/lit/ - Literature

>>5348898
I never mark anything, if I have to take notes I do so on a seperate piece of paper.
I prefer to imagine my books will find readers after me and I don't want to tarnish their experience with my own thoughts and ruin their own ideas and conclusions. I also really hate reading other peoples stupid ass notes in books and dumb shit they underlined. I once read a Vonnegut book where every piece of foreshadoing was underlined and the future page of occurrence was noted and it was really irritating.

>>5348898
you are scum

>>5348916
I don't want to read a fucking rainbow, I'll tell you that much. I'll make sticky notes at most. Mostly to reference characters and places I'm likely to forget. Marking like that is just unholy, OP.

>>5348898

Absolutely the worst kind of disgusting.

>>5348898
That whole thing is marked..
I don't often do fiction-marking, but I always mark non-fiction with different colors, indicating what every color means at the start of the book. So like:
Pink - interesting info, not crucial to the whole
Yellow - important info, needed to be able to follow the book
Orange - Author's main contribution/vital information, what the yellow points attempt to prove, basically.
Green - Atrocities/controversial claims

>>5348898
This looks horrible, just take notes on a different paper. (Even if you do this, there's no need to highlight most of the book like in the pic, just put the highlight in the margin if it's more than one sentence.)

>>5348898
I would literally take a picture of the page, print it out, and then highlight it if I had any intention of ruining to the point of no return as illustrated in your picture.

>>5348898
>I like marking important passages

Then mark them in the margin instead of wasting time highlighting so many lines.

I maintain a separate journal into which I commit my sentiments into words as I read.

>>5348898
That picture makes me ill. My mother was a librarian. I don't write in books. EVER. If I want something, I copy out a passage in a notebook/text document.

i started doing this yesterday, reading the critique of pure reason. it's the only way i can get something from that book

>>5348898

I read everything digitally, so I highlight and make notes all over the place. No permanent physical damage anywhere. feels good.

>>5348898
I don't mark books. The only book I've ever marked is the Women in Black which they forced us to in English Lit a few years ago.

My grandfather gave me a few old books of his and they're marked though, with a pencil, and it's interesting reading his thoughts.

>>5348898
High level baiting in progress.

>>5348916
I actually like having a pre-owned book with some notes in it.

Got a cheap copy of Dubliners with some insightful comments written in by the previous owner.

I borrow other people's books and highlight very unimportant passages while scribbling cryptic references to theory shit in the margins. Then I make real notes on things in a notebook.

>not buying two copies of the same book
>one cheap paperback to scribble in
>one nice looking hardcover to have on the shelf

Stay poor and pleb.

>>5349439
DEVILISH TACTICS

>>5348927
Thank you. I will henceforth start using this method. It is more effective than my underlining and hoping that I remember why I underlined that particular passage, or quote.

>>5349439
W-W-W-WICKED WORKINGS

>>5349321
>I copy out a passage in a notebook/text document.
Good luck doing that with Proust. When I was in my Proust class a few semesters ago -- professor made us read all seven volumes during the semester -- I had no time to copy one passage that was two pages long. I just put a star next to the passage, then wrote in a notebook the page of the passage that I marked to go back for future reference.

Marking needs to be done , i dont think its a crime, its useful and if its done correctly doest bother other readers. I prefer pen or a pencil but i rarely highlight fictional books.

>not just using a printer/scanner

plebs

>>5349527
>not memorizing the entire book in under a day
plebs

lemme see your notebooks

I'm fine with marginalia, but I tend to keep notes in either notebooks or .txt files.

>>5349478

Considering it's a well known work, I'm sure you'd be able to find an ebook to copy and paste out of.

>>5348927
Is the green an ogre reference?

Highlighting and underlining (except in small amounts) have been shown to reduce comprehension.

I "interact" with "texts" by reading them and remembering important things.

reading for pleasure I don't mark anything.

reading to work with the text, I write all over the book (if it's paperback).

>>5349467
You're welcome, mate.
>>5349859
Nope, it was just one of the four colors I had, and it stood out from pink, yellow and orange to me. So it made most sense to make that a catagory that didn't have to do with importance.

>>5349478
>professor made us read all seven volumes during the semester

Shit, that's impressive. What was that like? I imagine part of you is irrevocably an effeminate Frenchman now.

