Using a permanent black pen to write in a new, clean, crisp book!? Now that’s just blasphemy. Or … is it? What if we told you that all the things associated with desecrating books are actually okay? Fun, even?
We’d like to introduce you to the art of annotating your favorite books. Traditionally, annotating something means adding a note of explanation or comment to a text or diagram for further elaboration. However, it doesn’t just apply to technical pieces of writing — you can document your own reading journey through annotation as well!
Annotating a book lets you, the reader, interact with the story or text on an entirely different level. Maybe you’re reading a mystery and 100 pages in, you have a hunch about who the killer is — write it down! When you reach the end of the book, you’ll have all your initial reactions documented on paper. Maybe a part of a book really shocked you or made you cry; maybe you thought a particular scene was adorable — write it down! This is a way for you to really immerse yourself in what you’re reading.
So … where do you start?
Choosing Your Tools
If you’re the kind of person who likes to walk into a stationery supplies store just to look at all the pretty pens and highlighters, annotating gives you an excuse to take some of them home! Some tools you can consider using while annotating are:
- Pens or Pencils: If you’d rather not make mistakes while annotating, a pencil might be for you. If you’d like things to be more permanent and have your raw reactions documented, then use a pen! Gel pens work better than ball-point pens on most novels, however, feel free to use what you’d like at your own discretion!
- Highlighters: Arguably the most fun part of annotating, highlighters are your opportunity to play with colors as you read! While you can, of course, use the traditional neon highlighters, you don’t have to. Your local supplies store or Amazon likely has some cute highlighters to dig into.
- Tabs: Tabs can help you code different themes, characters, plots and more in your annotations and can also help you mark pages or paragraphs to come back to!
- Sticky Notes: Yes, we said writing in your books is okay, but if you’re still not convinced and would maybe just prefer to keep your books neat and clean, sticky notes are instead a great option to write your thoughts onto!
Developing a System of Annotation
Annotating a book is for you or maybe even someone else to come back to — use a system of annotating that makes sense to you! You might choose to highlight key themes and quotes in a book that stand out to you. You could use your highlighter to mark the specific paragraph and a tab to remind you where it is and what theme to associate it with.
Alternatively, you could use your pens and markers to circle or underline important details that you want to keep track of. Some books can have confusing plot details, characters and locations, so this method can be useful in cases like that.
Maybe you want to keep your notes and thoughts to just the margins of the book so as to not interfere with the printed text. You could jot down questions, reactions, connections you’re making or thoughts you’re having as you read! On the other hand, maybe you don’t need to use words at all! Some people find it helpful to draw symbols to indicate reactions or thoughts — a question mark for something confusing, a heart for a romantic scene or an exclamation mark for something surprising.
Coding Your Annotations by Theme or Emotion
One possible system is to color code based on themes or plot points! Maybe you want to use dark purple for horror themes or suspense, red for things that make you angry, green for character development and things that make you think about yourself, light blue for platonic relationships and pink for romantic ones.
Another way of going about this is using colors that might fit the cover of the book. If you want to take a more aesthetic approach to annotating, this might be for you!
A color-coding system can make it easy to flip back through the book and quickly identify particular aspects of the story or characters.
Revisiting Your Notes
Once you’ve finished your books, go back and revisit everything you annotated! Did any early predictions come true? Maybe a moment early in the book took on an entirely different meaning by the end of it. Take a minute to reflect on the book and where the story took you and where you are at the end of it — this can be a really rewarding experience as a reader!
If you’re the kind of person who loves re-reading old favorites, try annotating in layers! On your first read, you might focus on initial impressions, plot points and first reactions. On the second, you could perhaps dive deeper into themes, character motivations and foreshadowing that you might have missed the first time! The more times you read, the more layers of the story and how you feel about it could be revealed.
So, the next time you sit down to read, grab your tools and let the pages reflect your journey with the story. Show us your annotated books by tagging us @VALLEYmag on Instagram or X!
