsause fame) copies long quotes into notebooks, and he claims the act of writing it helps him remember. And if it's not worth writing, it's not a good enough quote.
- baruz 2mo agoThose are called commonplace books.
- SomeHacker44 2mo agoYes! 100x this. I do this all the time with my print technical books.
- nephihaha 2mo agoDepends on the edition. I lent a book years ago to someone that was destroyed by damp on a window sill. I've never been able to get another copy of it. A less rare book in a mass market edition would be another thing.
- QuantumGood 2mo agoI use high-quality tape on the spine after flattening it for easy reading; still flattens well, but holds together longer.
- dSebastien 2mo agoBetter yet, take actual notes abd give yourself space to think: https://www.dsebastien.net/2022-02-17-how-to-capture-book-notes-and-create-smart-notes/ https://www.dsebastien.net/2022-02-17-how-to-capture-book-no...
- postalcoder 2mo agoEep, I guess it depends on what kind of learner you are. For me, the notes being in the book, and the book being somewhere on my shelf spatially encodes it into my mind. Offloading things into a centralized store according to a system not only causes me anxiety but it doesn’t have the same spatial kick.
- cestith 2mo agoI used to take notes on loose sheets of paper, fold them, and stuff them into the book between pages. I guess there are lots of ways to build a system. A few books I've taken enough notes to collect them in a folder. I put section tabs in the book and tabbed dividers into the folder with matching colors. I note the page numbers for each note. Then I shelve that folder to the right of the book it was noting.
- dSebastien 2mo agoI agree with the spatial memory and the many possible and valid ways to approach reading and learning. But it's much harder to recall, connect and leverage ideas that way
- jimbokun 2mo agoReminds me how the original Mac Finder took spatial memory very seriously. Wherever you moved something on the desktop or within a particular folder, it stayed there. That’s definitely a design principle that’s been long since lost.
- The_Blade 2mo agonot as much as I used to but I still take handwritten notes when reading something I deem worth doing so by some personal semi-rational algorithm. my favorite exercise ~15 years ago was reading People's History of the US and Kissinger's Diplomacy at the same time, and taking notes in the same notebook in parallel columns. Naturally I went into product
- THansenite 2mo agoI recently overcame this as I've been reading more of the unread books populating my shelves. I always wanted to keep my books in pristine condition and never wanted to mark them up. Now, I realize they are part of MY collection and marking them up with highlights, underlines, notes, etc., only make them more valued since they contain their intrinsic knowledge from the author as well as my own views. Even if I want to give them to friends to read, they'll see areas that jumped out to me and maybe appreciate some of the additional context or focus I noted as well.
- jambalaya8 2mo agoAside from my college books, I rarely marked any physical books up. When I went to ebooks on tablets from hardcopy, briefly, I got into notes and whatnot with MoonReader for a couple years (like 2013-2015). Don't see any point in it now. Mostly just questions, and always about non-fiction. What's annoying are people who want other people to find their notes in books (and even sell them for the ego aspect).
- Waterluvian 2mo agoI love nothing more than going through my mom’s cookbooks and seeing all her notes. It connects me with her even though she’s gone.
- imp0cat 2mo agoAlso, most cookbooks desperately need notes as everyone's kitchen equipment is different.
- creaturemachine 2mo agoUnless it's from the library. I've had to keep an eraser handy to undo some rando's bizarre markups.
- DanielVZ 2mo agoMy grandad had a big library of books, but in his obsession of preservation, he wrapped all of their covers in gift wrap paper. It kind of defeated the purpose of having so many books in a library. You weren't able to browse them easily. I should go dive into them to take some some.
- SoftTalker 2mo agoIn middle school we had to make covers for all our textbooks on the first day of school (it was a school requirement, I guess to get a bit more lifespan out of the books). We used brown paper from old grocery bags. Of course a lot of kids would then personalize their books with artwork and stickers. I guess it was that generation's equivalent of covering a laptop with stickers.
- threetonesun 2mo agoI did the same but had forgotten all about it until just now. I still put all the random stickers that accumulate throughout the year on my journal, it's a fun visual reminder of entirely random little things that happened during the year.
