I am finally able to return to my own education. The first Big problem...

[ScholarSoul]

After many years, I am finally able to return to my own education. Due to time, place, finances and a brain slowed by age and decades of motherhood's endless rounds of housekeeping, I have started with "The Well-Educated Mind". I've read Part One, located an old unused spiral notebook for my journal, raided my kid's leftover school supplies for a pencil and a couple of ball-point pens. I've even ordered the first three books in the novel list.   They came today and I have a Big problem.  They are cheap paperbacks, as recommended, but they are new....they smell of the printing house and ink...I was raised to wash my hands and sit properly at a table and never eat while reading a book of any kind.  Note taking was done strictly with soft pencil lest one should be required to guiltily erase a stray pencil mark.....OMG ... on one hand I am ready to reclaim what little is left of my mind and on the other hand there is a potential energy barrier of past voices that looms large over such a little thing as defacing my own book. Help? Suggestions?

 

[Angie in VA]

The Nike Company said it best. "Just do it!" Write, highlight, underline away. May you enjoy the books so much you can't put them down, even if you eat something while you read. You are worth it. Promise.

 

Congratulations on finishing your homeschooling career (right?) and for embarking on your own education. :)

Edited April 13, 2016 by Angie in VA

[ScholarSoul]

Thank you Angie. Just do it! I think that's the first Post-It note! It is not quite a defacement, but still a verboten action. Margin notes, underlining, gasp! They are crimes from my background, perhaps I can bring them into justifiable action category. But highlighting, that would be the action of a unrepentant sinner! Perhaps, a step too far for me.  Without discussing my kid's background on the internet too much, (at their request), my child's education consisted of public education, homeschooling and then private education. The first lead to the second and the third was chosen out of necessity and local laws, which made the second no longer viable. "The Well-Trained Mind" was part of the home school education process and I always kept "The Well-Educated Mind" on the list for ....well, maybe someday....someday arrived!

[regentrude]

Would it help to get old beat up used copies of the books? DD prefers used books for her class work, so she does not have to feel bad about writing in them.

Otherwise: sticky notes are your friend. Big and small, and the little flags

[Janice in NJ]

Hi! (Waving from the wonderful island where we write in books quite intentionally! :001_smile: Shoot, they're my books. I could pickle 'em in vinegar if I wanted to. )

 

How much is you education worth? Is it worth the $30? Do you respect the printer's work more than the author's work? 

 

WRITE. IN. THE. BOOKS. Grab a pen. Right now. Just turn to page 37, and write, "This book is mine. I own it. I can do what I want in order to REALLY own it. I am worth the 10 bucks!" 

 

Then read the book and write in it. OWN Cervantes' work, not Houghton Mifflin's work! (The printers come and go; it's Cervantes who has stood the test of time. Don't you want to know why?)

 

When we read books that don't belong to us (school/library), they will never really belong to us. That's not the case now. IT IS YOURS! You wouldn't buy a coffee pot and set it in the corner. Your car? Your toilet? Do you eat your carrots? I would hope; they don't keep. Neither do books. (Not really! Have you ever been to a used library sale or a yard sale? NO ONE wants the old books. NO ONE!) They were printed in order to be consumed. Drink 'em in. Chew. Savor. And SWALLOW! 

 

Peace,

Janice

 

Enjoy your little people

Enjoy your journey

 

P.S. Just do it once. Try it. After you are done, if you feel you have ruined the book, throw it out, buy a fresh one, and call it a $10 failed experiment. However, you may discover that you have had it all wrong. Tricking kids into keeping their books pristine is an economic thing for schools and libraries. If we consider all of the money spent to run a school, I think it's one of the dumber trade offs. Kids should be taught to read their books. A massively inexpensive thing to try IMO if you consider the potential payout in a world where everyone types in order to be heard. Around here, school budgets are well over $10K per kid. For 100 bucks a kid per year, we might grow some readers.  ;)

Edited April 13, 2016 by Janice in NJ

[Zoo Keeper]

I just can't write in books;I make good use of post its, flags, and a notebook.

 

However...

 

my oldest is looking forward to using my father's paperback Shakespeare (all of the sonnets, three of the plays).  It is old  ;)(from the sixties, which is ancient in my kids' estimation).  It was my father's textbook for a class in college.  Ever the tightwad, he bought it used, so it contains his annotations, plus the thoughts of a few others.  As a teen, I loved this book because it gave me a glimpse of my father as a young man, as a student, as a person with ideas--not just the overworked middle aged man I saw every day. 