>>5349478

Made you? Was it a Proust class? Reading everything is par for the course when you take an entire semester on someone (FW being the exception with Joyce).

>>5348898
These days I take minimal or no notes in the book and keep an rtf file for each book.

>>5348898
I even try to keep the back of paperbacks unwrinkled.
This makes me cringe.

>>5349891
>Made you? Was it a Proust class?

Yup, the class was on Proust. The course title was "Proust".

>Reading everything is par for the course when you take an entire semester on someone
Understandably so. I assumed that going into the course, which didn't frighten me due to my previous exposure of Proust before enrolling. However, the professor over the years of teaching the course realized that the students never really finished it (they only looked up synopses). So he changed it to a graduate level class. I was only allowed to take it because I knew the professor quite well.

>>5349885
>What was that like?
It was a struggle being fastidious with the Proust reading and readings for my other courses. I neglected my other classes for Proust though (it was my priority), especially since, like I mentioned to the other anon, it was a graduate level class thereby he expected more out the class. I'm glad I took the course. I never found him exhaustible. I still to this day re-read passages that I marked down and it brings me happiness. However, I prefer Robert Musil instead, after finishing Vol. 2. :)

>I imagine part of you is irrevocably an effeminate Frenchman now.
I do not doubt that at all. Virginia Woolf also recognized this effect that Proust has on the reader.

>>5349885
so a patrician?

I rip out pages I've finished reading, then when I'm done and the book is just a binding I glue it together with all the other book-husks I've created. It's going to be on exhibition at my uni's art department, I've decided to call it "The."

>>5348898
>>5348927
girls detected

>>5348898
In This Thread:
>not eating and inwardly digesting the words as you go along

>>5348898
I just use a pencil. It's probably less useful than your method, but that seems like a pain in the ass.

>>5350005
>mfw I'm not even a girl

>>5350039
>marking your books in different pretty colours
you have at the very least fantasized about being a qt girl

I don't. I rarely if ever come up with anything worthwhile to add to the margins while reading, I need time to process my thoughts. Doing shit like >>5348927 just screams ADD and looks like shit.

>>5350057
I have not. I've also been called ''the most manly man'' by a girl friend of mine, if that means anything. Admitted, she doesn't know I highlight my books like that.

Can you think of a better system to mark your books in a orderly fashion, then?

>>5350065
Do you often write the title of your lesson with letters at least 4 times bigger than your normal writing ?

And do you usually write the title with a different color pen ?

Do you write down the important things with a different colour pen?

In your classes do you ever carry a pen with more than one colour; or carry one blue and one red pen ?

If you answered yes to any of these-you are a girl.

>>5350114
>implying I take notes during lectures
I usually just end up drawing things that nobody likes, but that I cherish for the fact that I have created them.

>>5350065
Not marking at all.

>>5349704
>>5349704

>>5348898
>>5348927
>>5348954
>>5349501
>>5349880

Absolutely despicable

I'll bookmark a page with a passage I enjoyed or think is particularly weighty or meaningful and take notes on a separate piece of paper if I feel compelled to.

I'd never so much as fucking entertain the thought of writing in the goddamn thing. The idea of doing that just makes me sad. Why would you want to deface your books like that?

>>5349478
Why would you bother copying out a passage, especially a long one? You write "Pg. 313-315: All-England Summarize Proust Competition ends with prize being awarded to girl with biggest tits," and carry on. I survived my PhD without marking up books.

I write notes with a Sharpie marker on my Kindle screen.

When I read books in foreign languages on a train or in bus I mark words I didn't know and want to remember.

>>5349923
What's Proust like at that pace? I've been reading Remembrance tiny bits at a time for years (I'm still only on the third book). I find after a while I grow satiated with his voice, and, without much of a plot (unless I'm too pleb to notice it), there's little incentive for continuing onward when that happens. I still enjoy it though, just in pieces. It's like catching up with an old friend.

>>5350691
Their teacher lied to them that intelligent people do that.

>>5350064
Why do you care what your book looks like? it's about absorbing the information within it.
Also, how does it scream ADD?
Caring so much about keeping your pages unmarked, ergo being able to find crucial parts in the text less easily sounds more like a mental disorder than organizing the way you study, but alright.

What good is a clean book?

>>5350912
It allows others to read the author's thoughts without your scrawlings and defacings guiding and distracting them. It doesn't permanently ruin the book.

