annotating in books

[Ann.without.an.e]

Do you let them?  or do you make them use post-its?  I know that we are supposed to let them mark the heck out of it.  Why do I struggle with that so much?  :crying:

[Mom22ns]

I can't write in a book and neither can my ds, even though I've given him permission. It is just too against the grain here. We use stickies.

[Ann.without.an.e]

I can't write in a book and neither can my ds, even though I've given him permission. It is just too against the grain here. We use stickies.

 

 

It just feels so wrong to take a perfectly good book and make it unusable, especially with four kiddos :001_rolleyes:

[yvonne]

Let them write in the book! I was a lit major so my books are loved to death (ie, heavily annotated)!  I think of it as fully engaging with the book, immersing oneself, incorporating one's own thoughts/feelings/impressions, almost like carrying on a conversation with the author.  Personally, if it's a book I really like, I HAVE to write in it. It makes it my own. I like seeing those "thought prints" (like foot prints in sand) throughout the book when I reread it. I can see where I've been and whether my perspective has changed.  If it's a book they might love, let them write in it!

 

That said, I hate reading books that others have annotated, so I do purchase each child his own copy of a book. (I can often get unmarked, used books for a decent price.)  To me the cost of the book (except for those pricey textbooks) is so minimal compared to the benefits they get from annotating freely in the book.

 

Also, if I asked my kids to annotate on post it notes, I know it would become so onerous (for them, maybe not for all kids) that they would minimize any notes they made.

 

 

[Ellie]

Do you let them?  or do you make them use post-its?  I know that we are supposed to let them mark the heck out of it.  Why do I struggle with that so much?  :crying:

 

If we own the books, heck yeah!!! Underlines and highlighters and everything. Whatever it takes.

[katilac]

We don't annotate, but mostly because we find it far more helpful to just take separate notes. 

[8filltheheart]

It just feels so wrong to take a perfectly good book and make it unusable, especially with four kiddos :001_rolleyes:

It is all in the POV. We don't see it as making books unusable but more so. We annotate so that our thoughts, questions, definitions, excitement all become integrated with the book. It is like a conversation between the book or author and the reader. Annotated books are personal and are not meant to be read by others. The can become prized possessions. I lost my annotated Abolition of Man. (Made me so sad, but I bought another copy and I am having a new conversation with Lewis with a different life perspective.)

[shawthorne44]

I'm so annoyed by annotations, I'd be annoyed by my own.  

i briefly played with underlining in textbooks at the urging of 'experts'.   At least for me, underlining meant I was telling my brain I'd learn it later, then I never would.  Whereas if I wrote down what I would have underlined, I learned it then. 

[SilverMoon]

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Edited August 31, 2023 by SilverMoon

[JudoMom]

No.  We have limited funds, and I feel buying 5-6 copies of all the literature books simply isn't a good use of our funds.  Notes are taken in a separate notebook.  Also, I hate reading annotated books, even if I was the one to mark them up.  When I read, I want to encounter the material in the frame of mind I am currently in, not in the frame of mind I was formerly in or with someone else's thoughts.  Finally, I feel that writing down instead of highlighting or underlining helps cement the thoughts.

Not the popular opinion, but there it is, nonetheless.

[MysteryJen]

No. We have limited funds, and I feel buying 5-6 copies of all the literature books simply isn't a good use of our funds. Notes are taken in a separate notebook. Also, I hate reading annotated books, even if I was the one to mark them up. When I read, I want to encounter the material in the frame of mind I am currently in, not in the frame of mind I was formerly in or with someone else's thoughts. Finally, I feel that writing down instead of highlighting or underlining helps cement the thoughts.

 

Not the popular opinion, but there it is, nonetheless.

 

My thoughts exactly.

[JanetC]

For those who can't/won't write in books, this is a decent system for storing quick annotations separately, particularly for textbooks and nonfiction:

 

http://davidseah.com/node/the-fast-book-outliner/

 

For what it's worth, annotations done poorly can be a hindrance to learning. If you just learn to recognize and underline/star the key points, you may not actually learn them as well as if you are forced to write out notes and put things in your own words (what the passage means, why it is important, etc.).

[Wildcat]

I hate writing in books. I think it comes from the fact that I'm a bit OCD and the thought of writing in a new bothers me a LOT and part of it is that I don't write small. :tongue_smilie: I also dislike the idea for reasons others mentioned above.

 

That said, I bought used copies from our library's used book store or thrift stores for $.25-$1.00 and let my dc mark the heck out of their copies. It is amazing how many copies of some of these books the thrift stores have. Once in a while, they liked the book enough to want a new copy.. those became fodder for birthday & Christmas wish lists.

 

Stickies can work, and work well, but the paper in some books soaked up the adhesive and left marks on the pages. That bothered all of us so the dc just started marking up their copies.

[SilverMoon]

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Edited February 11 by SilverMoon

[Junie]

I hate reading books that have been written in.  The dc don't even know that some people do write in their books.  (Well, other than the occasional yard sale book that was embellished by a toddler and his favorite crayon.)

[8filltheheart]

That said, I bought used copies from our library's used book store or thrift stores for $.25-$1.00 and let my dc mark the heck out of their copies.

 

Once in a while, they liked the book enough to want a new copy.. those became fodder for birthday & Christmas wish lists.

This is our approach as well. My kids do not annotate all of their books, but the ones they do are not expensive copies, but cheap ones. For books they treasure, they might buy special copies just for reading, no annotating.

 

But with the exception of a handful of books, my kids don't typically read the same books, even for school. The list of books where multiple copies of the same book have been read and annotated is small.