Your reading should be messy
robinrendle.com
robinrendle.com
1. Things meant to be preserved so future generations can have them, just as you have them now.
2. Things meant to be used.
(A third category, things meant to appreciate in value, is so close to #1 that it's not worth separating out.)
Use your stuff. That's what it's for. Who do you respect more, the mechanic with a toolbox full of pristine tools without a single scratch, or the one with a box full of battered, dinged-up tools? This article's library full of factory-new books, or one full of creased, dog-eared, broken-spined books? Which child's toy had the better life, the one that's indistinguishable from new or the one that's indistinguishable from a pile of scraps and fluff?
Use. Your. Stuff. It's what it's for.
For me, category one includes all of my books. Category two consists almost entirely of food, cleaning and hygiene products, and most bedding and underwear.
I got most of my books after they had been purchased and probably read, I don't know why I should assume I was the end of the line. [edit: I mean, I have books and things that I know have had multiple owners; I've got books from Bell Labs' library that were lent out a few dozen times and touched by many more hands. Why should I scribble in them and treat them like shit again? Instead of treating them like shit, I'd rather just destroy them in a careful scanning process.]
> Who do you respect more, the mechanic with a toolbox full of pristine tools without a single scratch, or the one with a box full of battered, dinged-up tools?
If by "respect" you mean would rather hire, I'd rather hire the third guy with the well-used, very well-taken care of tools. Why would I hire a slob that isn't maintaining their equipment?
I am not arguing for treating items "like shit". That's abuse, and while abuse of inanimate objects is hardly a mortal sin, I still don't like it, and I said as much in my original post.
What I am saying is, use your stuff, and don't sweat the normal wear and tear that comes with use. There is absolutely no such thing as a factory pristine set of tools that also gets used regularly. They get scratched and dinged and beaten up, and you can see it. They will also get cleaned and oiled and maintained generally, and you can see that too.
Some of the other replies here talk about treating stuff more gently than it needs, because... well, I don't really know why. This is something I've struggled with too, and as I've gotten older (not to mention worked in product development -- you see some things there!) this has gotten easier for me, and so my life has gotten easier. A few years ago I got a new stove, way too expensive, and way too bright and clean and shiny. Then I put a big ugly scratch right into the front of it, before ever cooking anything on it. My first reaction was horror -- I damaged it -- and then I relaxed: Now I don't have to worry about scratching it anymore, I can just _use_ it without worrying about that. And so I did, and I do! There's real freedom that comes from thinking this way.
By all means, take care of fragile things. But objects have a purpose to serve, best exemplified by tools. If a tool cannot serve its purpose because it's broken or inadequate, you replace it. And if that same tool cannot serve its purpose because you are too gentle and refuse to let it, you have to replace your attitude.
No more "good china"!
My childhood toys were often nearly indistinguishable from new, but that’s not because I didn’t spend eons playing with them.
When I outgrew them, they were passed on and enjoyed just as much by the next child.
In my experience, there are two different potential meanings behind the saying “stuff is meant to be used”:
(1) Stuff is meant to be used, so don’t sweat the minor scratches, dings, and wear that comes from using it well.
(2) Stuff is meant to be used, so don’t criticize me for my absolute lack of care when I use things.
I’m very much in camp (1), and I don’t have a lot of respect for camp (2). It’s wantonly wasteful, and prevents passing down and reusing possessions.
There is power in treating things as consumable. It’s easy to only think of the cost, but this is very limiting.
I am extremely gentle by nature. In high school, a teacher didn’t believe I’d read a book because it looked so new. The binding was still tight.
This gentleness is not always warranted. What breaks me out of it is thinking in terms of trades. Trading textbooks for an education is a great trade. If it will help you to rip out the pages and put them on your wall, go for it.
I recommend everyone visit an estate sale at least once. You're not going to buy anything, but rather to see all the things someone valued, but that have almost no value to everyone else.
