/lit/ - Literature

>>22821884
wtf do they even write?

>>22821896
I don't think they write they just put like markers on it

>>22821896
>I really vibed with this
>I totally expected this to happen!!!

>>22821884
I do this in non-fiction books when I know there's something I'm going to want to re-read or reference at some point, never got doing that in fiction though

If you have a method or catalogue for the markers you’re using to reference whatever it is you’ve marked sure. I don’t do it, but there’s been times I’ve thought of something profound I’ve read in a book and spent who knows how long flipping through pages trying to find it again

>>22821884
I used them once for writing an essay on Infinite Jest. If you’re writing an essay they’re useful otherwise I can’t see the point.
I have since used the easier method of simply making a note of quotations I find significant and corresponding page numbers on the inside front cover, which I do for nearly all my books, as well as a list of characters for novels in the inside back cover.

As someone who occasionally buys these books by accident at thrift shops I don't really see what the benefit is
I have never encountered any kind of insightful annotation and I've never seen any references to other parts of the text
It seems to be either
1. a single adjective
2. words or phrases highlighted with different coloured markers
As someone who studied STEM in HS and University I may be missing something however

>>22821929
>I have since used the easier method of simply making a note of quotations I find significant and corresponding page numbers on the inside front cover
Good idea

>>22821884
Why do I see an anime boy in the cover?

Obsessive note-takers are not good readers, just as microbiologists are not good taxonomists. Notes are exclusively for your own insights.

>>22821896
Women are insanely egotistical and constantly stopping to relate things to their life

I did this all the time when I was an undergrad in college because it made it easier to find specific parts of the text I wanted to reference. I'd write little notes on the tabs too.

But as I got further along in academia and my focus on got narrower, I became a lot more familiar with the texts I wrote about and no longer needed such things. I could simply open the book and quickly thumb to roughly where I remembered the relevant passage being and usually find it in as little as a couple seconds.

>>22821931
People who do it seriously are marking parts of the book they are going to quote or paraphrase in a paper they're writing. I can't imagine it serving any other useful purpose.

Twofold
They get taught to do so at a young age and blindly follow forever. Teacher says do it, I did it and got good grades, therefore it must be the right thing to do.
Some "influencer" posts a photo of their stickied book on instagram, others copy, it rapidly becomes part of the female hivemind. Half the things women do have no why behind them aside from "it's in right now".

>>22821884
It's OCD and poor study habits, along with highlighting and making margin notes you usually find in books that look like that.

I hate vain women as much as the next anon, but i can understand doing something like that. But there's always the summary and index. I think the time you save by quickly finding the passage you want by doing this is nullified by all the time you wasted doing this sticker-note thing. I usually just type down the page of interest on my cellphone.

I write stupid shit and senseless annotations in my books. Mainly for two reasons. First, it helps me to find passages again later - I use hearts for sentences I like, lightnings for ideas I disagree with, "lmao" for funny parts and stars for quintessential ideas of the book. Second, it helps me to be more engaged with the book. I read mostly for personal reasons and so writing essays or transferring quotes would be way too much, but not jotting down anything would be a disservice to the material and myself.

>>22821896
Their thoughts on that moment? Correlating it to some philosophy they have with some paragraph or lines.
>>22821915
Pretty much
>>22822163
Always good to back to a line or moment in the story that made you wonder about stuff for a while

>>22821884
>>22821896
>>22822133
>>22822163
wait, you guys don’t annotate your books? I can’t imagine reading without annotating unless it’s a library book. It’s like I’m having a conversation with the writer in the margins. Without a pencil in hand, I feel like I’m just skimming along the surface of the text. Annotation is how I dive down for the pearls

>>22821884
I highlight things as I go, and then if I ever want to find it again I flip through the book until I see the markings. I could not imagine ever giving that much of a fuck about a novel to have that many notes. Unless that is for some sort of assignment it stinks of overintellectualizing faggotry to me.

