The rest of the book was covered in graffiti like a boxcar parked too long outside the train yard: scribbles, circles, underlines, arrows, and rambling marginalia, all against a backdrop of pink highlighter swipes.
— Michael Perry, Montaigne in Barn Boots: An Amateur Ambles Through Philosophy
I’ve never understood why people do this to their books. I mean, strictly from a pragmatic point of view, wouldn’t it be easier and better to keep a notebook (or blog) for recording your thoughts as you make your way through a book, where you can annotate to your heart’s content? It’s the clutter that bothers me — the garish colors and illegible scrawls. It’s like trying to think after walking into a small, loud room. How can I profitably absorb anything with some Pink Highlighter Notation-bro braying at me the whole time? And how much space is there in the margins to record anything of substance anyway? It’s like having a Twitter feed scrolling alongside your reading. I’ve only ever used a red pen to make small brackets around a line or paragraph for future reference. My Darwinist attitude is, if I can’t remember why I bracketed this section, I probably didn’t have anything worthwhile to say about it anyway. And now that I’ve bought myself a Scanmarker for Christmas, I don’t even need to do that anymore. (It goes without saying, but people who dog-ear pages should be put in thumbscrews.)
January 2, 2019 @ 2:18 pm
Ugh, yes. I am guilty of marking up books, but only gently and in pencil. I’ll refuse to buy used books, even books I’ve been looking for for ages, if the copy on offer has any non-erasable markings in it.
January 2, 2019 @ 3:24 pm
I saw a book being advertised as Like New the other day with the description mentioning the “light highlighting and wear to the cover.” Oh, so…not like new, then? Other than the fact that it’s been obviously used, it’s basically new? A lot of things are like that, when you think about it.