Bookish Things: Annotating Text (#3)

Do you annotate your books by writing directly into the book?

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?

Want to read more commentary from me about different bookish things? Leave a suggestion below!

Bookish Things: My Reading Journey (#2)

This has been a trend in the booktube sphere and I thought I would share what I remember about how I got started reading and the evolution of my reading through my life up until now.

I was introduced to reading through my parents. They always read books to me when I was young. The main books that I remember reading when I was in early elementary school were the Little Golden Books, mainly Disney ones and I still own all of them now. I loved picture books and I remember A Bad Case of the Stripes was a favorite of mine.

Mid-Elementary school lent itself to chapter books, I read everything from Amber Brown to Magic Tree House books. I read poetry from Shel Silverstein. Some of my favorite books were Because of Winn Dixie, Fever 1793, and Caddie Woodlawn. I don’t really remember how much reading was apart of my life but I do know I enjoyed book fairs and the books I do remember reading.

Late-elementary/middle school was where I really blossomed as a reader. I began reading Harry Potter, Series of Unfortunate Events, The Princess Diaries, and Lurlene McDaniel books. This was my horse phase, I read all of the horse books I could get my hands on, my favorites being the Heartland books. I also read a lot of the Dear America and Royal Diaries books and even was part of a book club for the Dear America books. These books were my intro to historical fiction and lead me to reading more about Pocahontas, Hellen Keller, and Anne Frank among many other historically significant people as well has historical events such as the sinking of the Titanic. At this point I had become a library card holder and begged to go to the library whenever I could. I checked out 5 books or more every two weeks and devoured them. 

This was a huge turning point in my reading. My school had this program called Reading Counts where we earned points for the books we read and we had to earn so many points a marking period (basically like the current Accelerated Reader program). My school also gave prizes to the top reader of the grade, and I am a competitive person so that program did it’s magic for me because I became an avid reader!

I am very thankful that my parents never tried to shelter my reading. I was allowed to read whatever I wanted. I discovered a lot of things through reading. I learned many lessons about life, love, and friendship through the words in hundreds of different books. I remember checking out books with titles like “When Dad Killed Mom” and my mom supporting my choices and just reminding me that if I had questions I could talk to her. It was so nice to not be hindered by someone else’s prejudices and being able to read what I wanted. Most of my character and personality has come from the books that I have read and I feel like I grew wiser faster than most of my age group because of the opportunities I had through reading.

In high school I think I read more than I paid attention during class. High School was where I discovered Scott Westerfeld, Anna Godbersen, and so many other fantastic writers. I also got pulled into the Twilight craze in my senior year. I stuck with mostly YA books in high school with the occasional classic and play title that I had to read. I also branched into poetry and really began to enjoy the genre because of Emily Dickinson and Mattie Stepanek. This was also where I started trying to keep track of how many books I read in a year, but that was pretty hard without the discovery of GoodReads.

In college I used reading as my escape even more. I devoured the Maximum Ride Series, the Mortal Instruments, and the Millennium trilogy. By this point I had reread Harry Potter for the 10th time and still loved every word. I discovered John Green, the Gone Series, Hunger Games, and read so many different kinds of books. 

After college to now I have transferred into a hobbyist reader. It is the thing that I love to do in my free time. I reread some favorites but more recently I have been focusing on collecting classics that I haven’t read and growing my TBR exponentially. I am still an avid reader and I have a set reading goal each year now that I have GoodReads helping me keep track. I am still a huge fan of YA but I have also been reading middle grades and adult. I also discovered how to get ARC’s from NetGalley and began reviewing books.

I am now a teacher and am working a full time job so my reviewing has fallen off in consistency but if you would like me to write a full review of a book that I have read this year please let me know and I will get one done asap! Thanks for reading!

Bookish Things: Unread Books (#1)

Introduction

In an attempt to make this blog more than just reviews I am starting a new segment called "Bookish Things" where I talk about different bookish topics and my take on them. The topics I have planned so far are: My Reading Journey, eBooks vs. Hard Copies, Book Covers, and Annotations. I am hoping that this can become a regular addition to my other posts and that my viewers will suggest new topics for me to write about!

Bookish Things: Unread Books

I thought this would be an interesting topic because if you don't know I own over 700 books (rough count). Of those 700 I may have read about 300 books. Yes, I currently have more unread books than read books on my shelf (obviously this only accounts for books that I own, I have read more than 300 books in my 24 years).

Some people may be outraged by this, "Why would you keep buying books if you can't read them right away?" you say? Well that is easy. Buying books for me, and book shopping in general, is therapeutic for me. I enjoy it, and the books when I eventually read them. I can not deny myself the simple (but expensive) pleasure of buying books when I want to. It's fun and I love my collection of books. I have to give mad props to the people who can buy a stack of books and read them before buying another stack of books. That takes some serious will power and I just don't have it.

Another question that has probably crossed your mind is "Do you buy them all new?" No, I do receive some books as gifts but I buy most of my books from library sales, bargain outlets, or used book stores. When I do buy new books I try to purchase from independent book shops in my community rather than supporting big chains. Sometimes supporting Amazon, Book Depository, or Barnes and Noble is inevitable depending on the book I am looking for.

Finally I am sure some people are thinking "how do you plan to read all of these books?" I don't know. I just pick a book that I want to read at the moment and go with it! Sometimes it may be a reread but for the most part I focus on books that are unread. I hope I can read all of the books that I currently own as soon as I can but I can't really guarantee that. It all depends on my tastes and moods at the time. Will I get rid of books that I don't have interest in anymore? Most likely. I don't want to hold onto a book that someone else could be enjoying but as long as it still holds my interest then it will be read eventually.

I buy books to support the author. If there is an author I love I will purchase all the books I can by them even if I can't read them right away.

I do have some plans to curb my purchasing of books to only books I am extremely excited about and the subscription books I get from Owl Crate and The Book Drop. Obviously I am not going to stop buying books or ban myself from them for an extended amount of time (some girls have shoe shopping, my form of retail therapy is book shopping) because I seriously enjoy getting books. I am not ashamed of my TBR pile, it is a glorious mountain!

How do you feel about your unread books? Share in the comments below.