Why I Started Highlighting My Books and Why You Should Too
To put it simply, I’ve started annotating my books.
When most people think of annotation, they think of multi-colored tabs, pens, a rainbow of highlighters, sticky notes, etc. Other people think of desecration, because why in the world would you ever write in a book?
I used to fall in the latter half of this. Books are special to me. I want them to be taken care of and writing in them did not seem like the way to go. I thought it would tarnish them. But now I’ve learned.
Annotating is a form of love.
How did I learn this?
I annotated a copy of Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson for one of my close friends. At first, writing in the book felt wrong. But I left a note on the title page and then went at it with my pens and my highlighters and I enjoyed every second of it.
The same day she convinced me to go buy more books. That, of course, is not a very hard thing to do but I’m in the process of reading a couple of them. I opened one of the books, started reading, and found that I missed the highlighter. So I grabbed it and I started highlighting.
For those of you who have never annotated, it can be intimidating. What if you mark the book in a way you didn’t mean? What if you write something stupid in your book? What if it doesn’t look the way you think it should?
Here are some tips. Five, to be exact.
- Start off with a highlighter
When I’m reading, I choose to highlight my favorite parts, what I didn’t like, and things that feel integral to the plot. I use a green highlighter, a pink one, and a yellow one. Green is for things I loved, pink is for things I hate, and the yellow is for things I feel like I should remember but will probably forget.
The great thing about a highlighter is it takes so little effort. If you’re new to annotating and you’re scared of fully committing, this is a great place to start. You can thumb through the book and see what parts you liked and what parts you didn’t with a simple glance. (I do this frequently. If a book is mainly red, I assume its a two star rating.)
You don’t have to color code it, either. You can take a highlighter and mark the parts that feel significant to you.
However, if you do want to color code your book but you don’t want to mark it up, you could also do it with sticky tabs. I found this to be annoying because I always lost my little pad of tabs, but maybe you’re more organized than me. Below is an example from Vicious by V.E. Schwab, and another from A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult.
2. Underline things that upset you
Books can be… Infuriating at times. When I’m having a hard time with a book, a highlighter just isn’t enough. I have to take a pen to it, underline it, and scribble in the margins about how much this decision bothers me. Luckily, this doesn’t happen that often.
I also like to underline things that don’t quite make sense to me. If I underline them rather than highlighting them, they’ll stand out to me and I’ll be able to revisit them. I do like to revisit the things that I didn’t understand. Often times, they become clear as the plot develops. Underlining them makes it easier to find them.
3. Scribble in the margins
This is not something I do often. In fact, its something I’ve really only done in Mistborn when I was annotating it for my friend. I hate pausing to write something down.
When I was in Maine reading A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult, I had a blue pen with me the entire time and I chose not to use it. I was too busy being overwhelmed. However, when I was reading My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrick Backman, I made notes. The abstract world the grandmother created and that the child uses to process grief confused me at first. Taking notes helped. I also really liked her granny as a character. I noted that, to. Below is an example of that.
Engaging with the text by writing in the book can help you remember plot points, character arcs, and worldbuilding. If you don’t want to mark up your book, just use index cards or sticky notes. Super easy and simple if you have the patience to pause and scribble a note.
4. Use symbols to mark your favorite parts
I personally haven’t done this yet, mainly because I’ve been reading a lot of ebooks recently (I’m reading ebooks so I can read more of The Stormlight Archives while I’m at work. I mean… on break at work.) but I really want to. I plan on doing it with the next hard copy book I read.
You could mark your favorite chapter, your favorite scene, even your favorite character with a star, a heart, or another simple doodle. I feel like this may be something that is more for a reread of a book. For example, if I were to reread A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas, I’d have a giant heart on chapter fifty-four. I still cry every time I read it. But I don’t know if I would’ve put a heart on that chapter on my first read through.
Using doodles to mark your favorite parts is a cute way to personalize the book.
5. It doesn’t have to look a certain way.
It can be easy to fall prey to comparisons. Why don’t my annotations look as organized as theirs? Are my observations as detailed or thought out?
Annotations are personal. They are for you. No one else is going to be reading them, not unless you lend the book out. And if you’re lending your books out to people who are going to judge you for your personal annotations, then that’s a separate conversation all together.
Perfection is boring. Imperfect notes will give the book character. Character will increase the sentimental value of the book.
Books, especially good ones, often end up close to the heart. It can be scary writing in a book for the first time, but I promise you it is worth it. I love my annotated books. I know I really only highlight lines, but I’m excited to reread them in a couple of years and see how my perspective has changed.
How do you annotate your books? Leave a comment below!