 

My son is looking forward to getting to read Shakespeare, but he is also looking forward to getting to read his grandfather as well. 

 

It's okay to write in the book.  :)

 

 

 

[katilac]

If it's a sticking point for you, there's nothing wrong with simply taking notes rather than writing in the book. 

 

That's what I do. For starters, the act of writing is an act of memory and studying for me, so it's definitely preferable to highlighting. And, any type of writing or highlighting in a book is very distracting to me, even my own, plus it makes it difficult for me to approach the text with fresh eyes when I return to it. 

 

So, do what works for you. There's nothing wrong with writing in a book, nothing wrong with taking notes instead. Take your notes your own way as well - I am driven to lunacy by Cornell notes, they don't work for me no matter how many others they do work for, or how highly they are regarded. 

 

Oh, one more thought about highlighting - I'm listening to an audio book about learning, and it says that few people use highlighting effectively. It's so easy to do that people overuse it, as opposed to writing (in the book or not), which takes effort. So I would default to writing, particularly after a long break from academics. 

[FaithManor]

Everyone else has already said what I would say, so I'm just going to be your cheerleading squad.

 

:hurray:  :hurray:  :hurray:  :party:  :thumbup:

[lllll]

nm

Edited April 20, 2016 by _ ?^..

[SparklyUnicorn]

I understand!  I do not write in books.  I cannot bring myself to do it.  Nope..never...ever.  I use a notebook.  If I want to take a note on a page, I write the page number down in the notebook and write my note.  That works just fine for me.

 

I have no idea why I feel this way.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

Just Do It. Wallow in the books and learn. Not for every book ever, you don't need a permanent personality transplant, but for these books that you want to study by this method (Well-Educated Mind), just do it.

 

I tutored a teen student whose homeschool education had been horribly neglected. I mailed her a big box of books (this was a distance learning situation) and all the supplies. By the end of the first week, she was still plugging away but complaining a little about being indoors too much. I told her there was no reason to sit bolt upright at her desk; take the books, pursue the usual rambles in the woods, and spread out a blanket and read!

 

She was shocked. Her mother had never allowed books outdoors, or reading while eating, or anything other than careful, rapt attention with clean hands...she'd never had permission to live with books. I told her that perspective was in the past! I gave her those books, they were for her learning, so get out there in the beautiful world and play, hike, ride, love, laugh, read. She took my advice. She's headed to college in the fall.

 

You do the same. You want to study the books, so study the books!  It might get messy, but if you can't make a mistake, you can't make anything.

[Angie in VA]

Hi! (Waving from the wonderful island where we write in books quite intentionally! :001_smile: Shoot, they're my books. I could pickle 'em in vinegar if I wanted to. )

 

How much is you education worth? Is it worth the $30? Do you respect the printer's work more than the author's work? 

 

WRITE. IN. THE. BOOKS. Grab a pen. Right now. Just turn to page 37, and write, "This book is mine. I own it. I can do what I want in order to REALLY own it. I am worth the 10 bucks!" 

 

Then read the book and write in it. OWN Cervantes' work, not Houghton Mifflin's work! (The printers come and go; it's Cervantes who has stood the test of time. Don't you want to know why?)

 

When we read books that don't belong to us (school/library), they will never really belong to us. That's not the case now. IT IS YOURS! You wouldn't buy a coffee pot and set it in the corner. Your car? Your toilet? Do you eat your carrots? I would hope; they don't keep. Neither do books. (Not really! Have you ever been to a used library sale or a yard sale? NO ONE wants the old books. NO ONE!) They were printed in order to be consumed. Drink 'em in. Chew. Savor. And SWALLOW! 

 

Peace,

Janice

 

Enjoy your little people

Enjoy your journey

 

P.S. Just do it once. Try it. After you are done, if you feel you have ruined the book, throw it out, buy a fresh one, and call it a $10 failed experiment. However, you may discover that you have had it all wrong. Tricking kids into keeping their books pristine is an economic thing for schools and libraries. If we consider all of the money spent to run a school, I think it's one of the dumber trade offs. Kids should be taught to read their books. A massively inexpensive thing to try IMO if you consider the potential payout in a world where everyone types in order to be heard. Around here, school budgets are well over $10K per kid. For 100 bucks a kid per year, we might grow some readers.  ;)

 

 

Two reasons why I just  :001_wub:  Janice in NJ!!!

