I'm not sure when it happened. It's not the way my mother raised me. And I'm not sure what I will do if my children catch me in the act. But, it's true. I write in books.
Contrary to what you might think, however, writing in books is a sign that I treasure that book in some way. Most books in my life are disposable -- I will read them, perhaps shelve them for awhile, and then pass them on. If I am reading a book that I know I will want to talk about on our books podcast, or write about here on the blog, I will sometimes use sticky notes to mark down a few ideas, but I don't even do that very often. The majority of books I own are unmarked. I write only in books that I know I will want to keep, will refer to often, and that are full of such valuable information that I will lose track of it if I don't mark it in some way.
It started with a tiny asterisk. Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything was the first. At 960 pages, I knew that I had to mark which recipes I'd tried and liked, so that I could find them again when I needed them. A small mark in the index was harmless, right? But then I started tweaking the recipes. I liked that pie with a bit less sugar. I substituted wine for broth in that dish and liked it just fine. How would I remember that? I had to make notes on the recipe pages. Pencil fades, so out came the pen.
I recently received a copy of Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith that was sent to me for review. It's a business book that is focused on using the internet to help create and foster human connections -- not typically the type of book that we talk about here at BOTNS, but a topic that interests me personally. So when I sat down to read, I was unprepared. Midway through the first chapter, it occurred to me that I might want to grab a sticky note or two. By the end of the first chapter, I went to my office for a pen. And then I spent much of the evening underlining, writing notes in the margins, and drawing lines and arrows to things that I didn't want to overlook. There were so many valuable ideas in the book that I had ink on almost every other page. And that's when I realized: I am honoring a book when I write in it. It means that the book has an importance that I predict will carry on some time into the future.
I'm still not sure what I will say to my kids when they see me marking up a book. It will certainly be a conversation filled with discussion about personal books vs. those borrowed. But I think I can make the argument that writing in books can be a good thing, and even an honorable thing.
What are your thoughts? Do you write in books? Which books have you written in, and why? I'd really love to know.
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How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman, John Wiley& Sons hardcover
Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, John Wiley & Sons hardcover
image credit: Chris Radcliff via Flickr
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