Do you guys annotate your books when reading them...

Do you guys annotate your books when reading them? My English teacher back in high school was an advocate of always annotating when you read, but it seems so tedious and time-consuming, and if I am going to soil my books, I want to do so with neat handwriting, so it forces me to read at a desk instead of in bed or on a comfy chair.

But I am starting to read literature again after a long time (pic related), and I fear that I am too pleb to get away with not annotating and by not doing so I'll miss a lot; I know when reading non-fiction academic journals, I absolutely need to annotate as I read.

So far I am writing definitions of all the words I don't know (which takes up a significant amount of real estate) and underlining phrases I think are really beautiful (also a lot, but takes up less space).

What/how do you guys annotate, including your set up (at a desk, in the grass, pen + highlighter, the underline function in an ebook reader, etc.)?

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I do with non-fiction and poetry. The only novels I annotate are those I've read many, many times and want to formally study in order to improve my own writing.

Since English is not my first language I annotate most of the words I am not that familiar with, even the ones that are pretty evident. Then I write the meanings and the pronunciation. Feels good.

Btw, I don´t do this in the book itself but in some other papers I save specially for this.

Part of the reason why I kind of want to annotate is that Nabokov's writing is so beautiful and I want to use reading Lolita as an opportunity to maybe learn a thing or do.

What does 'formal study' entail for you?
How do you organize your papers across time? If you see a word you don't know online, do you write it down in the same journal? Do you have words saved from five years ago?

I am curious because I just have scattered lists of vocabulary in various notebooks, journals, .docx files, etc.

a thing or two* jfc

I think annotation is usually a meme. I do take relatively detailed notes in a seperate notebook after reading but for the most part I don't bother digging into the style too much, which is really what annotation is good for. I feel like most people on this board aren't in a position to get anything much out of annotation

>How do you organize your papers across time?
While reading I have bond papers and a pencil next to me prepared to write the vocabulary. So basically I read quietly and when I come across new words I finish the paragraph and proceed to take notes. Carefully, I write the word and then I search on Oxford or Cambridge diccitionaries online the appropiate definition, sometimes with the most used definition if they are so different. I also annote the /pronuniation/ gived and how it sounds in my language. If I have problems with the word I also write a synonym or last the equivalent in my language. Finally, the papers are ringed and then stored in a "pioner".
My organization is not Chronollogically but by Books. For example, I have some papers with the title of Moby Dick separated by Chapters.
>If you see a word you don't know online, do you write it down in the same journal?
No because I tend to stay on an accelarated state while reading online, basically across Veeky Forums more than anything.
>Do you have words saved from five years ago?
No, I started to annotate Vocabulary less than three years ago.

do this
>
>take relatively detailed notes in a seperate notebook

Why would I need to annotate? I assimilate the information as soon as I read it.

I hate writing on books, that shit is like vandalism in my opinion. For subjects or words that are alien to me, I write them on notebooks.

HAHAHAHAHAAHAH

You're a fucking idiot.

chuma.cas.usf.edu/~pinsky/mark_a_book.htm

This changed my mind about writing in my books completely. It's really useful.

I usually only annotate while reading nonfiction and I do it in a personal study notebook.
While reading fiction, I'd say just stop and reflect on the text every so often. The most satisfying thing about fiction, for me, is having a narrative be fluid and constant.
Hope this helps, OP.

I fucking hate people who draw inane scrawlings in books. I once gave my schoolbook to my teacher for a week and when I got it back it was full of meaningless underlinings, big square highlights and self evident comments. The last paragraph of the book was squared and the rest of the page was filled with a single giant word: IRONY.
It reminded me of the girls and scarfed weaklings you see in English classes, always bent over highlighting and underlining their handouts and books in myriad obnoxious colourings like bizarre urban seamstresses. I've always wondered, what goes through their pretty little heads as they do it? Are they reading and understanding the words or merely attempting to memorize them? Do they even see them at all?

annotation, highlighting, and reflection process does not have a strong impact when carried out by an individual.

What's this from? Good shit

My (actual) diary. I'm tickled by the compliment, thanks user

I annotate, but honestly most of my annotations are pretty inane. I find that annotating more or less just helps keep my focused on what I'm reading.

