The latest trend on BookTok is people annotating books. To some, this is sacrilege. Why would you scribble in your latest five star read? To others, it’s practical. Why would you not make notes on everything you felt while reading? It’s a big debate, and it’s dividing BookTok.
Why do I annotate?
It seems that one of the biggest reasons people are annotating their books is as an emotion tracker. One book can give you many different emotions, this much is true. Annotators are creating a colour coded system, either using colourful sticky tabs, or simply writing in the book, to show this. It’s satisfying to look at, but would you do this?
Sticky tabs can bring the print off the page when they’re lifted, meaning your book is damaged. Is it worth it for the rainbow pages? Or would you prefer to add your own notes right there on the page alongside the authors? Using a pen in a book is a big no-no for many. For me, if I was annotating, sticky tabs would win this one.
Highlighters
One of the main aspects of book annotation that divides many is using highlighters. They’re bold, you can see them through the page, and they smudge. Is it worth it? To many, yes, it is. Some annotators use highlighters on their favourite lines from the book as a way of remembering them.
What happened to jotting them down in your notes page, you may ask? Well, it gives the reader something to look back on if they read the book again. Your pages may end up looking like a rainbow, but perhaps it’s worth it to remember the bit you love.
Some annotators take it one step further by highlighting the edges of the pages they love. The result? The book looking like it has a painted fore edge, a design often seen in older works of literature. I imagine it can get quite messy.
Is annotating a good thing?
Annotating has its perks. For one, it makes you much more in tune with the book you’re reading and the way it makes you feel. It can increase your comprehension skills. It can also be handy if you’re searching for an idea from a book because you know exactly where it is. An annotated book also makes a nice present. From one book lover to another, one of the best gifts given is their ideas on a text. It can also be a romantic present too, from one love to another.
So, do you think you could annotate your books? Or do you prefer keeping them blank, perhaps for value purposes? Books are known to be worth quite a lot of money in some cases, so maybe you’re waiting to hit a gold mine for one of your copies!