
Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly series created by Rukky at Eternity Books and hosted by Aria at Book Nook Bits. The full list of April topics can be found here.
This week’s topic is about Annotating While Reading.
To annotate or not to annotate……that is the question? Do you like annotating books? If so, how do you annotate them?
I think the idea of annotating while reading is great. Engaging in a book in whatever way works for you is never a bad thing! The extent of my “annotating” includes simply adding multicolored sticky notes to pages in a book that I want to refer back to because of a specific word, quote, description, or dialogue that stood out to me. I don’t typically do anything beyond that.
Is there a difference for you between ebooks, physical books, and audiobooks?
When I have read e-books in the past, I have used the bookmark feature to add a digital sticky note to the page I want to refer back to. The same goes for audiobooks that have a bookmark feature where you can return to a specific time in the recording.
If you’ve ever had to annotate books in school, does this affect your willingness to annotate the books you read for fun?
In high school I had a teacher who taught us how to annotate in a very specific way with different colored pens for different meanings. I will admit that I really did not like writing in my books in general, let alone in pen. That turned me off to annotating for a while. In a way, it turned me off to reading, too. I did not like always feeling that I had to analyze what I was reading. Later in college there was a period of time where I did frequently write notes in the margins of my books.
What are some downsides to annotating books in your opinion?
I think this question will be really reader specific so answers will vary. I personally don’t see a down side to annotating as long as the reader is happy with what they are doing.