During our discussions last week, Dr. Abernathy brought up a subject that I have struggled with as a book lover. She told us in no uncertain terms that we should be marking up the text which we are reading. I find something fundamentally wrong with this idea myself, perhaps stemming from years of being taught books are to read, not to write in.
I also find it very hard to go back and reread a piece, especially a difficult one, if it is covered in pencil markings or highlighter. It seems to be more of a distraction than a helpmeet to me when a passage is highlighted, it makes it harder to concentrate on the rest of the text on the page.
On these political works that we’ve printed out I can see the benefit of the marking, as I will probably never want to read them again. But it just makes something inside me cringe to think of taking a pencil to Crime and Punishment.
Is there no other way? Are we condemned to the fate of having penciling on our pages? Could we not merely make side notes in a notebook of our own, or is there truly something fundamentally helpful that I am missing by not marking on my pages? This is the question I pose to you. Is it truly more helpful to pencil our reading, or can we get the same benefit out of notes made on separate sheets of paper? My opinion on this particular topic is bias, so I leave it for you to decide.
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My opinion is also bias; writing in books causing a little bit of me to die inside. To me writing in books is little doodling on the Mona Lisa, you just don't do it. While I haven't tried it yet, I think writing on the printed out copies might be a bit easier since they're not really books.
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ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you! What's next dog-earing the pages? This is madness
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