- The_Blade 2mo agoMarginalia is the best! I have a handwritten note about Ayn Rand in my 27 year old copy of Enchridion, a great reminder that she is like chicken pox, better catch her as early as possible. And several books such as I Claudius held together with duct tape. And soy sauce stains in Gargantua and Pantagruel from the place my grad school gf worked. Those count. A bit of irony, going through old stuff I found a copy of Neal Stephenson's In the Beginning... was the Command Line on top of handwritten running logs from sr yr of college. In that book, there was a ticket stub from the time I was 86ed from an amusement park. (I did not eat enough after training that morning.) I was escorted on a golf cart back to our car where I finished Neal's now charmingly quaint essay with the plastic handle listening to Nirvana. This was August 2001 and Mac OS X had barely come out. Maybe AI rhymes where Chinese free open-models clean up but someone proprietary figures it out. Which is sad as someone dominant in the ecosystem right now is the equivalent of Gary Kildall.
- jambalaya8 2mo agoGeez, if she is like chicken pox, what do we get that is like shingles later? :/
- RRWagner 2mo agoThe current administration
- mark_l_watson 2mo ago+1 I have read most of Rand's works. She grew up in the Soviet Union and hated collectivism and carried it very much too far. Still I find value in her work, and if she were here today I would bet $100 that she would disapprove of the current administration.
- jambalaya8 2mo agoThe Trump one, the NY or CA ones, or all three? I liked some of Rand's insights, especially about quality, and encouraging the act of deliberately trying to learn, analyze, and reason for oneself. It is weird how a lot of Rand's stuff encouraged a calming environment while at the same time her books were so packed full of interpersonal drama, though. Not sure at what point her writing became less a warning against something and more 'for' something. It didn't originally read as the selfish crazy stuff a lot of the more vociferous "profit only" types seem to think. I have no clue how they ever read her stuff that way. I suspect I read both Rand and Pirsig differently than most people, though. Rand was less of a hardass than people think, Pirsig much more of a stickler for; more in common than maybe at first or second read.
- Diogenesian 2mo agoI buy used books: it sucks to see someone else's notes scribbled all over the page. It's like a really annoying guy whispering at you with vapid explanations while you're trying to pay attention to a lecture. "Cross out stuff you disagree with" actually makes me sick. It also seems useless for understanding and retention, since highlighting is almost always misleading and margin notes are almost always empty. If you want to write notes, get a notebook, which gives you space to write real thoughts down. I use a trapper-keeper.
- pryelluw 2mo agoYour argument is that in order for you to have a better experience the previous owner should not “ruin” the book for you. I’ve read better arguments on bathroom stalls.
- Diogenesian 2mo agoNo, my argument is that it's totally obnoxious to lend or resell a book that you've written in, and it's a shallow way of taking notes to begin with. It is precisely what Socrates warned us about.
- emptybits 2mo agoAside from shallow, uncritical notes, consider that annotating in a margin is evidence that a reader is actively engaging with a text. Very often when I write in margins it's to question or argue against what's written (e.g. "really? what about ...", or "no, contradicts ...") which, to me, seems in line with the dialectic process Socrates promoted. Multiple sides, truth-seeking. Sure, having a spacious notebook on the side is even better. But it's the same goal, isn't it? Engage more deeply with a text and encourage questioning as you read it, while it's still fresh.
- jambalaya8 2mo agoSometimes you have the drastic misfortune of someone totally off the rails writing crazy crap in it though, or a 3 year old experimenting with crayons. Not what the Stephenson article is about, but that sucks. Amazon's used prices are usually set by booksellers that base their prices on stuff like this for some books... When you get to like old cheap paperback romances though, or that .01 plus shipping, you might or might not. I would be pissed if I expected a clean, un-scribbled-on book I wanted and it was represented as such, but got that.
- HumblyTossed 2mo agoNo. Carry a notebook. Long after you’ve given the book away, you’ll always have your notes.
- yulker 2mo agowhy not both? mark up the book while you're reading, reflect in your notebook on what you read
- pjmorris 2mo agoExactly. Personally, I gravitate toward book and topic-specific notes and highlights in the book itself and use the notebook for bigger-picture things for which book references play some role. I do a lot of highlighting in ebooks and lately I've started using LogSeq. I'll pull quotes from books into LogSeq and then tag them with whatever #bigger-picture topic I deem relevant, mimicking what I do on paper.
