Marginalia: Facinating or Defacing?

Marginalia: marginal notes or embellishments (as in a book).  Latin.            
Love,
Webster

Marginalia of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

I was meandering through Barnes and Noble one day when I passed a book titled Marginalia: Readers writing in Books.  I was intrigued by this new idea of actually having a conversation with the text by writing in the margins, because of my strict library upbringing, and the fact that I never had enough money to buy all the books I wanted to read (like not being able to purchase this book either).  After I walked out that day, I kind of forgot about the trend, until I started buying used books off of my college reading lists.  I wondered about the people that had owned my books before, and why they wrote in them, whether it was part of the class, or they just loved what they were learning so much they wanted to engage in the dialogue. 

I found the book, Marginalia in our library in preparation for this post, and I have loved reading it.  It has been so interesting to follow this author's definition and descriptions of what she calls "real" marginalia and giving a brief history of it, and how the trends have stayed similar through the ages.  She defines marginalia more narrowly as actual words (not just underlines or asterisks) written in a book (not specifically in margins but any blank space) by a pure reader (someone not involved in publishing, not the author or an editor/publisher).  It is about the process of sharing the thoughts of the reader by writing on the book itself, so that where ever that book goes after that it will have those annotations.  She threw out certain markings because they were more ambiguous and emotive than a reasoned argument or agreement.  And the author is really just adding to his own ideas, so it isn't really the thrill of having a dialogue because they are talking ot themselves (unless they have split personalities, and that's a whole different issue).  Sometimes it isn't even a dialogue with the text though.  Instead it could be completely unrelated writings, a diary for instance, written in the blank spaces of the book, or notes for a friend or a later reader. 

The history of marginalia dates back to the first books, especially in the Middle Ages like we have discussed in class.  In those first manuscript books, corrections were made in the margins, something that the copyist or monk had mis-transferred.  Also, the opinions of great scholars were written in the margins, both of the Bible and other ancient works, and they might have eventually made it into the original work, converted from marginalia to doctrine.  The practice of marginalia continued, and seemed to hit its peak in the late 1700's and early 1800's.  Even today with digital media, there are programs that accompany eBooks so that you can "write" on the page, or highlight it or what not. 

While contemplating employing this practice in my own life and reading habits, I had a small epiphany that I already do this in the largest book I own: my LDS scriptures, containing The Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine and Covenants and The Pearl of Great Price all in one book.  In fact, as Latter-day Saints we are encouraged to mark and write in our scriptures spiritual insights and experiences to assist in our study.  As I then thought about applying this to the larger context of my personal bookshelf (it's not large enough to call it a library), I realized that I am more inclined to write in books that make me think and want me to argue with them.  That doesn't apply to most of my favorite fantasy novels, but I have other works that I could study more in depth by writing directly on the page, claiming the book and recording my passage through it.  There was another cool idea that I might employ with my family at Christmas: the prisoners at Robben Island with Nelson Mandela signed there names next to their favorite parts of Shakespeare's Julius Ceasar.  We frequently pass around a good book at my house, taking turns reading it, usually starting with the fastest reader and so on, until we have all had the same and yet completely different experiences with the text.  It would be interesting to compare where we signed our names, and how, and with what pen, and see us as a family claim the text as one we love.

I love libraries and bookstores equally.  I am addicted to the written (or should I say printed) word in whatever form I can get it.  My personal opinions and preferences of writing in the margins would probably be different if I didn't grow up lower middle class, where I couldn't buy every book I wanted to read.  I was trained up on the restrictions on library books, which has increased my hesitancy for writing in margins because they were the majority of what I read.  Despite these ingrained rules, I think I just might start marking up the books I own as I read them (or reread them). 


What are your opinions about writing in books? Do you like it? Does it help you connect to the story, or to what you are learning? Do you have a system?  Would you just rather write your thoughts in a separate journal, or on loose paper? Mostly I am asking about regular, mass printed books, but comments on textbooks work too. 

My main source for this discussion is Marginalia: Readers Writing In Books  by H. J. Jackson. 
Yale University Press, New Haven, 2001.   Available at HBL Library (after I return it :-)