>>5350912
Besides 'language', what you write in those margins?

>>5350990
The book is mine and I'll never lend it to anyone. It's also a means of me digesting the ideas contained therein.
>implying I don't have 3 copies of Beyond Good and Evil, 2 of which are wore out rainbows.

Stop fetishizing books.

>>5350912
guess you don't like clean photographs either faggot

>>5348898
Do you make timestamps when you watch a movie too?
Or sticky notes when listening to some cool parts of songs?
Do you have a notepad when the drop hits on a dubstep song?

>>5351039
Jesus. Stop fetishizing Nietzsche.

>>5351049
I remember the thoughts I had when I added a note on the text, every word I've underlined. Not only does it help to better understand a text upon rereading, but it's a reminder of what I used to think and what I thought was important.

Reading my old rainbow books is a trip because I'm not only understanding the texts anew, but also reminded of the differences. It's a trip.

My books are for me.

>>5351057
I have yet to exhaust the texts. In a few years maybe.

You people make me sick.

The ONLY time I write in a book is in my foreign-language instructional textbooks, writing down a word that the professor defined, an irregular verb conjugation, etc.

What do you do, do you actually go back and reread them?

>>5348898
I never mark books. I can recall where a passage is without it. I never even use bookmarks.

>>5348898
You mean completely desecrating the text? What a waste, you have no respect for a book.

>>5351312
>descrating
>a text
maximumkek

>>5351286
I can't imagine any piece of high literature can be properly appreciated and understood in one read.

No exceptions.

>>5348898
Fuck. What OP did is sacrilege to me.

Maybe all the pretty colors help you concentrate on the words in the book, I'm sorry, and I don't hate you, but I really hate what you did to whatever book the pic is supposed to be
Just hoping it's a random google images pic OP uploaded and nobody on /lit/ would confuse coloring the whole book with 'marking' important passages

But to answer your question, I usually read the important passages enough number of times to either know exactly where they are or they automatically open to those pages

>>5351334
Yes, but If I were to do that I wouldn't skip over all the unmarked passages

If what you do for an education/living requires it, I don't see what's wrong with marking up a book.

Actually I don't see what's wrong with doing it at all, unless it's a library book. It's just a damn book, a physical object. If marking it up helps you strengthen your understanding of the text, or your relationship with the text, all the better for you.

OP's method seems like a fucking stupid waste of time though.

>>5351312
Shut up, nerd.

>>5351335
I bet you fucking dogear the shit out of books

>>5351401
hell no
anyone who ever dogears any of my books never gets lent a book again.
No i'm not a librarian
I really do love books that I respect
Though useless crap books that I bought by mistake are nothing more than a block of wood to me

No i keep a separate notebook for that kind of thing.

Also highlighting doesnt really work on most paperbacks because of the thin paper.

Do what helps you read, and what helps you process, remember, and make use of what you read. The book is just the physical vehicle and you shouldn't be worried about "disrespecting it" unless you're one of those dumbass who's more obsessed with the physical act of reading than the cognitive.

I have more respect and interest for someone who's marked the hell out of his books because it indicates to me that he's actually thinking about what he's reading. Similarly a shelf full of creased, bet-up books is a lot more intriguing to me than a shelf full of pristine ones.

>>5351477

>I have more respect and interest for someone who's marked the hell out of his books because it indicates to me that he's actually thinking about what he's reading.

Not really there is more than one way to take notes and engage with the text. The real problem though is people who do this with library or lent books I often come across library books where entire chapters are highlighted in the same colour -thats not thinking thats just lazyness.

>>5348898
>books should be pristine
>i wash my hands before touching a book
>i dont breathe on my books
>my books are only stored in a vacuum
>they should look like they have never been touched


these people are repressing something major

like getting touched by their OCD uncle or something

>>5351495

This is true, maybe I was jumping the gun a bit.

I just don't think marking up a book is some kind of barbaric act.

>>5351510
>completely blows other arguments out of proportion
>mentions getting touched by uncle

Need to share something, anon?

>>5351520
I can certainly understand that, especially when it comes to text books and paperbacks (that you own of course) however I find it hard to accept or do when it comes to nicer quality books and those which whilst not rare are still hard to come by.

