Marking Up Books

How I Mark a Book

Part 1: The Basics

Last Updated:

           

            A lot of people think writing in a book is vandalism. I think it’s simply art in the margins of something bigger. It’s personalization and ownership of ink and paper and threads. I’ve been writing in books all my life. I remember receiving a big Holy Bible with big words and ‘thou’s’ and ‘shant’s’ and all I did was write all over it. Now, I wouldn’t recommend writing in such a sacrilegious way, but I must’ve been about 5 or 6- so it was slightly acceptable. I have lots of old fairytale books that I’d write in and, back then, it wasn’t as meaningful as it is now, but it did lead me into finding the beauty in “vandalizing” literature.

Part 1: The Key

When reading certain books, I have certain things I write and highlight about. For a (fiction) book like “Not in the Script” by Amy Finnegan, I usually follow a basic key:

1.       Yellow highlighter: Important quotes, events, topics, and characters

2.       Pink highlighter: Quotes, literary practices, and ideas

Those are just the two basic coloring methods. I, of course, write in ink in the margins (I took a picture of a sample page but it accidentally deleted :( )  

Have any super neat ideas or techniques for book marking? Click on the contact tab and email them to me. I’d love to read them!