To underline certain bits while reading books.

[LauraSaidIShouldBeNicer]

I LOVE reading and quite often have the urge to underline certain bits that resonate with me or is particularly powerful. It might even develop into margin notes. Is this odd?

I've never done it until today I have always not wanted to "deface" my book incase I want to pass it on and today I thought sod it it's my book if I want to I will......

Is a highlighter too far

I know you can’t beat the feel of a real book etc. But being able to highlight passages and make notes without defacing the book is one of the great things about ebooks 😊

If the book belongs to you and isn't borrowed you can do what you like with it.

If I read something that resonated with me I would be more likely to create a Word document and copy it, so if I wanted to go back to it I wouldn't have to search through a book for it.

On the kindle you can automatically highlight bits so surely it’s quite normal?! If you don’t want to deface as you might want to pass on, take a pic on your phone of the bits you resonate with?

Get a kindle - you can do that without wrecking the book

If you're worried about defacement op, how about those lite pointy post it notes?

I hate the idea of writing in books but if you want to do it, and it's your property, why not?

Would your notes ruin the book for you if you wanted to re-read it, though?

You can buy erasable highlighters

Get a kindle. You can do this very easily.

I always pass on my books or give them to charity shops. No one wants a marked up book, plus I don't necessarily want my friends to see what I'm thinking/feeling.

@LikeACatInTheDark

You can buy erasable highlighters

@LikeACatInTheDark Blimey you learn something new every day.

I was exactly the same! Then read a book recently where I couldn't resist the urge. It was so freeing!
I'll be keeping the book, and other than lending it to a handful of people no one else will even know.
I say do it.

I don’t because I often give books to charity when I’m finished with them. I do sometimes take a photo/note a line down in my journal if it catches me and I want to remember it.

I've recently been reordering my bookshelves, and found some of my old books from A-level and college days; there are notes in the margins, and it's definitely my handwriting, but sometimes a bit eerie when you don't remember writing it!
I'm old-fashioned enough to keep a "commonplace book" though; still find it interesting to see what resonated with me as a teenager.

I buy a lot of second hand books and really enjoy seeing what people have underlined

Why can't you use a pencil?

I do this, I like being able to look back and see what jumped out at me when I reread them.

Semi related - we have a copy of a book about grief that has been passed round people we know whenever they needed it (depressing, I know) and a few people had underlined bits. It felt like a little handhold reading through it and seeing which lines helped friends in their own hard times.

Seems a bit wanky

@actingsergeant

Seems a bit wanky

Genuine question. Why? No one is ever evrn going to know

Id also love to know what's 'wanky' about it? I mean writing "this passage made me sob and really resonates with my heartbreak" in a chick lit novel is different to underlining interesting quotes, or marking in the margins where 2 books cross over.

I did the second. In some Holocaust memoirs.

I also enjoy seeing what other people have underlined and certainly don't see it as defacement. Now how can I underline 'seems a bit wanky'.

@Macncheeseballs have you read "Swimming Lessons" by Clare Fuller? A lovely book with quite an emphasis on the underlining and notes found in second hand books. I think it would be right up your street!

A lot of people are weird about books.
I think if its your book you can underline it and scribble any notes you want.
Same for folding over corners and dripping your tea on it.
Some people in my Facebook book groups would be nearly fainting at the thought

@actingsergeant 100%

[quote Mydogisagentleman]@actingsergeant 100%[/quote]
Can you articulate why? Assuming she's not going to make people then read it

What are you going to do with your under-linings and your notes? Are you ever going to look at them again? So I wonder why you would be doing it? To what purpose?

Are you going to write book reviews for yourself / online? Write notes for yourself somewhere, which allow you to make connections between books, on themes etc? Make a book of great quotes?

Or is it just acting out an urge, to no purpose? Or, do you think if you take this first step, it might lead you to other steps? Perhaps you need to do one thing at a time, to find out what it is you want to do with your notes.

I remember a university lecturer insisting that we wrote notes on our textbook. It was hard for some people to do! That was as part of a process of learning, when we would be going back to the material, using those notes, they might be useful when essay-writing and revising.

YABU. You can get sticky notes for that which work without defacing the book.