Do you mark up books? Write notes in the margins?
Sometimes I read books where I have strong reactions every few pages, and I think about blogging about them, but I always end up just continuing to read rather than stopping to type up my thoughts. (For "Lean In," I did pause at the end of every chapter to write up my thoughts, and it was annoying to keep stopping and going back.) It never occurs to me to react in the margins. But lately I've read a number of articles and books that refer to people writing their thoughts in the margins, or even just reactions like "Whoa." 
I often add explanatory notes and diagrams for myself in the margins of papers, and sometimes textbooks, but never books I'm reading for pleasure. It seems that in many coming-of-age stories, the protagonist receives a well-worn, marked-up copy of a favorite novel from his or her love interest (didn't this happen on Gilmore Girls with Jess and Rory?). Not sure I'd appreciate that -- it's like, do you want me to experience the book, or to experience you experiencing the book?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I could totally see the value in doing this if you needed to synthesize the information into something else afterwards, and/or form a reasoned opinion on it, like you did for "Lean In."