That 90+ piece set of beautiful cutlery in silver? The highest bid will be below its melt value, because that's exactly what they'll do with it.
The well-crafted piece of furniture that was made by an artisan from carefully selected wood? No one is bidding on it at all because it doesn't fit modern aesthetics or considerations.
The carefully curated personal libraries, with no particularly collectible editions or rare books? Being sold for weight.
It really helps put this in perspective as to just exactly what is worth preserving and what isn't. What is important to you, but essentially junk to everyone else.
Other than that, I agree that books want to be handled. I read a lot of books and I also re-read a lot, and my books look worn. I also accept bending pages to remember where you left the story; I never have bookmarks handy.
But scribbling? No, you're banned from my house.
It's recognized as a study aid. Especially if you're re-reading or studying a lot of material on a subject and need to go back. You can easily see what your past self was thinking or maybe quickly find a part you found interesting.
It's fundamentally useful to write up your own books.
It is just one tool among many for the acquisition and retention of knowledge.
I like used books with notes in it. It's interesting to see what someone previously reading felt was important or to glimpse into the past life of book itself.
I’m not reading a book for half-baked insights scribbled in the margins by past readers unknown.
Plus "your own books" are never truly just your own. In the example from the author of TFA, they are his family's. I wouldn't have wanted my brother's or parent's scribblings in books from our family bookshelves!
I decided about 20 years ago I wasn't going to use bookmarks anymore. If I can't find where I was, I need to reread from whatever I recognize. If I can't figure out a place to drop in and understand what's going on, I should just start over from the beginning (it'll probably be faster the second time anyway.) I also really hate dogears; they crack off in about 10 years or so.
Life is too short to read everything. Read what keeps your interest, page by page. If a book bores you, don't finish it. Sell it, give it to a friend, drop it off at goodwill, let it gather dust. So what? Just my two cents.
In regards to letting books get scuffed up, I must say I disagree as well. I like to keep all of my things shiny and new, and my books are no exception.
For many books, this is just a way of mentally noting something and letting it go enough to move on. But if I end up wanting to write a review of a book (usually a blog post, not a bookstore review), I just skim through these marked up sections. That's usually enough to guide my write up. The triple-marked sections usually end up quoted in the review.
I also write a capital R in the margin next to things I'd like to research further. Sometimes I put a question mark next to a section I'm skeptical of.
I find doing this helps keep me honest about whether I'm understanding what I'm reading or just glossing through it, and it helps pace my engagement. If I can't come up with one question or comment per page, I've probably lost focus.
[1]: https://stevenson.ucsc.edu/academics/stevenson-college-core-...
I dog-ear pages that include a lesson that I really wish to internalize and take away from the book. Something I expect to revisit often.
On top of that, I’m writing in the margins. Questions I have about what the author has written, counter-arguments when I disagree, check-boxes with descriptions of actionable tasks I can do, tangential thoughts that were inspired in the course of reading (often unrelated), ideas that I think might combine well with an insight by the author, and generally anything that I think about in the process of writing.
Knowing how to open a new book, how to turn pages properly, keeping your hands clean when you handle them, knowing how to wrap a book in a protective cover when you take it with you, and keeping the notes in your notebooks where they belong is essential. Little things like that is what human culture is made of.
I like the sentiment, but I think there is a healthy middle ground and really the right answer is for the owner of the book to treat it however they feel brings them the most job.
That's not what the article said and thus not what I was arguing with. While I tend to agree with your statement, I just can't bring myself to seeing books as mere things.
Did you grow up in a poor country? My mom used to do that when I was a kid. After we moved to N America I only saw it done once.
Its actually quite lovely.
My position has no direct connection to the price of the books, it has with their value, though. FYI, when I was growing up books were pretty cheap, compared to the median income.
