Marginal Magic: Annotating Your Fun Reads
At first, I turned green at the thought of “defacing” my beloved books and limited myself to only annotating when I read on kindle. Like most bookish annotators, it all changed during my first read through of a book that I was loving (Shadow of Night), I came across a quote that I loved, and I’ve been tabbing my books ever since. I got a side-eye and an incredulous “you’re annotating your book?” from one of my daughters when she caught me highlighting. I learned that day, that most people saw it as work, or preparing for a test. They saw annotating books as studying or working up to a test or something. Fair point. Let’s be honest. The benefits of annotation for school, are the same when you’re annotating for fun. The differences between the two:
You aren’t going to fail the test if you miss something.
You can definitely share with the class. 😉
FUN!!!
Have you ever walked down memory lane with a song? Was transported back in time while looking at photos? Annotating my reads are like my very own time capsules that I can dig up and open whenever I feel like it. My thoughts and how I relate to certain things change as I grow, and re-reading a book that’s already been annotated can be thought provoking on a personal level.
I found that I was remembering more details, which comes in handy when reading epics/series. I’m never reading just one book at any given time, so annotating helps keep my storylines in order. I’m also a member of a book club. It is absolutely hair pulling level frustration to forget a detail, or where you’ve read it. I have noticed during discussions, that while we all read the same book, we didn’t all read it or interpret what the author and/or characters was trying to get across the same way.
New To Annotating? Here’s A Few Tips
Start with one of your favorite reads. When I started annotating my books, I began with my all-time favorite book A Discovery of Witches. I loved the book, I knew why I loved the book, and it was easier to find my annotating style.
Prepare to annotate, but don’t expect to annotate. Grab your tabbing supplies and keep them close just in case something grabs your attention while you are reading. I found that when I went into the read thinking about annotating, for example, creating my key before I even began to read, I was highligting and tabbing like a mad queen. I was LOOKING for passages to annotate instead of enjoying the book. Not to mention that my book looked like confetti once I finished.
Have fun and develop your own style. There are no concrete rules on annotating your reads. I’ve seen other book lovers doodle in the margins. Write snarky remarks about a character’s questionable decisions and draw entire scenes in the negative space at the beginning or end of a chapter.
How To Create Your Own Marginal Magic
While I hold firm to my statement on there’s no right or wrong way to annotate your reads, I do believe that you can’t annotate without the basics:
Pens
Highlighters
Transparent Post-its/sticky notes
Markers
Microphone
I know that a microphone seems odd, but I do like to create voice memos/notes to myself and for the blog.
I personally tend to stay away from markers and highlighters out of fear that I will ruin the book with the ink bleeding through the pages. Pens of all colors and styles and tabs are my favorites to use when annotating my books. Do you have a favorite way of annotating your reads? Which book did you have the most fun tabbing? For now, I had the most fun tabbing ACOMAF/ A Court of Mist and Fury.
