From: doom@elaine36.Stanford.EDU (Joseph Brenner)
Subject: Re: Making notations in your books?
Organization: DSO, Stanford University
	<3179@devnull.mpd.tandem.com> <1992Dec21.204009.4090@cbfsb.cb.att.com>
Date: 23 Dec 92 15:17:28



                      From:  marc.colten                           
                      colten@cbnewsb.cb.att.com              
 					
                      I never make marks in books.  Over     
                      the course of years I found I even    
                      stopped putting my name on the        Probably it is a 
                      cover sheet.  Perhaps it's some       kind of reverence.
                      kind of reverence for the book.       But then, I've 
                      It's certainly not economic as I      recently managed
                      NEVER sell my books.  I think it's    to overcome my 
Exactly, but          a kind of ego thing with some         reluctance toward
maybe that's the      people as I occasionally get a        opening a paper-
virtue of marking     second hand book with notations -     back more than 
up books.  It's       an arrow pointing to a sentence and   45 degress...      
an assertion of       the comment "right!" or "wrong!" or   You've got to grow 
your mastery over     whatever.  I hope when I see this     up sometime.       
the text.  When you   that they did it for school as I                         
begin to read         can't conceive of any reason why       
a book with pen       they think a future owner would be     
in hand, every        interested.                            
statement is                                                 
suddenly open to                                   
question.  The        From: Roger Squires,                   
exact opposite of     rsquires@cyclops.eece.unm.edu
the "it's in                                                 
print, it must be     As to whether marking books is         
right" attitude.      morally ok, my opinion is that my      
                      notes, highlighting if any,            It isn't likely
                      increase the value of the book,        that a later 
                      certainly for myself, and              owner would 
                      potentially for other users as well    agree with you,
                      (the 'value' of the unmarked book      but then there 
                      is not an issue with me -- no one      may not be that 
                      gives a durn about $0.50               much reason 
                      paperbacks, and I keep all             to care.  	
The copy of Murray's  technical books for myself; I also     		 
LOSING GROUND in      mark library books, though limited        Some 
the Stanford          to creating an index of interesting       confusion     
library has a         topics on a bare page in front,           of the        
review by Lester      which is often cut out by libraries       Golden        
Thurow stapled in     when reselling the book anyway).  A       Rule,         
the front of it.      good example is my marking up of a        treating      
In a way, I           copy of _The Growth of Biological         future        
appreciated this,     Thought_ by Ernst Mayr, which was a       owners as     
because I wanted to   textbook for one of my bother's           you, the      
look up some          grad courses.  On the inside cover        present       
criticism of the      I wrote in a couple excellent             owner         
book anyway.  On      quotes from Gibbon and Jean de            would've      
the other hand I      Meun, and created an additional           liked to      
think it a tad        index on the inside cover of topics       have been     
obnoxious that        (mostly definitions of biological         treated?      
someone took it       terms) not in the main index (he                   
upon themselves to    had already put in these self-stick    
try and discourage    plastic book markers on the long      I think brothers   
people from reading   edge of the book that I've never      are a special      
the book with this    seen before, like what you would      case, certainly    
rather shrill,        use with file folders -- very         with me.  the      
irrational, killer    neat); he told me after I returned    flow of thought    
review.               the book that he liked what I had     is similar         
                      done.  As for the practise of book    enough that it's   
                      marking, I always use pen why in      unlikely that      
                      the Name Of Satan And All That Is     one's comments 
                      Unholy would you use pencil?!  It     will intrude on    
  The reason you      smudges with the merest thumb         the other.         
  use pencil is       swipe, is quite difficult to get                      
  that it's less      rid of (why would you want to erase    My first encounter
  obtrusive and       your own markings anyway), and is      with "sociobiol-
  a bit less          much more difficult to read than a     ogy" was a pop 
  permanent.          good pen.  I always print (not         article in 
  Because there       script) notes, which are generally     "Analog" that 
  is no	one           limited to the supplemental index      immediately 
  correct way         as above) with few exceptions: Many    sent me for 
  of reading a        classic books have excellent quotes    reaching for 
  book, and           or topics that one may want to         my pen.  Then 
  anyone who's        access in future, but which are        my older brother
  done this for       nearly impossible to find without      read it, he 
  any length of       creating an index.  Which brings us    continued 
  time has            to highlighting.                       disecting it.  
  experienced     					     Someone reading
  the discovery       The Fine Art of Highlighting: We've    this at random
  that what you       all heard the joke about freshmen      might not realize
  once thought        mindlessly highlighting the entire     that was two of  
  was critical        book, but I think that, properly       us who had marked
  now seems           used, a Highlighter can be an          it up. 
  trivial.            extremely powerful instrument.  I                        
                      think that the Highest, Noblest,    <-Like most other    
                      Most Excellent use of a Highlighter   tools. But high-   
                      is as a tool to *condense* a book.    lighters seem      
                      I first did this with a textbook      more often abused, 
                      titled  _Hegel, An Introduction_,     usually I think,   
                      by Raymond Plant (good book, BTW).    by the inexper-    
                      I bought it way before the semester   ienced who don't   
                      started, so I had all the time in     yet understand     
                      the world to read it.  I sat under    that today's       
                      the pinon tree, and after             chain of thought   
                      ruminating a few pages would go       should not bind    
                      back and highlight, using the         one forever.       
I have trouble        highlighter to connect blocks of                         
believing this        text so as to form a readable         Post-it notes      
could work for        narrative encompassing the argument   are far more       
any but the most      of the section.  So when I was        valuable tools,    
poorly written        done, I had a readable book that      I find.  I keep    
books... but then     was about half the length of the      a small stack      
what would you        original.  Not all books are          of them cut to     
expect from a         amenable to this approach: _Beyond    tab size on        
fan of Hegel?         Good and Evil_ is not such a good     the inside cover   
                      target, but I found the technique     of interesting     
                      worked quite well with the essays     books.             
                      in _Genealogy of Morals_ for                             
                      instance).                             
                                                             
							  
Underlining is a phase that one has to go through, but it
isn't the final phase.  The next step is to realize that your 
own highlighting and marginal additions are also not the last 
word, and a later reader (including later versions of yourself)
may find them more hindrance than help.  

Really, I think all text needs to be electronic text, and
any reader should be able to attach a set of comments with
hypertext links that can be searched, filtered and viewed in
any number of ways, and let us hope that we may yet make it
to Xanadu.