>>22821884
highlight parts they liked? because unlike you guys other people in the real world actually do read and actually do like what they read but hey for you guys everything is just attention seeking

>>22822697
Mid woman hands typed this.

>>22821884
I do it when there's a sentence I want to steal

>>22822681
>could not imagine giving that much of a fuck about Madame Bovary
>about Don Quixote
>about War and Peace
>about Ulysses
>about Middlemarch
>about Dream of the Red Chamber
Impoverished intelligence. Limited imaginative ability. Conclusion; low IQ

>>22822697
>posting anonymously about books is attention seeking
>posting pictures of a book stuffed with multi-colored sticky notes to Instagram is not
How many levels of pilpul are you on?

>>22822497
how can you write anything besides a couple phrases? isn't it easier to keep notebook?

>>22822747
Pseud homo. I'm willing to bet anything you say shit like, "This novel is life changing." lol

>>22822785
>>>/sffg/

>>22822497
anon, you can do that with thought

>>22822497
I hate getting 2nd hand books from people like you. Always inane tripe in the margins. Just use a commonplace book like a proper intellectual.

>>22822497
Holy shit I bet you’re an insufferable homo

>>22821884
Yeah to describe the appearance of the character being introduced to the story. Sometimes you picture someone completely different before you can get to the part describing their appearance.

>>22822766
if it's a long-term project, then yeah, notebook's better. I have a milton notebook, a spinoza notebook, used to have a shakespeare notebook, etc. but if it's short-term I annotate. it's not the annotations themselves, it's the practice of reading with pencil in hand. makes me more attentive, makes me look deeper. it's second nature at this point.
>>22822802
not really. it's also cool to have the book be a little journal of what I was thinking at the time. I've revisited books that I annotated years ago and found that some of what I thought was wrong, some of it was on the right track, made connections that I could only see with a few more years reading experience and only remember because I'd written in the margins
>>22822931
I do keep a commonplace book. it's just not enough most of the time.
>>22823239
cope

>>22823259
You are coping. Stop vandalizing books you greedy book gremlin.

>>22821884
just read the book lmao or highlight the parts you liked. All these post-it with pseud cheap philosophical thoughts are just ego stroking

>>22821896
Probably midwit intellectual stuff. I once bought a used copy of a religious text, and it was full of the notes from the world's most Protestant atheist. It was just page after page of 'this is completely untrue! The afterlife isn't real! >'. It was one of the most hilarious things I've ever read. It wasn't even a Christian book, just a book of philosophy, like Kierkegaard or something, but still it was full of this turbo evangelical obsession of how much god wasn't real.

Honestly, they should compile the most hilarious sidenotes into another kind of book, I'd buy that

>>22823541
>turbo evangelical obsession of how much god wasn't real

Looks like anon had a brain aneurysm

>>22822124
Where?

>>22823558
The two heads on the left are his eyes, middle guy's arm is his chin and mouth, and the bottom of his jacket is his neck and the pants and ground are his shoulder/torso; the open window is his blond hair. Works better in thumbnail.

>>22821907
kek

>>22821884
I did it when I was studying Ulysses at university, though not to such an excess. It’s useful if you’re writing an essay and need to quickly find certain sections, but trying to colour code it seems like mental masturbation for aspies.

the state of this board man

Are you incapable of understantig that some just want to go back to sections or sentences they enjoy? If you never read a book with passages that makes you come back to it, that foster a need for this text within you at times, then wth are you doing here?

>>22823953
Personally I just take pictures of pages that I like and keep them in folders for each book in my phone. Takes two seconds and then if I ever wanted to reference back to a page I read or post it online while I'm not by the book I can do that.

>>22821884
why don't they just write in the margins?

I blame the K-12 education system that teaches young people novels always contain these profound statements about the world and life. “What is the moral of the story?” These women approach everything like this. Nobody seems to know this but K-12 education in 2023 is basically nothing more than millenial women asking their students to write about things make them feel.