But for books I own, I almost always annotate, highlight, mark up, write in, etc. however I want. I forgot who said it – probably Mortimer J. Adler – but writing in a book and engaging with it is the highest compliment you can pay to an author. T
One of the key contention points is whether one respects the book/author by keeping the book pristine vs marking it (or whether the book as a physical object deserves respect). This is purely subjective, and has a historical precedent. Books used to be freaking expensive, so of course you would want to preserve it. Now, most books can be printed cheaply, but some people still like to keep their possessions clean. There are many other examples of this divide, like how people use their tools, pots, kitchens, cars, laptops, etc.
The other is whether actively engaging with the book helps with understanding and recall. I don't think there is much disagreement on this point, but this does not require marking the physical book. You can use post-it notes and such, but in the digital age, arguably marking a physical book is inferior to annotating a digital copy and cross-hyperlinking it with other books and your personal knowledge base. Unfortunately both the technology and copyright law is lacking in this area as far as I'm aware, but rather than debating whether to write in physical books, I think everyone would benefit from innovating on the digital side of things.
Sure, I am currently earning enough money to be able to afford messing up my books if I wanted to but it feels so wasteful. Feels so weird to purposely vandalize your own stuff. I prefer making notes in a separate medium and keeping my books clean.
I like being able to gift or sell my books to other people. Plus, I might want to re-read them and I really dislike having any annotations in them. I feel like it would stop me from having a "fresh read".
Thinking about my childhood, the vast majority of the books I read were from libraries. School books were also all lend from school. Sure, I also owned plenty of books myself but my parents would have been pretty pissed if I vandalized them as my siblings might want to read them.
For me books where always something to share not something to own. Never got the need to make them "my own".
Honestly, when people who take care of their things die, it's like an explosion of wealth. The things in my place range from the mid-19th century to today. If you let people pick through my shit and take something that looks cool, my death could result in 1000 smiles.
edit: I even take care of the things that I've made. They're no doubt mine, but some of those things will make someone else just as happy as they've made me.
There are also some "special collection" things: mineral collections, electronic kits, etc. The only rules with those is they have to be put away. They've got a low table, a high table, and couple of comfy chairs, and reading lamps.
We ask them not to read them while eating or drinking (other than water bottles) and to keep the library items downstairs. It's because we have toddlers who don't have access to the library and they like to tear up books. We also ask them not to fold over pages (in paperbacks this results in the pages eventually breaking off, sometimes shockingly soon due to acid paper becoming brittle). I ask them not to write in the books. We have a huge supply of yellow pads and other notebooks of various sizes and they are welcome to use them, and an endless supply of pencils and pens.
I make a distinction between honest wear and carelessness. I love it when I see the books showing wear from reading. A lot of the books are somewhat rare and were hard to obtain. They can read those just like the others. I do have a special collection of signed books upstairs in my bedroom but most of those books have "reading copy" mates in the library. I don't love it when I see that someone's left it upside down on a dirty floor and the spine is split or a cover has been torn off. That's not honest wear - someone let a toddler at one of the library books without supervision.
The form of some books is a lot of the experience and in general I won't mess that up by writing in them. But most are about the words and I don't consider the form sacrosanct in any way.
The concept of breaking a book into "chunks" and then individually scheduling those chunks to be read via an spaced repetition algorithm. The thing is that incremental reading is much harder to do with physical books. And you would have to either calculate the next schedule(hard) or use a simple leinter box system(loss of efficiency).
I wonder if normal reading is this "pristine" reading and incremental reading being the "messy" reading.
But no, I had not heard of incremental reading in this sense. So after reading the section on regular languages in the Cinderella book one would reread it before moving on to context-free languages?
I always carry a paperback in my back pocket, and it's often margin written and beer stained. My favorite books get the worst treatment.
In fact, every time I see someone grab a book in perfect condition off a shelf and then proceed to crack the spine as if it's some sort of required ritual before even considering whether to read the book, I feel like I die a bit inside.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/428862.Wreck_This_Journa...
This doesn’t strike me as mindful behavior.
(Someone was going to say it.)