- jeremyscanvic 2mo agoDo you have tips to start using notebooks instead of marking books? I personally like to underline stuff in my books, when I start a new novel it's often people, places and events. I'm not sure what would be the notebook equivalent of that. Writing down what I would underline? It seems tedious and you loose context and the sense of proximity between words.
- jarvist 2mo agoFor my textbooks, I use little record cards. I write the book reference on the top line, then whatever notes or quotations etc. If it's a heavily referred to book, I sometimes use different colour cards to mean different things. When I return the book to the library etc., I take all my record cards out and put them in a little perspex index box. Sometimes I use the record cards to then start some more detailed notes in a notebook; sometimes the record cards refer to a page in my notebooks where I've attempted a derivation etc.
- ndarray 2mo ago
- giantg2 2mo agoI use a folded computer paper as a book mark and take notes on that with a page number for reference. It preserves the book and makes it easier to find what I want.
- davisr 2mo agoI buy paperbacks, chop and scan them [1] then use a reMarkable tablet + RCU [2] to do the reading. Digitizing paper books and writing on them with digital ink is 100% the best way to have marginalia. I've tried special dotcode pens, portable scanners...writing digitally with a stylus is the best. Yes, it destroys the paper book, but it more than makes up for it with the freedom, flexibility, and durability of the digital copy. [1]: https://www.davisr.me/projects/books/ https://www.davisr.me/projects/books/ [2]: https://www.davisr.me/projects/rcu/ https://www.davisr.me/projects/rcu/
- jeremyscanvic 2mo agoI was once telling a friend about a book I had just finished. They were curious about it and asked me to borrow it. I politely accepted knowing very well they could never read my copy for it was embarrassingly covered in the messy marks I had enjoyed making during my read. Fortunately neither of us ever brought the subject again and I now think twice before messing up my books!
- all2 2mo agoI wouldn't consider those things embarrassing. You may even consider it an opportunity to discuss the book at a later date?
- glaslong 2mo agoI _love_ buying a used book and finding a previous reader's notes in the margins. It's the greatest. A tiny glimpse into a stranger's thinking as they processed the same pages I just did. Thoughts they may never have shared anywhere else, that may not have made sense to anyone anywhere else. A secret code only for people who just read the last few pages. Shockingly intimate.
- clucas 2mo agoYou might appreciate this one :) https://allpoetry.com/Marginalia https://allpoetry.com/Marginalia
- chrisweekly 2mo agoTANGENT One of my all-time favorite websites: https://www.themarginalian.org/ https://www.themarginalian.org/ Highest possible recommendation for its thoughtful, intelligent, entirely human, poetic writing about various interconnected topics. Maria Popova is a treasure.
- jambalaya8 2mo agoNothing quite the same as making scientific conjectures in your marginalia or jotting down ideas in books and then having strangers find them and reinterpret them their own way. These were fun to find in college bookstores every semester. Not a fan of "highlight it all" but the occasional enlightened soul with a scientific bent.
- anvuong 2mo agoI once borrowed a technical book from my school library, and the previous owner who donated that book in the 90s circled the phrase "proof is left to the readers" commonly found grad math book and wrote a big "W.T.F?". It made me laugh so much hha
- thelaxiankey 2mo agoMaybe I'm cynical, but I always get excited, only to be really disappointed by the other person's thoughts :/ They never feel like they're contributing much.
- talentedcoin 2mo agoAdvice from an inexperienced reader, please disregard (and don’t do this to library books!)
- whateverboat 2mo agoI have a better way. Make a notebook and write stuff down there.
- madcaptenor 2mo agoI need to remember that this is okay. I didn't do it because of concerns about resale value... but recently I sold books for the first time in a while and got so little money that I realize this is not worth worrying about.
- WalterBright 2mo agoI also gave up reselling books I'm done with. I donate them to the little free libraries, friends of the library, thrift shops, and even give them to used bookstores. There used to be bins where you could toss them all in, but those have disappeared.