>>22824117
I agree as someone who graduated high school 5 years ago.

>>22821884
I tend to write about ideas I find significant or twice to concepts while reading. I write in a journal with the page number and line written before the corresponding paragraphs. I don't use sticky notes or use about passages with nearly that frequency though.
When I started reading classics in high-school I annotated novels like picrel though.

>>22824392
Write about passages with nearly that frequency* my bad lads sick out of my mind can’t type for shit.

>>22823974
That's genius. Thanks anon

>>22821884
I've only ever done this for the books I had to read for law school, and even then not nearly as extensive as this. There is a point of diminishing returns where it just doesn't make any real sense.
For fiction, I just underline with a pen or pencil, make some light marginalia ("this reminded me of X author" or just "haha" if it made me laugh) and take note of pages with good quotes or passages to come back to. When I finish a book for the first time, I write down the date on a blank page, and a couple of sentences with my thoughts and impressions.

>>22821884
Whenever note takers have explained their reason for doing it to me I'm always just like...you mean...thinking?
You mean having thoughts while you read a book?
Yeah i do that too i just you know. Think tho I don't need to write stuff down to think
What the fuck

>>22822497
It's actually causing you to not read the book. Lol. It does the opposite of what you say. You're not taking the book in. You're stopping every few minutes to project yourself on to the book, which necessarily distorts any insight you'd derive from it, if you were actually listening, and breaks up the intended rhythm.
You said "having a conversation with the author," no. What you're doing is more like someone is trying to tell you something and you're cutting them off every few seconds to inject your own horseshit.
Just realize other people actually exist beside you, and then read the fucking book

>>22822124
holy shit

My doltish disposition makes me such. My one clever moment -- to materialize that which I cannot keep in thought -- is unanimously mocked. Punished twice for my device.

I did it in high school when I read lord of the flies. One colour for each theme. You'd mark and highlight ny phrase where the boys are compared to animals, any time the boys where described as saintly/devilish, any blatant ww2 symbolism etc.

When you write essays it helps you quickly pin down a phrase to make a point

>the pseuds in this thread

Man, I'm sure you guys are such a treat to be around in person. Rock on bros, rock on.

>>22821884
i did it reading the odes of Pindar...
there was many things to look up afterwards, but stopping each time interrupted my reading.
seven sisters, nereus/nereids, leda's egg, it goes on and on...
took a long time to read but researching it gave me a deep understanding and honestly one of the comfiest times of my entire intellectual life.

generally no. I had one class where we read being and time and for our papers we had to trace threads that came up throughout the book, and for that it made sense to put flags on the pages and even color code them by topic. But that's the only time I've ever gone full autist like that and I don't think it's what most teehee quirky booktok gorpcore pillpilled theyfabs are doing with this, re >>22821907. Usually just by living with a book and actually paying attention to wht I'm readin g I get a feel for where specific passages live in the book so I don't find i't necessary to mark them out

>>22824642
what?

>>22821884
I do this but instead of notes it's just just highlighting words I don't know and finding the definition and instead of a real book it's an ebook and done automatically for me when I highlight the words

it even keeps a list of the words I was unfamiliar with so I can review them later

>>22821896
Their diaries desu

>>22822785
Some of them can do that

the only books I've ever done this are meditations and the republic and a Napoleonic wars history text. i used lead pencil to asterisks a line in the margins so I can flick through and see them. usually I just wanted the line for song lyrics desu

>>22821884
I need it to keep track of phrases that I could potentially use as the title of my book. Just flip through until I find a good one that nobody else has used. Shakespeare is pretty well used up at this point.

