Writing In Books? How Dare You!

Annotating is something that has always been there, but over the past few years, with the help of social media, it has made a comeback. A new trend that is going around is personalizing your books. Some people will cover the covers in rhinestones, others are creating their covers and recovering their books, but a simple version of this is annotation. I can’t sympathize with people who don’t want to write in books, and I have a couple of options for this. Plus, you already have everything you need in your home.

The first way doesn’t even involve writing in a book. You’ll need a pen and a notebook. I like to make my book notes pretty and fun, so you could also include colored pencils, highlighters, colored pens, sticky notes, and anything else that sounds fun. 

What I do is after every page, I write down a thought. It could be anything, like a character I liked or a quote that I found interesting. Sometimes I want to add a doodle. You can do this for every page or every chapter. I like each page. This helps me write reviews later. Plus, it can be fun to get into the book. 

The following way is actually to write in your book. I know it’s ridiculous, but weirdly it’s very freeing. What you will need is everything above, but also some tabs. I like to do four different tabs for each book. Each tab represents something important. The first is usually a passage that makes me think of a song. I like to create playlists for each book, so I want to note that. The next tab is usually small, funny moments that I enjoy. For this book specifically, the second one is making different foods that this book talks about. Next are the major plot points, and lastly anything to do with romance. It could be the spicy parts or just a couple of cute moments. It depends on the book I’m reading at the moment.

Don’t be afraid to have fun with annotating. It’s not meant to be scary. It will help you read with purpose and get into the story. Also don’t be afraid to make snacks based on the book, or if the book provides recipes.

Here are some other tips that you can take into consideration when annotating:

• Underline what you like about that book
• Write what you don’t like about the story
• highlight quotes or cute moments
• Make notes on what you think is going to happen
• Make notes on what a quote or passage makes you feel
• Write a summary of the chapter
• important plot moments or twists
• character development