What I think is a more useful exercise is writing short summaries of chapters (or in case of really short, or really long chapters, some other grouping of content) after reading them. I'll also usually write sort of a short pseudo-essay on what I feel is the main message of the text afterwards.

I think forcing yourself to write about what you have read is a great way of sort of forcing your mind to internalize it, as well as reify your thoughts on what you've read in a useful way. I definitely recommend it for people who are struggling with interpreting texts, or who are having trouble remembering what they read. It has improved my reading greatly.

That said, I still annotate (usually just by underlining things I think are important, or writing short notes to clarify things in my mind, even though they tend to be obvious notes), because it feels useful to me on some level.

>I think forcing yourself to write about what you have read is a great way of sort of forcing your mind to internalize it, as well as reify your thoughts on what you've read in a useful way. I definitely recommend it for people who are struggling with interpreting texts, or who are having trouble remembering what they read. It has improved my reading greatly.

I know it's a meme, but Goodreads has helped me with this, by "forcing" me to review everything I read. Even just knowing I won't be satisfied if I can't articulate at least a few paragraphs analysing a book after I read it has motivated me to read a lot more critically and not just skim or anything.

I never annotate novels, I feel like that gets in the way of grasping it. But certain biographies and history books I read I always annotate. I must have highlighted something on every 5 pages of Mein Kampf so far.

>Making notes about something gets in the way of grasping it
What the fuck?

I don't know how to explain it but I get what he is trying to say.

no, i take notes in a notebook, and basically only for non-fiction. sometimes i jot down a quotation.

theres too much to read; i dont have time to reread everything and i want to remember my major takeaways

I thinks it's because when you're reading you're trying to combine everything into a single streamline image. When you stop to take a note, you may be separating the setting from the action.

That's rude

Everytime I come across an annotated or highlighted book I think about what a fuckinh moron that person must be.

You have a phone if you want to take notes. Why would you spread notes across a book.

Annotation is nonsensical busywork. These sorts ruin literature and the actual exploration process of writing.

I annotate if I need to write in detail about literary form, that is all. Stop pausing and wasting time, it detracts from the experience.

>underlining their handouts and books in myriad obnoxious colourings like bizarre urban seamstresses.

Nailed it. What to they even think to achieve when they do this? It's surely some weird embroidery driven by their maid-like subconscious. It makes the books look like hilarious scribbling by trying to make the text more 'colorful' by attaching every color of rainbow with their felt-tip pens to every single bloody page and paragraph.

anotating is only worth when

>you really like the book
>you are re-reading the book

the first time reading a book. the best to do is to read non-stop. just go straight. if you like it, re-read it annotating.

I do pretty much the same annotations as he says to do.
However I disagree with th whole having your books "dog-eared and dilapidated, shaken and loosened by continual use" thing.
Not because of a sense of "reverence" to the book or something, but because a cleaner, sturdier book feels better to the touch. It's kinda of an OCD thing.

Often I'd have "chains" of annotations in the books and scholarly sources I read that tied my ideas together. I did this instead of making outlines for my essays because I considered outlines a waste of time. I rarely ever wrote in books, I preferred sticky notes, because then I could remove them and resell the books for a higher price if I wanted, plus I liked to gather my notes and put them into order when I was planning my essays.

I don't do this anymore though because annotating makes it extremely hard to enjoy books for pleasure. I have no need to meticulously link ideas across multiple written works so I just read for fun now.

These people don't know how to read for fun, they think dissecting novels is fun. They also don't know why people don't like hanging out with them.

I know exactly what you mean. I might write thoughts, notes and interperitations about something I've read when I'm done reading for the day, but in the middle of focusing on what I'm reading, taking in the prose, themes, subtleties that I notice about characters or whatever, trying to constantly interrupt myself to write them down really just distracts me from actually getting absorbed in it

It's not even about reading for fun, it's about reading as it is written as opposed to reading in chunks. There is no continuity in chunks. The continuity of the literature is replaced by interpretation and pseudocontinuity of notes.