Talk Islam

muse

  • 10:49:31 pm on July 7, 2008 | # | |
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    How many of you underline or otherwise mark-up the books you read? I just got a nice fresh batch of books and I dread marking them up, though I’m sure I won’t be able to help myself as I read them. Also, there’s always something intriguing about buying used books and reading other people’s thoughts written in the margins.

     

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Comments

  • aziz 5:55 am on July 8, 2008 | #

    I usually don’t, but I love it when my used books are marked up that way. I usually read the books too fast, though once in a while a book is so arresting that I am forced to slow down. Last time that happened was Mount Analouge by Rene Daumal.

  • sophister 9:37 am on July 8, 2008 | #

    I would NEVER do this to my own books. But I did see those alot on used text books I would buy in law school. Most of the comments were retarded, some insightful, and all useless for the next reader.

  • Willow 10:26 am on July 8, 2008 | #

    I love reading used books and marking up mine. My favorites are all crinkled along the bottom edge because I read them in the bath. The books I really love have been to 3 or 4 different continents with me. The best used book I ever had was a copy of A Passage to India that I bought used in Cairo…it had previously belonged to a college literature student, it seems, because it had a bismillah and a ‘may God strengthen me in completing this task’ written at the start of every chapter. And she–I like to think it was a she; the writing was feminine–wrote this little mini-essay in English at the end, concluding that East and West will never peacefully coexist. (This is one reading of the main thrust of the book.)

    I loved this book, and suggested it to an Egyptian friend when she asked for a novel. When I gave it to her she held it between two fingers and said, with a sort of delicate sneer, “Isn’t this an orientalist book?” I almost took it back. Dissing Forster (or more tragically, misunderstanding him) is in my book right below dissing one of the sahaba. But I just sort of stared at her. Never got that copy back, though, so maybe she ended up liking it.

  • Muse 3:17 pm on July 8, 2008 | #

    I didn’t use to mark up the books I read for pleasure (textbooks, another story). I would instead jot down interesting quotes or words in a notebook, but lately laziness is taking over and I’ve been dog-earring and underlining everything I read. The ol’ law school habit of “highlight all, think later” creeping up again.

  • aziz 3:22 pm on July 8, 2008 | #

    wait a minute, how many lawyers do we have on here? :)

  • muse 3:24 pm on July 8, 2008 | #

    way too many, way too many…:)

  • Zack 1:02 am on July 9, 2008 | #

    I hate any marking on books.

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