I've got my fair share of idiosyncrasies. One of them is that I never read a book I don't own! And the reason for that idiosyncrasy is this idiosyncrasy: I never read without a pen so I can underline. If I don't have a pen it's not worth reading! I'm an underlining machine! Anywho. I'm passing this idiosyncrasy on to my son as we read through the New Testament. If he reads without underlining it doesn't count. Then at our FSMs we discuss the underlined verses.
So this Sunday we're at church and Dave Clark, our campus pastor at Georgetown, closes with a Benediction from I Peter. And that is the book Parker and I went through last week. So Parker leans over to me and says: "Dad, I underlined that one." Maybe you had to be there. But it was a moment for me!
PS. One of my other idiosyncrasies is bolding words.
So this Sunday we're at church and Dave Clark, our campus pastor at Georgetown, closes with a Benediction from I Peter. And that is the book Parker and I went through last week. So Parker leans over to me and says: "Dad, I underlined that one." Maybe you had to be there. But it was a moment for me!
PS. One of my other idiosyncrasies is bolding words.
10 Comments:
My wife and I get a kick out of the way you bold every other word. Personally I like it. I don't bold so much when I write things but I do like to underline (a lot) when I read books. If I don't underline things it tells me the chapter didn't offer me much.
I'm with you, Mark!
I recently was looking at one of my books that someone had been reading while in my office and was surprised to see that they underlined several words, phrases in the forward & first chapter... weird. Kind of felt violated.
Not a major deal, I guess. I didn't make it one either... I, instead, ordered another copy of the book from Amazon for the person - not sure if I should offer the one they underlined or the new one. Ha!
PM,
This is why I'd rather buy someone a book than loan mine out. I make notes in the margins, in the front, the back. Nearly every book I own is marked up. I feel I learn better when I make notes and underline key points and phrases. Also when I come back and read something later, I can see how I've grown or not grown as an individual since that time.
Cheers,
Terry
Idiosyncrasies have their consequences. I have great difficulty reading a used book that is full of underlining. I don't mind underlining -- but it must be mine! Someone else's just gets in the way.
Mark,
I smell what you're steppin' in. I'm the exact same way.
Have you found a good way to catalog the things you have underlined so you can refer back to them? My problem is, I read so much and underline so much, that when it comes time to locating that great thing I underlined, I can't remember which book it was in.
There are certain books I know I will read again & again to keep it fresh, and each time I read them I underline in a different color. I looked in one of those books recently and found that I have ALL the colors of the rainbow in that one!
As far as comments...I loaned out a book once and the person who read it said that my comments in the margin were like reading a Batman comic book. Wow! Yes! Ouch! Bam! :)
I am with you! I always read with a highlighter and a Pen.
I also have a nifty little trick of writing the category or the subject of the text that I am highlighting at the bottom of the page. The when I am done with a book, my secretary types up all the quotes from the book, and files them each in their category.
It makes for easy research when it comes time to preach on sex, love, gossip, leadership, etc. and you can just pull up the file and its got all of your quotes right there.
I just got tired of forgetting which book I had read a certain quote or idea in.
That is so funny! I love that that happened.. how cool.
My friends and always borrowed each others books through college and one of our favorite things was reading one another's comments.. to the point that one of them actually prefers to have someone who scribbles read the book first because it was like reading it with us... so she always was the third or so to get a good book passed along ;)
Bekah
love it
Can you borrow books from the library anymore? I had to stop. It was costing me too much to replace the ones I had written in.
Oddly enough, I used to consider my notations a negative trait until a student borrowed "a noted" book and remarked about my writing. Ever since then, I write in my books with an unabashed fervor.
We are alike in this. I also underline, write in the margins too, and LOVE to make things BOLD.
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