# Anybody else do this to their books?



## cannamella (Mar 25, 2014)

During lecturers, yes I vandalize my textbooks very much my friends cannot understand how unorganized my notes, handwriting, and position. But I would never do this with novels.


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## Occams Chainsaw (Jan 7, 2015)

Yes. I got into trouble for as it as a kid, many a time. Eventually, my parents and teachers started reading my notes - they enjoyed the insights and parallels drawn - which felt intrusive of my privacy. After a while I began making the notes so abstract that it was difficult to follow unless you understood the subtext of connection. It actually probably enhanced my intuition since the written connections were so removed from anything anybody else could understand.


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## Chaerolis (Feb 13, 2015)

I always write, sketch, make notes, draw crazy brainstorm puzzles, etc on my books, mostly books for study purpose only. However, when it comes to the books I buy, read and cherish, it's a different story. I keep them clean, I put plastic cover on them to keep them new to the look. I know it's a bit weird, but yes, I'm like that.


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## Enistery (Feb 13, 2015)

Oh Jesus Christ, I hate annotating books. I feel so awful.

Books are pristine, beautiful things to me, that should never be touched with a pen. God FORBID. Besides, most of the notes I make nowadays are mental.


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## EyesOpen (Apr 3, 2013)

I can't bring myself to do it, plus I have a difficult time getting through any heavy reading that would make me think that much. Prefer to listen in that case and let my mind do all those connections and notes in my head.

I do, however, enjoy getting a used book and seeing others' notes jotted in there. Kind of neat to see what I emphasize or think about when I read vs. what others think is important or something that sparks their mind.


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## Legate (Jan 7, 2015)

I do this kind of thing sometimes, if the situation warrants, but usually I'll keep a notebook handy to write things, rather than writing it all in the book.

I do, however, love getting used textbooks that have lots of notes and highlighting. It's like having a study buddy that you've never met, and it's fun to see the points they think are important and the point in the semester when they just gave up.

I don't get why people think that books are sacred items that should not be defiled. Books are sacred in that they are there to be ripped apart and devoured for the sake of thought. Burning books as censorship is awful, but reading them and loving them so much to talk back at it is what they're there for.


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## ThisisNT (Feb 14, 2015)

blackdog said:


> View attachment 270842
> 
> 
> or worse?!? I specifically buy used, paperback copies in addition to any hard or good copy editions so that i can vandalize them like this. I just have so many thoughts bouncing around my head as i read i like to jot them down and make connections to explore later.
> ...


ewwwwwwww!


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## polyangel (Mar 3, 2014)

I never understood teaching kids not to bend/annotate/otherwise personalize books... Reading a book is an experience: you think thoughts, like specific phrases and more. I like being lent used books precisely because I like to feel like a book has meant something to someone, otherwise I can get a copy of pretty much every book on a store.
Plus, the book is not important because of its cover, if a page is bent or whatever, it matters because of it content, the meaning of the words and how that affects people.

Yes, I do this. I use pencil though.


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## QrivaN (Aug 3, 2012)

That was the goal of many English class assignments in High School for me. I couldn't bring myself to actually write in the books themselves; I just used Post-It notes and loose-leaf paper instead.


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## lunagattina (Nov 7, 2014)

I never write on the books.
At school I underlined them or drew on them during the lesson, but I don't do it anymore.
However I don't have much respect for my books. I read them in the bath tub, fold the pages and so on.
So my books usually look like this:


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## ninjahitsawall (Feb 1, 2013)

There was a point in college I had cubital tunnel syndrome and basically couldn't write; 3 mos. later, it resolved 2 weeks after I finished my finals. I am convinced it's because I was taking notes like that. I went back to look at my note-taking around the time this happened and earlier, and it looked ridiculous to me. I guess it was a lesson in moderation. 

So.. yeah I tend to take notes like that, and draw boxes and shapes and such to keep the margins and thoughts separate. But I'm less extreme about it now. I don't really write on the same material I'm reading on. It feels unkosher. lol. (I did try it for awhile and felt it started to interrupt my reading because I couldn't stop injecting thoughts everywhere.)


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## nevermore (Oct 1, 2010)

Naw I wouldn't want to ruin them, if I had two copies than quite possibly. It could be a way of giving individuality and personality to it. The margins are great space for writing little "N insights".


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## HAL (May 10, 2014)

I hate writing on books.

I made a big step lately and started very lightly annotating a class textbook of mine. In tiny, light pencil writing. Which was rubbed out very quickly after I didn't need it any more.

I hate ruining books.


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## Occams Chainsaw (Jan 7, 2015)

HAL said:


> I hate writing on books.
> 
> I made a big step lately and started very lightly annotating a class textbook of mine. In tiny, light pencil writing. Which was rubbed out very quickly after I didn't need it any more.
> 
> I hate ruining books.


I don't understand why adding thoughts to a book would be considered a ruining to an INTP. You're not detracting from the knowledge in any way. If anything, it probably cements your understanding and retention. What exactly about jotting your own thoughts down degrades the sanctity of the book?


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## HAL (May 10, 2014)

Occams Chainsaw said:


> I don't understand why adding thoughts to a book would be considered a ruining to an INTP. You're not detracting from the knowledge in any way. If anything, it probably cements your understanding and retention. What exactly about jotting your own thoughts down degrades the sanctity of the book?


I think it might be connected to what another person said on here - I don't like the idea of going back to it someday and seeing my own _old_ thoughts.

I guess it also depends on the book.

For educational textbooks I usually have a notepad and make my own hyper-brief bullet points to explain the things I need. I also write longer sentences which I know for certain I'll never read again, but by simply writing them it means the thought has spent more time in my brain, and it sticks.

Actually I have volumes of horrifically messy notes which could never be deciphered by anyone but me. The notes never get written in books though. And it's all sciencey mathsy physicsy stuff because that's my area of study. Maybe I'd be different if I were doing something more essay- or literature-based.

Also it could be to do with the fact that my notes are done for the purpose of learning something. Once I've learned it, the note has no use any more. So if I go back to a book someday and see it's covered in writing, it'll just annoy me because I'll want to read it all, and will soon realise that I'm reading stuff I already knew, so the notes are then obsolete and are just a mess - ruining the book.


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## Impavida (Dec 29, 2011)

If I'm going to go to the trouble of buying an actual book rather than download the PDF, it's going to be a brand new hardcover. Not a snowball's chance that I would ever write in any of them. The only books I buy in paperback are fiction - nothing to make notes of there!


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## VinnieBob (Mar 24, 2014)

BlackDog said:


> View attachment 270842
> 
> 
> Or worse?!? I specifically buy used, paperback copies in addition to any hard or good copy editions so that I can vandalize them like this. I just have so many thoughts bouncing around my head as I read I like to jot them down and make connections to explore later.
> ...


NOOOOOOOO, u sicko
whad these buks ever do to you?
only a sick, depraved mind wood d'stroy these poor innocent books
are ewe a anti bookite


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## marbleous (Feb 21, 2014)

lol that image is hilarious!! I love seeing people do things that I would never think to do because then it helps me look at it with an open mind. Like, "oh, maybe it's not such a big deal to write in a book! See that's the outcome, and it's not that bad." It has a kind of cartoony look to it. Is it hard to separate annotation from text though?

I personally prefer having blank papers to take notes on, and use the folded papers as a bookmark. My last book I had a bookmark that had a section for notes on it. For me, I need things in my outer world to look simple and clean because my inner world is so messy and chaotic! XD


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