- benbreen 2mo agoTotally agreed. I've never understood why people are so opposed to marginal annotations - it's part of why the book format succeeded as a technology! (i.e you can't marginally annotate a clay tablet). Incidentally, I always loved how Tolkien's maps had these pointing hands to indicate significant bits, and only after reading a lot of old manuscripts and incunabula in grad school did I realize that he was copying the favorite annotation of medieval writers, the manicule: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manicule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manicule
- the_af 2mo ago> Cross out stuff you disagree with, draw a big circles around the stuff that resonates. I hate it when people do this. Please don't. If you must, do it sparingly and for the love of all that's good please do not cross out words or sentences. The only thing I can forgive is people who quote a particular paragraph they liked about the book in one of the first pages where there's enough blank space. It's a personal touch that doesn't taint the rest of the book. Some mark that this belonged to someone, maybe from decades ago, can be charming; but please, do not ruin the book for me by scribbling all over it.
- Jtsummers 2mo ago> But please, do not ruin the book for me by scribbling all over it. How would someone writing in their copy of a book impact your ability to enjoy your own copy? Relax, it's their property and it's not criminal, so let them do what they want instead of trying to dictate rules.
- the_af 2mo agoBecause I inherited the copy, maybe as a gift or bought at a used books shop? It's obvious from context I'm speaking of books that ended up with me, otherwise how would I even know they scribbled all over them?
- Jtsummers 2mo ago> Because I inherited the copy, maybe as a gift or bought at a used books shop? If it's from a book shop, you can thumb through it and choose to not buy it. If it's inherited or a gift, then what's the harm? Just discard it if it's been "ruined" or shelve it if there's some sentimental reason to keep it, and get a clean copy to read. > It's obvious from context I'm speaking of books that ended up with me, I doubt any of my books will end up with you nor will the books of the vast majority of HN readers and commenters, so why should any of us care about your peculiarities and avoid doing something that works for us and that we want to do?
- 2mo ago
- thi2 2mo agoI started doing this in cookbooks, less of this, this needs longer time in the oven, etc. The first time it felt like a crime.
- doug_durham 2mo agoI so don't have time to revisit books that I've already read. I'd probably be embarrassed by my earlier naiveté.
- ex-aws-dude 2mo agoYeah I don’t understand highlighting/marking up books Who actually has time to go back and look at that? It’s like taking photos of fireworks
- dghlsakjg 2mo agoFor many, the act of note taking, highlighting and marking up enhances the value of the reading. Revisiting is secondary. This is eminently true for me. I rarely revisit notes, but if I take notes I have a much better recall and understanding than if I just consume the content.
- philote 2mo agoYep, and if I did there's no way I'd understand my previous notes.
- pbhjpbhj 2mo agoBe proud of how you've developed.
- rectang 2mo ago"Write by hand and mark up your books" is excellent advice... that I no longer follow. Marking up books didn't come naturally to me, but I did it for a while. Paper books are just decaying bundles of plant fiber — and the ideas within them are likewise ephemeral. The illusion of permanence must be confronted and reckoned with. But for the last 15-20 years, I have been taking notes in text files that are saved to version control, which I find suits me better. * Notes are not space-constrained by the space of the page margins, nor by the initial form they take on the paper page. * Notes can be revised at will without requiring complete duplication to maintain optimal appearance and organization. There is no reason to resist revising notes — the history is completely preserved in old versions, so nothing will ever be destroyed even if deleted. Even though those old versions will almost certainly never be revisited, knowing that they exist frees the mind. * I can indulge my perfectionism and write math notes in LaTeX, music notes in Lilypond, diagrams using SVG... The act of typesetting is itself a form of active engagement the source material, although it does not have all the advantages of hand-copying and can be time-consuming. * Digital notes take up no physical space, compatible with a minimalist lifestyle. They can expand infinitely without needing to be stored or carted around. * Digital notes don't need to be defended against physical threats such as fire, flood, or vermin. However digital notes still require precautions to preserve them in the form of a backup regime, so this is something of a wash. * Ultimately, I don't expect anyone but me to be interested in my notes, and I don't owe anyone my notes. When I'm gone, the notes will vanish into nothingness — and since they are not constrained by being part of a legacy for heirs to pick through, they can take whatever form suits me best during my life.