>>22822124
Really glad I wasn't the only one who saw it. This isn't a good artist rendering but gives you an idea of what autists like me are seeing

>>22822136
that's a man's hand

>>22825948
>>22822124
Shit, wrong art

>>22823342
Lol you should see my books haha its svratched all the fucking way. Marked, annotated and everything. I write my name and date of buying at the front so I know how long it took when I end it, and I buy second hand in the hope yo have another name already there, because im a romantic hoping that when I die/sell someone else does the same with my old shit.

I don't read novels though, only scientific/philosophy so it helps to follow the argument I find. What the fag said I partially agree with, but bookmarks are only handy for short term. Anything long term is masturbation (of which I have been guilty. Takes one to know one amirite)

>>22823342
>>22826567
Oh I forgot to add, I fold my paperbacks beyond repair

>>22824601
/thread

I think we should get over the fear/embarrassment of writing something potentially inane. When you play a dissonant chord on the piano, or when you draw a picture of an animal that looks totally wrong, noone cares, but for some reason I at least can barely write half a sentence without thinking it's super cringe and what an arrogant opinion do I even have of myself that I assume this is worth writing down at all. But whenever I get over that, even though I still wouldn't show it to anyone, I'm still glad I wrote something. And what does it even matter if it's dogshit anyway?

>>22821884
It's only to show it on Instagram. For some reason it makes their pussies wet.

>>22826588
You cannot hide you don't read scientific. Its not called rhythm there, its called a fucking paragraph.

>>22827029
I'm the guy who posted the one he replied to; fair. In practical books, it's a little different. Notes make more sense.
In literature its retarded ego blasting

>>22821884
I do a lot of active reading so I write notes about the books I read throughout but usually not on the pages themselves unless I'm lazy.

>>22825953

bump

>>22821884
aren't there already notes in the back or at the bottom of the page

>>22823953
>enjoying sentences
sounds pretty gay tbdesu

>>22824601
>>22826588

>>22829244
>erasable
coward

>>22824601
>>22826588
>>22829244
kek

>>22821884
Structural annotation, key wording the top right margin, and memory ought to suffice. That level of color coding tabs is impractical.

>>22821931
My favorite was CRAYON in a Thomas Jefferson political writings collection. Future policy wonk girl boss no doubt.

>>22829244
Ink bowdlerizations should be punishable by death.

>>22829244
Idgaf what you do

>>22821884
This is almost as pretentious as most people on lit.

>>22824601
>conversation = one person talking

>>22821896
I like to pick up and flip through used copies of my favorite books when I find them in bookstores to see if anyone’s underlined, highlighted or written in them. I once found an old worn copy of Beckett’s Molloy and found a character list (very short) where the previous owner referred to the eponymous character as the “hero,” a term I’m sure no one would use to refer to any people of Beckett’s fiction. Also, at the part where Moran gives his son an enema, they wrote “EW!”

>>22822497
you're a gigantic faggot. imagine annotating anything, especially fiction. PATHETIC, CORNY, AND CRINGE.

>>22829244
>(you)
why are you samefagging?

>>22821884
I tried doing this when I was preparing for my comprehensive exam for my PhD in literature and I found it generally helpful because I had to read 100 books in 8 months. I used different colours for different themes and concepts I was thinking about across texts. For what it’s worth, I’ve colour coordinated my notes since undergrad which makes them extremely easy to go back to.

Now that I’m working on my dissertation I’ve abandoned the sticky tabs and begun using a dual method of underlining passages and simultaneously keeping a notebook with my own comments. Alternatively, if I’m working with an eBook, I just highlight the passage and make a note (this is nice because I can highlight in different colours and just scroll through the text to find notes related to certain ideas). Taking digital notes is also superior because you can search the document for specific words/phrases, which is immensely convenient when you have literally hundreds of pages of notes on many different texts.

>>22829244
god you're retarded. this is funny though.
>>22821884
it's time for the daily "/lit/ doesn't read" thread. annotating your books is common. I'd go so far as to say it's good practice. here's VN's personal copy of Ulysses. good enough for him, good enough for me.

I use them so that I can pick up a book and instantly read some part I like