How to Mark a Book
Monday, February 6, 2006 at 09:40AM 
I am a book marker. I rarely read without a pencil in my hand and a highlighter at the ready. Even when I read borrowed books I have a pencil in my hand and a pad of post it notes nearby so that I can slap one on the page and scribble down my thoughts. I have a system that I developed over time and it works for me.
Today I came across an excellent essay, How to Mark a Book by Mortimer J. Adler, Ph.D. Most of his suggestions I had already implemented in my own fashion, but he also had some new ideas.
I have always used my front fly sheets for overflow notes and observations, but not for the kind of post reading reflection Dr. Adler suggests.The front end-papers are to me the most important. Some people reserve them for a fancy bookplate. I reserve them for fancy thinking. After I have finished reading the book and making my personal index on the back end-papers, I turn to the front and try to outline the book, not page by page or point by point (I've already done that at the back), but as an integrated structure, with a basic unity and an order of parts. This outline is, to me, the measure of my understanding of the work.
He also made this point:
I'll add another reason. If you lend it and you never get it back, not only is it "almost like giving a piece of your mind away" it is also like losing a piece of your mind.You may have one final objection to marking books. You can't lend them to your friends because nobody else can read them without being distracted by your notes. Furthermore, you won't want to lend them because a marked copy is kind of an intellectual diary, and lending it is almost like giving your mind away.
If your friend wishes to read your Plutarch's Lives, Shakespeare, or The Federalist Papers, tell him gently but firmly, to buy a copy. You will lend him your car or your coat -- but your books are as much a part of you as your head or your heart.
I need all my mind.
There is one thing he didn't mention that I have found very useful, especially if I am preparing a lesson over the material. When the author gives a definition, even if it is a very common word, I always circle the work and draw a line from the word out to the margin and write 'def.' Usually when an author gives a definition it is either because he is using a technical word (such as in theological or scientific works) or he is amplifying how HE is using the word. I have learned not to assume I know the meanings of words simply by the dictionary definitions because "usage matters".
Sometimes I'll run across a word whose definition I don't know. I'll circle it, draw the line out to the margin and write "def?", which tells me I need to check the dictionary.
So here's the question of the day: Are you a book marker? And, if so, do you have any favorite techniques you have developed or learned along the way that you'd like to share?
[update]
Just ordered Dr. Adler's book, How to Read a Book
You can look at the table of contents at the Amazon link. Looks good.
[update 2]
Missmellifluous has posted a link to "The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac" by Eugene Fields. Recommended reading by my sister, Kathy. The fabulous Missm has an excerpt on her blog this morning. It will draw you in. . .I promise.
Reader Comments (20)
I am a book marker. I use colored pencils to underline passages, I write in the margins. I have a black hard bound note book for longer notes. Mostly, I just write in the book; it's more convenient.
I could never bring myself to mark books. I often avoid marking even the photo copies we get with our class material.
Hi Kim,
Do you use a different color for different things you are observing? How does that work?
Hi Kyle,
Can I borrow some of your pristine books? I PROMISE not to mark them!
:)
Seriously, though, do you take notes in a notebook or are you one of those rare people who can remember without writing?
Man, Am I a book-marker! I get razzed about it at work! (I also read manuals and federal regs! It's an illness!) Kath
HA! So true! Remember that time (years ago!) at GBC when someone (I forget who, maybe Heidi?) figured out we were sisters because we both had pencils behind our ears all the time and our heads would go down and the pencils would start scratching at the same point in the sermon!
Where did we get that characteristic, anyway? Not from Mom or Dad.
Hi Kim,
My husband just took that book out of the library. He is not a marker, but I am. :o) I usually use a pencil if I'm going to mark in a book. However, my Bible, is so marked in whatever was handy at the time, there are places that are hard to read. :o) I think it might be time for a new one....
Pulling out my college texts, you will see that there are a few sentences at the beginning of each book highlighted in yellow. The rest of the books are totally clean.
I did a year of Precepts Bible study; 1 & 2 Corinthians. The whole marking things up made me crazy, but I actually do mark in my study Bible now, so I guess I did learn something. My Sunday Morning Bible is c-l-e-a-n.
I guess that makes me a book-marker wannabe.