- cmdocidjcije 2mo agoI think the main point being conveyed is that writing by hand improves recollection. Whether it comes naturally or not, or whether it is a better system or not, of course is subjective. However there is truth in the notion. When I draw something I can remember the shapes better than if I simply sit there and stare at it. Something with the hand-eye coordination triggers the brain into remembering. Typing in contrast, one is not tracing the shapes of the letters (the thing to remember), but pushing buttons that are not physically related. It’s the same thing as if you can touch and hold an object it becomes much more real than if you can see it in a picture or on a screen. Remembering is connected better to touch.
- edude03 2mo ago> Cross out stuff you disagree with, draw a big circles around the stuff that resonates. > Not only does it make consumption a lot more engaging, it makes a revisit of that book extremely rewarding This is actually the biggest reason I own a Remarkable 2/Kindle Scribe, let's me "destroy" the book while also not having to worry about losing my notes.
- BeetleB 2mo agoHonest question: How confident are you that you'll have access to those notes on your Remarkable/Kindle 20 years from now? I love my Kobo. I highlight stuff with it. But for anything really important, I then go to my computer, go through each highlight, and make notes in my org file. (I probably should automate it - I know tools exist to extract all that metadata from the Kobo).
- cognisent 2mo agoIt's possible to download a marked-up PDF as a PDF from a Remarkable -- I can't speak for the others.
- BeetleB 2mo agoThat's a decent enough solution if they let you automate somehow (e.g. sync to PC once a week without me thinking about it). I could then build further automations to parse those PDFs.
- SoMomentary 2mo agoI'm personally extremely confident. Those Remarkable tablets are very hackable. I pay for their sub, but I've also whipped up my own app for syncing content between my RM2 and my home server so that I can send news articles to it, mark them up as I see fit and archive them.
- Zancarius 2mo agoSo, this is kind of not directly related, but sort of is. I teach an adult Bible study class, and I use Logos for all of my notes and highlights. Your question touches on one of my specific concerns, because they use a proprietary format for their datasets. The best solution I have is that I export the notes and format them in Markdown, and I distribute them to the class via one of my blogs. Obviously, I can't include verbatim copies or quotes from the sources I use, but it's better than leaving the notes inside a platform that could (potentially) disappear in 20 years. I cite all sources used in the footnotes of every session, so at the very least, it should be possible (theoretically) to obtain the source material in printed form and find the exact page number (Logos stores page number metadata in the digital copies). It's probably not ideal, but it's the best thing I've come up with so far that doesn't require a lot of duplication of effort.
- throw0101d 2mo ago> A corollary to this is, when reading books, mark them up! Not library books though. Every so often I get one with stuff underlined with pen or highlighter, and it's one of things that really makes me angry. (Lightly in pencil I'm okay with.)
- atmosx 2mo ago> A corollary to this is, when reading books, mark them up! Don’t be precious with them I do all that, all the time these days... :-) I thoroughly enjoy it! Sometimes I feel like having discussions (disagreeing or agreeing) with the author and will write entire pro/cons examples and/or arguments.
- VoodooJuJu 2mo ago[dead]
- charcircuit 2mo agoThe way people take care of their property says a lot about them. Destroying and defacing one's own property is not someone I would trust. I'd prefer to work with people who treat their possessions with proper respect.
- juliend2 2mo agoI would not be so quick to judge. Book are better consumed actively than passively. To me it hints on a desire to absorb what's being read. i.e. a thirst for knowledge that is weighed above material possession.
- charcircuit 2mo agoA lot of books being read and not done so for knowledge. And there are other ways to actively consume without mistreating the book itself.
- stringfood 2mo agoI've found I don't like marking up books, because what was highly insightful and revelatory on the first read, seems obvious and boring on the second read
- baruz 2mo agoMany of the things you mention, crossing out, circling, I do not think of as actively engaging with the material, which a quick skim of the underlying research pointed out in the TFA (or maybe an earlier 2017 paper of theirs) requires using the fine motor control of actually writing. Writing marginalia is good for the brain; if you disagree, write out why, if you agree, write your reaction. Highlighting, circling, crossing out are mere consumption and only useful for finding passages later, not engaging your brain.
