Annotations: My Kit
I’m in several online book groups and I frequently see people asking about annotating - why people do it, how people do it, and what people use for it.
I’m a novice to it myself, unless you count GCSE and A Level English Literature, but I think a lot of people are in the same boat. Annotation for academic purposes is, of course, very valid but I think a lot of people are asking about it now purely for personal enjoyment. It’s something I enjoy so much I bought a Kindle designed with annotation in mind, so I thought I’d try and create a starting point for others.
Why Annotate?
Have you ever read a passage in a novel that just resonated with you? It was something you wanted to record, to mark, so you could pick up the book and find it again easily if you ever wanted to. Or perhaps you’re interested in story structure - you want to highlight the parts where you can see the pieces of the story coming together. The things you think are clues or foreshadowing, the characters you suspect, or parts of the world-building you find really interesting.
It will be different for every reader based on what you enjoy in your books- there are no rules and there is no right or wrong way to do it. Which is probably what makes it so daunting to begin! I must admit my annotations are purely for my own amusement - the lines I love, that make me kick my feet, making stupid remarks purely to make myself laugh. But most importantly it’s fun, and I feel it adds to my enjoyment of reading. When I look back over a marked up book I feel like I’m seeing at a glance how much I loved reading it.
I’ll do another post showing you examples of some of my annotations (to help give you a better idea what I’m talking about) but in this post I’ll skip over the what and why (for now) to give you some options for how.
What Do I Use to Annotate?
I have two cases for my annotation supplies - one case for all the pens and one box of all the tabs, tags, and post-its.
The multi-coloured tabs are standard page tabs, but the ends of the them are translucent so you can have the tab slightly overlap the text without covering any of the print. It’s more a convenience thing than anything, but I also appreciate the variety of colours, which gives a good number of tabs you can assign to particular themes/characters if you want (you can see this in action in my next post).
The line ones are really interesting (in my opinion!) they are literally just coloured lines on a transparent background, but if you want to underline passages in your book without actually drawing on your book they’re perfect. You can trim them down to whatever size you need and they’re neither permanent nor leave any damage or residue to the page.
The block of “white” post-its are actually completely transparent post-its, and I bought them because I saw them getting shown around on Instagram and Tik Tok, but honestly I don’t think they’re the best solution. It’s a great idea but the surface of the post-its is quite slippery, not good for getting a lot of pens to dry on quickly or without smudging. It’s a great idea, but I feel like there’s going to be a better iteration of it at some point - or I hope there is. In principle you can write whatever you like on the post it and stick it over any part of your book without damaging the page, but with the issues around ink drying on them I wouldn’t risk it - it’s an accident waiting to happen. All over your book.
I will say in recent months I’ve moved away from using the underline stickers because I discovered a brand of pens I enjoy using a lot more - Frixion.
These are erasable pens. Do not rush out and assume they are 100% perfectly erasable! They’re not perfect, but I do think they’re great. They come in the highlighters (pastels and neons) and also some fineliners, which I don’t use as much. The principle is that you can write or highlight with them and then you can use the rubber end of the pen to erase it again if you need or want to.
The caveats:
You can only erase things ONCE THE INK IS DRY. If you try and do it beforehand you will make a mess.
The effectiveness of the erasing depends on each book’s print and paper quality. On some books you can still erase the highlight, but it will also smudge or distort the print underneath.
YOU MUST DO A TEST PAGE FIRST.
I tend to use the afterword, or lacking that any blank pages at the end of the book. You’re checking for bleed-through and how the printed text reacts to having the pen erased on top of it. If you see any smudging or damage you don’t risk it on the rest of the book - and you’ve only made a little bit of damage to a (no-offence) non-essential part of the book. Nothing that will impact your ability to read and understand it, at least.
I bought the majority of these items from Amazon so I’m going to include the links below - I have registered myself as an Amazon Associate, which means (if you’re purchasing from Amazon UK via these links) I can earn from any qualifying purchases.
But also I’m never going to mind if you don’t - I just find it easier to link directly to what I did buy and you can go from there. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that the stationary world is vast so if you’d like something like tabs in a particular style you can probably find them out there (I will always recommend checking out Etsy).
Have fun with it. I genuinely think the future of books is in making them objects of art, and there’s nothing more personal and precious than an annotated book.