Bookmarker here, the only book I even remotely have a system with though is my Bible and I usually use the same color all year, that way I can keep track of my growth. It's interesting to read my notes sometimes and say, "really that's what it meant to me then?"
I take notes with lectures, but not with books. I'm one of those rare people, but unfortunately it is less easy for me to find out just where in the book I read that! ;-)
I am a committed book marker. No question - except if it is a library book, or someone elses then it is not an option, in fact, it's taboo.
I find it very hard to read without a lead pencil in hand. The pencil must be a 2b or 3b, nothing hard and scratchy like a hb. I never use a highlighter as they are too garish and often mark the other side of the page.
I write in my margins and create my own concordance at the back of the book on the blank pages there. I ususlly make headings re the themes as I see them, and add page numbers underneath each heading. If, or when, I run out of space here, I move to the front pages. Further, more detailed, notes are made on a lecture pad. Ideas and questions are written throughout the text as I read. I often add to, or amend, these on a second or third reading.
I also have symbols I use, such as a star in a circle, which usually indicates suitability of the passage for use as a quote later.
Am I a book marker? For sure! Sometimes I even feel naked if I am reading a book without a pencil. How's that for a confession!
Just to add:
Will read that article when I get a chance. Thanks, Kim! Great post!
Kyle, You may find the headings and page numbers system helps you to find passages more easily. It works for me. However book marking is completely personal and individual: you have to go with what you're comfortable with.
Ooh, and book lending is like entrusting someone else with your most prized possession - or am I just way too into books?
Lauren- good idea, I like that one to show your growth.
I am a bookmarker, but I am trying to be a "cleaner" one if that makes sense. No more freeform lines, time to use a bookmarker for straight lines and write neatly with pens that don't bleed through to the next.
Thank you all for all your great responses!
Carol,
I cracked up when I read "book marker wannabe. :)
Missm,
I agree with you that highlighting is "garish" but I do like to use it when I am teaching from the text or leading a book study. I can quickly see the text that way. I don't highlight normally. I disagree with you about the pencils, though. I use a HB or harder (always!) because the print never smears. Soft lead is just too, well, soft for me.
Lauren,
I really like the idea of using a different color to identify the year. I may do that this year. If you do decide to get a new Bible, Karen, that might be a good way to get started!
Hannah,
I can't tell you the number of times I've picked up one of my books and wished I'd been neater. My excuse? It's hard to draw a straight line when you're laying on the couch with two dogs laying all over you and poking you in the hand for more petting!
Now, here's a true confession from my sister, Kath: she actually takes books in the bathtub with her! That's where I draw the line. . .right, Kath?
I do most of my study in the bath. It's great! However, Educational Psychology has recently taught me that for maximum recall you should reproduce the conditions in which you studied so that cues are maximised and recall is facilitated. SO, unless you sit exams in the bath it is probably not the best way to study. It can't be beat for leisure though.
I have a big old cloaw foot tub (one of the few things I will NEVER "Update"!) and I can stay in there, literally, for HOURS!...letting some water out so I can run more hot! Once I fell asleep reading my Bible in the tub and dunked it (It was red and the endpages are now tinted in an interesting pattern!!) My then 5 year old daughter said "Look, Mom! Yu baptized your Bible!"! Now when I get drowsy (or overly warm!) I set my book aside! (Especially if I'm reading from my PDA!!! And, yes, I'm a bookmarker, even there! Kath
Sorry about the typos in the last post! I'm beat tonight! I agree that library or borrowed books are sacrosant and NEVER to be marked in! And I often use a bible marker (one of those special "dry" markers, almost like a flourescent pencil) for highlighting so that it doesn't go through. clean staight lines are very important and you may slop up into the printed text with your underlining. Kathy
"The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac" by Eugene Fields is full of wonderful quotes about books!
oooh! Thanks for the book tip! I'm going to look it up now...
Oh, and that claw foot bath sounds divine! I, too, have dunked on occasion. oops.
Thanks to Kathy for the introduction to The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac by Eugene Fields. I'm hooked! What a great read!
I mark some books. For the books I want to keep in like new condition, I keep a notebook handy for writing down my thoughts and impressions while reading.
I going to have to get Adler's book!