Do you write in your books?

I'm constantly writing in my books. I don't know when I started doing it, but every book I touch (that's mine) ends up with notes in the margin and underlined quotes. My friends always act scandalized when they see them. What about you guys? Do you write in your books or does the very thought upset you?

 

No, never! My mum would kill me. Well, I'm an adult now, but I can already hear mum scolding me at just the thought of making the slightest notation in a book.

 

Only in text books that I owned in university. Now I keep a pad of sticky notes handy so if I want to write something down, I can stick it on the page without damaging the book and pull it off later. Sometimes a book has so many characters, it's the only way I can keep up with them.

 

I've been known to do it, but not since my school days. After my experience working in a library, I can't bring myself to do it. If I find a quote I like, I'll mark it with post-it tape and add it to Goodreads later. With my book club I just make notes on a separate sheet and write down the corresponding page number.

 

I'm a marginalia devotee. It's kind of like exchanging ideas with the author. One of my biggest frustrations with eBooks is the loss of writing notes or underlining with a pen. Highlighting and marking up in comments just isn't the same. My favorite books are well-used and cherished because of all those handwritten notes along the sides.

 

Ellie Jane, mothers have a way of doing that! I can still hear mine screaming at me every time I don't feel like making the bed.

Donna, I used to think University was when I started getting really bad about writing in my books without a care in the world but looking at books from my childhood, I must've picked up the habit from somewhere else. Sticky notes are a great idea.

Jordan, I can definitely see how your experience in a library would change your mind. I used to handwrite them too, but I always end up losing the pages somewhere. I have too many notebooks and no organization. I at least know I'm never going to lose my book. I wish that strategy worked for me though. Wish I was in a book club too!

C. Lee McKenzie, I'm glad I'm not the only one. It really does feel that way. That's one of the reasons I'm not a big fan of eBooks as well. It just isn't the same. Alas, at least print books are still an option.

 

Can't really do that with a Kindle, and any notes always appear off somewhere else.

But no, never wrote in a book and most of the times I've seen it it's normally defacement by someone trying to be clever and failing miserably. Those were mainly library books.

 

The only ones I've marked up where textbooks that I had bought specifically for the purpose of marking up. I have seconds where they are unmarked so I can feel both evil and virtuous at the same time depending on what I need out of them.

 

Haha, Terry - sounds like you're having your cake and eating it too! And that's really the only way to have cake.

Kindler, that's one of the reasons I have a hard time switching over to Kindle despite its many upsides.