As I read your responses to Adler’s article, I noted opinion typically fell into two camps, with some variation in each.
Camp One marks some books like their scriptures and see how marking up other books or reading material might be helpful.
Camp Two decidedly does not mark up reading material at all.
Adler’s pretty adamant in insisting that marking up a book is the only way to “own it,” or to internalize what is being said in it. A few of you took objection to that.
I’m here to say that for me, marking up what I read works – but I don’t mark up everything I read in the same way.
Why do I mark things?
Firstly, I tend to be a fast reader. Too fast, in that I miss a lot of things so I have to read a book several times for it to sink in. When I take notes, however, I slow down and retain more, and I don’t have to read and re-read the entire book to get the salient points I noted earlier.
Take, for example, this.
This is the triple combination I used through four years of seminary, while I was at college, and during my mission.
I’ve marked it to pieces, as you can see. Each color represents a different time I read the book over those long years.
I don’t necessarily remember everything I marked. However, when I do pull this book off the shelf and re-read it, the markings and notes – particularly the notes – help me remember times from my mission when I was struggling, and other times when I was riding high. Seeing the marks and notes triggers those memories. If I try to remember something specific – like right now – my memory fails me. But seeing those notes helps my brain make the connection from the words on the page to the memories stored in my head.
The marks, the memories, and the connections in my head remind me of this scene from “Groundhog Day,” where Bill Murray’s character tells Andie MacDowell maybe God knows what he does because he’s been around for a long time. One of these days, I hope to know more about the scriptures, just like God.
Here’s another book I’ve marked up – Terry Pratchett’s “Going Postal.” Not the kind of book you think a person would normally mark up. But I have.
This one is different, though. In this one, I’ve used sticky tabs to mark passages I felt were particularly funny, or had meaning to me in another way. I rarely mark this kind of book with a pen, and if I do I write on the sticky note, so I don’t leave a mark in the book.
Just as in the scriptures, I can look at a mark, read the passage, and immediately remember why I marked this part of the book.
What I’m getting at here is this:
1. If I mark up a book – no matter how I do it – I’m leaving myself a physical reminder in the physical thing of what my brain was thinking when I read the book. Even if the “why” of the mark is stored only in my head, the physical act of marking the book helps trigger those memories.
2. Triggering memories is the prime reason to mark a book. We read a lot of different things in our lives – and when I say read, I also mean watch, because this works with what we take in visually through television shows and such. When we have something trigger our memory, our brain physically makes connections between neurons to help us strengthen those memories. And as we strengthen memories, neurons that hold different memories will suddenly make new connections between themselves as we suddenly realize there’s a connection between something we already know and something we’re currently reading or witnessing. The more physical connections we have in our brains, the more we are able to connect those dots. The more intelligence we grow.
So I’m going to offer a challenge. Think of a way you can mark your books that satisfies your need to remember with your reverence for books or your reluctance to mark in the first place. Start building those connections. As you so this, I guarantee you’ll see your ability to think critically grow by leaps and bounds.
I testify that God created our brains to help us learn and remember and grow. As we use our brains, we will see growth.
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