I can see the merit of annotating books as a way of studying a piece of literature for figurative language, foreshadowing, and structure but why do people write directly into the book? Wouldn't it be easier to keep a journal or some other type of dialogue?
I personally cannot bring myself to write in my books. I will post it flag certain pages and I do keep a journal of favorite quotes and thoughts while reading books, but I just can't fathom the idea of writing in my books. In college I would write in some of my text books but I would get mad at myself if I messed it up or if it didn't look good. I would also feel bad for writing in a book when I might not always keep it.
I have a friend that reads books to pieces and she says she doesn't care what the book looks like (cracked spine, water stains, etc.) because it gives it character. A book with a broken spine and wrinkled cover is well-loved in her eyes. Which is all fine and good but I, on the other hand, think that even though my books look almost like new, they too are well loved.
I did try out annotating an ARC (advanced reader copy) of a book last year and I did like the freedom of being able to mark the pages, underline witty lines, and write in my comments and guesses as to where the plot was going to go. It was a fun experiment but I still don't feel right with doing it with finished copies of books. I will stick with my post it flags and quote journal.
What do you think? Do you annotate your books? If so, do you only annotate for specific things? If not, would you ever try?
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