>Let cousin borrow The Odyssey for school that I had read earlier. Lovingly cared for
>Emphasised "Borrow" to her
>Recieved back
>Fucking disfigured, bent and folded. Pages colored not for literary purposes, but for fuckin' doodling much akin to OP
>Demanded to know why she didn't take care of it
>"It's just a book anon, get over it. Buy another one"
>Uncle and Aunt refuse to buy me a new one
>Later get her arrested and sent to juvie by letting the police know about her drugs
Never again.

>>5348898
>highlighting every god damn word
>literally not leaving a single word un-highlighted
holy shit that's stupid.

>>5351510
I'm very careful with my books, because I worked hard to get them, or they were gifts from relatives. The furthest extent I'll go is not letting people borrowing my books if I notice their bad habits, lest they receive my ire.

>>5351582
I think the disrespect is the bigger problem that the actual damage done to the book itself. I generally operate under the return it in the condition you received in.

How old was your cousin?

Sidenote because I have family/friends who dont take care of books but I still want to discuss the books with them I keep second lending copies of certain ones to get around this
.

>>5351510
>people say highlighting a book is bad
>slippery slope the argument to make them look like OCD retards

I don't highlight my books, but I don't babby them either. More books than I would like to admit have been 'flagged', and not a single one has pristine pages. I lose book marks so I dog ear, and since I don't always stop in the same place as I was a previous read through, my dog ears are on quite a few pages. I also bend the spine around on paper backs so I can hold it comfortably in 1 hand

>>5351582
>get her arrested and sent to juvie
If that was true it's be so sweet

>>5348898
I would never never do that to a book :^(
My eighth grade English teacher and Dead Poets Society (R.I.P sweet prince) told me that books are more special than just paper!

I prefer not to mark books because I like my books to be in as good condition as possible. I can't really say why, it just enhances enjoyment. The only time I ever write in a book is when a professor insists. They used to make us do that in high school all the time, but professors generally don't care if you do or don't. People like to make the argument that it's essential to understanding the novel, but I never thought so. I do, however, take notes on a separate page when I read. Something about writing in the book just seems so wrong to me.

>>5348898
What book is this. Tell me.

>>5349453
>not knowing how computers work

Sure feels good having infinite copies of every book and infinite notepads to write in. But the buying two books thing, that's cute.

>>5351812
Google it, scrub.

>>5351582
>mfw I just lent my only copy of Lovecraft to my little sister and this is making me paranoid as fuck

>>5351852
Seriously. It's fucking 2014. Niggers need to get with it.

>>5349453
>implying poor people read

>Selling books
>Not keeping them forever and making them yours
As long as it isn't borrowed from a friend or library, I mark anything and everything I feel like in the margins. OP's would make my eyes bleed though, I just use pen or pencil

anything but pencil is the act of an illiterate animal

>>5352005
Where do you think they stay/shit/shower(sink if you're wondering)/goontheinternettolookforjobs/sleep. The library.

>>5352014
>Pencil
still in high school, buddy?

>>5348898
I don't mark books but don't really care if people mark cheap paperbacks(although I would be annoyed of someone marked one of my paperbacks) and I don't really take particular care of my cheap paperbacks

I do take of my hardcovers though

If I lent a Folio Society edition to someone and it came back damaged I would get them to buy me a new one

If I owned a rare historic book and someone Highlighted part of the text in pink and wrote their vapid observations in the margin then if I did not suffer a catastrophic mental break I would completely Disown the friend and sue them for damages

>>5348898

Pick like using my kindle for this, so I can type out whole paragraphs of response dire reply off of on of the authors points, but then it just shows up as a neat little asterisks.

When a paperback, I'll usually just strike up a conversation about the principles of the idea with my girlfriend, just to kick around the concept in a philosophic arena.

>>5348898
>get a fookin notebook
>make a fookin note and write down the fookin page number and fookin line
>???
Please don't do this shit, why ruin the book?

If I owned the Dead Sea Scrolls I would be so pissed if someone underlined them.

>>5352716
>not highlighting the dead sea scrolls in sharpie
Do you even read?

>>5352716
That's funny given the amount of marginalia in some old religious texts. Some of it is monks having hundred year long flamewars that amount to "that's not how u translate fgt, lrn2/greek"

I underline sentences I would quote in a critical essay, and maybe qualify it with notes on a separate sheet.

>>5353002
kek