- Itanu 2mo agoWow, I'd just like to say I'd never heard of the word "marginalia" before, but I love it :)
- GeneralMaximus 2mo agoOh boy do I have a website for you! I love browsing https://www.themarginalian.org https://www.themarginalian.org whenever I have a few hours to kill. It's a bit like TVTropes, but much more "literary" for lack of a better word. The author has spent decades building a digital commonplace book of everything she's ever read, and hyperlinked everything together in a way that you can get lost in her notes for hours on end and never surface. It's one of my favorite websites on the internet, and the best example of the power of marginalia and hypertext.
- dzonga 2mo agofor situations like this - I feel like e-readers are beneficial - the one's with a pen. since u can always create copies of documents. u can make it up as many times as u want. or the old school way - using a photocopy for the pages u want to markup / print 2-4 pages in a sheet of what you want to read. & throw away.
- nofu7ur3 2mo agoI abhor highlighting, underlining or writing in books by some previous "reader" as well as by myself. Why? It adds emphasis or de-emphasis which impedes and usually eliminates the process of rediscovery and potentially seeing something in a different light. I prefer my reading to be dynamic and unbiased by other people as well as by myself, whether that's from a few minutes ago or a few years in the past. Commentary, which is often situational and ephemeral, should be separate from the original. When a book is marked up, your choice to ignore or seek commentary is taken away.
- uncivilized 2mo agoSkill issue. I write in all my books and routinely revisit them. There are times where I can answer questions I’ve written in the margins after another read. Likewise, I also erase things and write other things as I gain more insight.
- tharkun__ 2mo agoHard agree on highlighting. I never understood it. Well highlighting and also the post-it notes marking of pages. It's just too much. Never worked for me. I only did it when I was forced to by teachers! But not for the reasons you're stating. It was just more like "unreadable". There would've been essentially a post-it note on every single page. Or I'd highlight like half the page. It's a bit like bookmarks in browser for me. I started out trying it. Neatly categorizing things in a hierarchy. It just doesn't scale. And I see people like your parent, with elaborate systems of bookmarks and they navigate the hierarchy, failing to find what they need, often giving up on it in the moment, saying they'll "find it later". Dude, guess what we're in a call together right now discussing a topic, either you find it now or never! On the other hand, I don't bookmark anything at all any longer. But I'd die if I lost my history ;) As in, I somehow remember the terms to write to find what I need and the browser finds it in the location bar history (made up of actual browser history and bookmarks if I had any of course) but it also applies recency/number of times I used it (I never bothered to look at which of these they actually apply). But I just know all I need to type is `n` and hit enter and based on how often I come here, that's gonna get me to hackernews! Similarly at work, I remember phrases, parts of ticket summaries or even just the current epic everyone's talking about and I type in the number/summary parts and find what I need. I could probably spend hours "organizing my bookmarks" (i.e. post-it notes and annotations) but I don't. Never needed it, never made sense, never worked. But it does need to be digital. I'd die if I had to be a 50 years ago librarian! --- On the actual article though: writing by hand definitely is awesome in general. Learning other languages in school we had to learn the vocabulary by writing translations of terms into books. Often I could tell you that "this is the third word on the second page" but not the actual translation :)
- eudamoniac 2mo agoIf you want to write in your books go right ahead, but the claim that marginalia and annotations have any benefit is dubious at best. A separate notebook is required. Nothing worth saying can fit in a margin.
- liendolucas 2mo agoNo. Books are not to be massacred that way, if you need take notes you can still write that down on a piece of paper and leave in the relevant page inside the book. If you need to write that much have a notebook and put your book notes there, no need to destroy a book.
- bsoles 2mo agoWith mild (self-diagnosed) OCD, I can't even read a book with a single dog ear on it, let alone markings and writing. This may not be you aim, but there is research out there indicating that highlighting text does not help with retention.
- Exoristos 2mo agoYou don't need to "destroy the spine" and severely shorten the book's life; you can and should break books in[0]. 0. https://www.museumbookstore.com/blogs/blog/how-to-open-a-new-book-properly https://www.museumbookstore.com/blogs/blog/how-to-open-a-new...