[Angie in VA]

Just Do It. Wallow in the books and learn. Not for every book ever, you don't need a permanent personality transplant, but for these books that you want to study by this method (Well-Educated Mind), just do it.

 

I tutored a teen student whose homeschool education had been horribly neglected. I mailed her a big box of books (this was a distance learning situation) and all the supplies. By the end of the first week, she was still plugging away but complaining a little about being indoors too much. I told her there was no reason to sit bolt upright at her desk; take the books, pursue the usual rambles in the woods, and spread out a blanket and read!

 

She was shocked. Her mother had never allowed books outdoors, or reading while eating, or anything other than careful, rapt attention with clean hands...she'd never had permission to live with books. I told her that perspective was in the past! I gave her those books, they were for her learning, so get out there in the beautiful world and play, hike, ride, love, laugh, read. She took my advice. She's headed to college in the fall.

 

You do the same. You want to study the books, so study the books!  It might get messy, but if you can't make a mistake, you can't make anything.

 

 

Well done! I'm so glad she had the chance to have you in her life, Tibbie!

[DebbS]

I write in my books - highlighting, chapter summaries, notes in the margins. Sometimes I use sticky notes and sometimes not. To me, writing in a book means that the book has been taken more seriously.  A book is about the interaction between the writer and the readers. Without that interaction, the pages themselves have no meaning and no value. I actually enjoy seeing what other people have written in a book that I'm reading because now I have an interaction between myself, other readers and the author. So really, the writing and even dog ears are artifacts of that interaction. I say write away. Someday, somebody else is going to read those books and gain even more from them because of the mark that you left.

Edited April 14, 2016 by DebbS

[ScholarSoul]

Thank you all for your kind replies....bottom line: Start slow....in pencil...outside...with an apple.  I'll see you nice ladies after the first novel...and as I briefly look at the cover and table on contents of "Don Quixote"...Ms. Bauer...we may have words...you pulled an awful good sales pitch in the first chapters of your book...let's hope Cervantes doesn't end it all.

[katilac]

I'll see you nice ladies after the first novel...and as I briefly look at the cover and table on contents of "Don Quixote"...Ms. Bauer...we may have words...you pulled an awful good sales pitch in the first chapters of your book...let's hope Cervantes doesn't end it all.

 

Oh, dear, we once had a super long thread here about struggling all the way through Don Quixote, lol. 

 

There was definitely a minority who loved it, so . . . good luck!

[luuknam]

The only book I've never had a problem writing in is my Bible.  For some reason, I can scribble all over that one and it doesn't phase me. 

 

My guess is that you don't have any plans selling/giving away your bible, or even keeping it on your shelves where your family reads it.

[lllll]

nm

Edited April 20, 2016 by _ ?^..

[Lori D.]

Thank you all for your kind replies....bottom line: Start slow....in pencil...outside...with an apple.  I'll see you nice ladies after the first novel...and as I briefly look at the cover and table on contents of "Don Quixote"...Ms. Bauer...we may have words...you pulled an awful good sales pitch in the first chapters of your book...let's hope Cervantes doesn't end it all.

 

You know, there is nothing set in stone about starting with Don Quixote. If you were doing a "true" chronological study, you'd start back with the Epic of Gilgamesh. ;)

 

Honestly, I'd choose something shorter, and esp. something you've always WANTED to read, rather than dutifully follow the letter of the WEM law… ;) I think there's much more chance of success and of wanting to continue the process if you start with something of high interest to YOU. And there's thousands of years of classic literature out there -- it's not like anyone is going to be able to read/digest all of it at this slower study pace. ;)

 

So feel free to pick your OWN choice of classic. Feel free to write -- or NOT write -- in the margins. AND just apply the techniques that SWB discusses in the first 4 chapters of the WEM. And definitely post your thoughts and questions on a thread here -- whatever book you start with, someone is sure to have read it and will enjoy discussing with you! :)

 

Welcome to the Great Conversations with the Great Books! :) Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited April 19, 2016 by Lori D.

[PagesandFields]

I have had Don Quixote sitting on my desk for six months... I'll do it if you do it! :)

 

But seriously, books are like true friends, they don't care how often or in what way you talk (or write) to them, and they will enjoy sitting and visiting you outside in a field, while whispering in a library, or while dodging splashes from the sink while you are doing dishes...