From: rsquires@cyclops.eece.unm.edu (Roger Squires)
Subject: Re: Making notations in your books?
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 92 00:08:04 GMT
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Keywords: books notations:  Do it.

>(Aaron L Dickey) writes:
>
>What are your feelings about making notes, highlighting, etc., in the
>books that you own?
>

	As to whether marking books is morally ok, my opinion
	is that my notes, highlighting if any, increase the
	value of the book, certainly for myself, and potentially
	for other users as well (the 'value' of the unmarked 
	book is not an issue with me -- noone gives a durn about
	$0.50 paperbacks, and I keep all technical books for myself;
	I also mark library books, though limited to creating an
	index of interesting topics on a bare page in front,
	which is often cut out by libraries when reselling
	the book anyway).  A good example is my marking up of a
	copy of _The Growth of Biological Thought_ by Ernst Mayr,
	which was a textbook for one of my bother's grad courses.
	On the inside cover I wrote in a couple excellent quotes
	from Gibbon and Jean de Meun, and created an additional
	index on the inside cover of topics (mostly definitions
	of biological terms) not in the main index (he had already
	put in these self-stick plastic book markers on the long
	edge of the book that I've never seen before, like what
	you would use with file folders -- very neat); he told me
	after I returned the book that he liked what I had done.
	
	As for the practise of book marking, I always use pen
	(why in the Name Of Satan And All That Is Unholy would
	you use pencil?!  It smudges with the merest thumb swipe,
	is quite difficult to get rid of (why would you want to
	erase your own markings anyway), and is much more difficult
	to read than a good pen.  I always print (not script) notes,
	which are generally limited to the supplemental index
	(as above) with few exceptions:  Many classic books have
	excellent quotes or topics that one may want to access in
	future, but which are nearly impossible to find without
	creating an index.  Which brings us to highlighting.

	The Fine Art of Highlighting:  We've all heard the joke
	about freshmen mindlessly highlighting the entire book, 
	but I think that, properly used, a Highlighter can be
	an extremely powerful instrument.  I think that the Highest,
	Noblest, Most Excellent use of a Highlighter is as a tool
	to *condense* a book.  I first did this with a textbook titled
	_Hegel, An Introduction_, by Raymond Plant (good book, BTW).
	I bought it way before the semester started, so I had all
	the time in the world to read it.  I sat under the pinon
	tree, and after ruminating a few pages would go back and
	highlight, using the highlighter to connect blocks of text
	so as to form a readable narrative encompassing the argument
	of the section.  So when I was done, I had a readable book
	that was about half the length of the original.

	Not all books are amenable to this approach:  _Beyond Good
	and Evil_ is not such a good target, but I found the technique
	worked quite well with the essays in _Genealogy of Morals_
	(for instance).

>--
>Aaron Dickey
>
>Al Roker is God.
>

	Ne'er 'eard of 'im -- probly ne'er will.

rms
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