It is important to underline things as you read, preferably by hand, not so much for the future as for the present. Underlining forces you to stop, go back, reread, and consider what you have read at greater length.
The strategy of “stop and go back” is enormously better than careening full speed ahead without any stops. It’s better for learning, politics, and life in general.
I read most fiction electronically these days, so highlighting is easy. But when it comes to paper books (and this is no judgement on what anyone else does with their books, this is just how I am with mine), I absolutely abhor marking the pages. It feels like I’m desecrating and scarring books; sort of how I feel about cutting into a tree. What I do instead is use a Post-it or similar to mark the page and paragraph, and jot down a few words on the note.
But what I absolutely hate with murderous rage is when someone borrows my book and returns it all marked-up and dog-eared. I’ve had that happen with several colleagues and I just don’t understand how people can treat someone else’s property this way. My eldest son (an adult), who’s an avid reader, returned a couple of books he’d borrowed and they were absolutely demolished; clearly he’d read them several times, but they seriously looked like he’d run them through a washer and dryer. Then, the other day, he asked to borrow my copy of On Writing by Stephen King, which is a book I love (part memoir, part craft manual, and reads like a thriller) and I told him he could keep it; I’m just going to get myself another copy.
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I agree. It’s detestable when people do that to somebody else’s books. I lent a book that I use in my teaching to a colleague, and she returned it all marked up and with writing in the margins. I used that copy to make photocopies for my students. And I actually mentioned this before lending her my copy. But that’s not even the point. Somebody else’s book is like any other item of their property. It’s not okay to deface somebody else’s property.
I also despise people who do this with library books. Often I request a book from the library, and it comes in a state that is completely unusable. People think that writing translations of whole sentences on top of the original sentence is cute. But can you imagine what it looks like? It’s impossible to read.
I mark up my own books a lot, but I’d rather chew my fingers off than do this to somebody else’s books.
A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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