- lanfeust6 2mo agoKnow what's way easier? Writing in a companion notebook next your book, with as much space as you need.
- majima 2mo agono, I'd rather use sticky notes or washi tape
- why-el 2mo agoFor sure. The literal first two pages of any book, essentially the back of the cover and the title page, always host a huge list of pages plus summary of something interesting i saw in the book. For instance, it will say something like: * p85, interesting semaphore usage or some such. This also condenses the books to important things so I can do a speed read to recall the most important parts.
- eggsandbeer 2mo ago[dead]
- ehnto 2mo agoI hear you, some books are precious on a personal level but most books are made to be used, worn, enjoyed, thrown in backpacks etc. I can understand the used book experience gets ruined a bit, but to be frank I didn't buy the book for someone else, and they made tens of thousands of copies. I'm going to dogear the pages, write notes where I want and generally utilize the book. I feel the same about most things to be fair, I love seeing the wear marks and signs of life and use on items. Nothing lasts forever, and it's nice when you can see the stories told by an object by it's scars.
- noufalibrahim 2mo agoMortimer Adler (of how to read a book fame) has notes on this https://socrates.acadiau.ca/courses/engl/rcunningham/2022-23/sub/attach/Adler.pdf https://socrates.acadiau.ca/courses/engl/rcunningham/2022-23... MAny a times, the books I read don't have enough place to scribble so I keep a A5 half folded as a bookmark and write notes on that with page numbers. Once the book is over, I read through the points and try to reconstruct. I use a mechanical pencil myself since I like the teeth and my handwriting is better when I use it. Also, ability to erase (not for cleanliness but more to avoid wastage of space) is useful.
- christoph 2mo agoGrandparent and parents always taught me books were sacred and shouldn’t be marked or damaged, not gonna side with either side as I do like finding small notes, etc. in 2nd books from time to time. I tackle it with a cheap little Canon Selphy photo printer I use for spitting out random hard copies of photos periodically from my phone. I always make sure to print an extra of any photo I really like. I then use these as my bookmarks in any book I read… I always have 20 to 30 odd non-fictions on the go at once in various states of reading. This acts as a note keeper, bookmark and sort of time capsule for me. When I finish a book, i’ll always leave it in there. I don’t know why… but I just like the idea of random people (and my kids!) finding these random photos and notes in my books long after i’m gone! The photo in the book also links it to that period of my life. I found a strange polaroid in a 2nd hand book when I was a little kid, then some years back I used a photo of my own as a bookmark, the memory bubbled back up, and here I am now. Wife and I kept saying we don’t print enough hard copies of photos, so this helps fix that a little bit as well - you could say I now print too many!
- noufalibrahim 2mo agoThat physical books age and retain pieces of their history is one of my favourite things about them. I found a used book that was given to someone when he graduated top of his class in the early 1900s. There was an inscription from the principal of his college, signed and with a seal from the college. I stood there gazing at it and couldn't help imagining how he finished reading it, left it here and there in his house and finally, after his time, in the attic of the ancestral home. It was later discovered by his daughter or granddaughter and then when they were cleaning up, sold to a second hand book seller rather than just destroyed. Contrast that to a PDF which is just as crisp and clean as it was when it was created (and which could, become a format for which we don't have a reader anymore).
- Mikhail_Edoshin 2mo agoNo.
- sriku 2mo agoI recently lent a book with some scribbled notes of mine to a friend and they were all like "oh we love scribbles in books". Another way to connect.
- hahahaa 2mo agoPost it notes tho...
- moffkalast 2mo ago> Destroy the spine That's why I got an e-reader in the first place all those years ago, fucking books closing themselves all the time. Terrible UX, smh.
- woadwarrior01 2mo agoI do this, but with Post-it notes. Something to do with the deification of books in the culture I was brought up in, which makes writing on the margins of books a sin.
- dredmorbius 2mo agoI've come to using a pencil (usually mechanical) for this. I can write lightly (so that annotations don't dominate the printed text) and erase stray marks or correct erroneous ones. I've developed a notation convention which tends to make my intent clear without visually dominating the text. A light vertical line along sections I want to highlight, stars, question marks, or bangs, occasional comments of my own.