How to Mark a Book Essay -- Reading Literature Essays

How to Mark a Bookmissing flora cited You know you have to read between the lines to rule the about place of anything. I want to persuade you to do something equally important in the course of your reading. I want to persuade you to write between the lines. Unless you do, you argon non likely to do the most efficient kind of reading. I contend, quite bluntly, that marking up a prevail is not an behave of mutilation besides of love. You shouldnt mark up a book which isnt yours. Librarians (or your friends) who lend you books face you to keep them clean, and you should. If you decide that I am right about the returns of marking books, you will have to buy them. Most of the worlds great books be available today, in reprint editions. There atomic number 18 two shipway in which one can own a book. The first is the attribute right you establish by paving for it, just as you hire for clothes and furniture. But this act of purchase is only the prelude to possession. just ownership comes only when you have made it a part of yourself, and the surpass way to make yourself a part of it is by writing in it. An illustration may make the point clear. You buy a beefsteak and deportation it from the butchers icebox to your own. But you do not own the beefsteak in the most important sense until you consume it and get it into your bloodstream. I am statement that books, too, must be absorbed in your bloodstream to do you any good. Confusion about what it means to own a book leads nation to a false reverence for paper, binding, and type - a respect for the sensible thing - the craft of the printer rather than the genius of the author. They forget that it is possible for a man to acquire the idea, to possess the beauty, which a great book contain... ...em you can get through, but rather how many can get through you - how many you can make your own. A few friends are better than a thousand acquaintances. If this be your aim, as it should be, you will not be impatient if it takes more time and effort to read a great book than it does a newspaper. You may have one final exam objection to marking books. You cant lend them to your friends because nobody else can read them without universe distracted by your notes. Furthermore, you wont want to lend them because a marked facsimile is a kind of intellectual diary, and lending it is almost like gift your mind away. If your friend wishes to read your Plutarchs Lives, Shakespeare, or The Federalist Papers, tell him gently but firmly, to buy a copy. You will lend him your car or your covering - but your books are as much a part of you as your head or your heart.