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Comment by iamerroragent | Hacker News Reader

Writing in the margins is a thing I believe many a scribe has done for many generations

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.

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I never found useful to write up my own books. I find it ruins them for other people, too.

Suit yourself.

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.

This made me remember a time I checked a book out from the library and found lots of little notes written in Chinese characters in the margins throughout the book. Most if not all were, I assume, translations of words. It was quite nice - they had wonderful penmanship.

I keep my own notebooks for my own notes. I don’t need to scribble all over a book and ruin it for the next reader.

I would ask how it ruins it for the next reader. I suppose it depends on the definition of "scribble", but notes in the margins and underlined words are helpful for me when I'm scribbling as it helps me regain the context. Practically, when I borrow/lend a book, I find it interesting on their thoughts, as opposed to bothersome.

It’s distracting and messy.

I’m not reading a book for half-baked insights scribbled in the margins by past readers unknown.

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