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I finished reading a book on Sunday, The Time-Traveler's Guide to to Medieval England. It was pretty good, and probably a good jumping-off sourcebook if I ever feel like writing something set in the 14th Century. But the last chapter was so in love with Chaucer that it made me pull out my old copy of 'The Canterbury Tales' from High School.
What was kind of weird about flipping through it though, was all of my old highlighting. I had a teacher that encouraged it, durting my high school years no non-library/school book was safe from my flourescent pens. After college I stopped doing it, just like I stopped dog earing my paperbacks. But now I look back at this book and I have NO idea why I've singled out any of those particular lines to highlight. Did I think it was pretty? Did it illustrate a point I was trying to make in a paper? What was I thinking?
I've recently taken the highlighter back up again. But only sometimes. It depends on whether the book is art and pleasure, or a research tool. The line is a little fuzzy. Some 'tool' books are just too pretty to mark up, like 'The Science of Leondardo' that had gorgeous creamy paper and brown ink that echoes da Vinci's notebooks. It would be a crime to take pink highlighter to that. So instead it got flagged with dozens of post it notes. And then when I have time I take all my post it notes and highlights and throw them up in the wiki Flidget gave me to keep said notes in. So I will always have this oddball collection of notes and ideas when I need them.
I wonder if I will remember what these notes & highlights were for in 10 years.
What was kind of weird about flipping through it though, was all of my old highlighting. I had a teacher that encouraged it, durting my high school years no non-library/school book was safe from my flourescent pens. After college I stopped doing it, just like I stopped dog earing my paperbacks. But now I look back at this book and I have NO idea why I've singled out any of those particular lines to highlight. Did I think it was pretty? Did it illustrate a point I was trying to make in a paper? What was I thinking?
I've recently taken the highlighter back up again. But only sometimes. It depends on whether the book is art and pleasure, or a research tool. The line is a little fuzzy. Some 'tool' books are just too pretty to mark up, like 'The Science of Leondardo' that had gorgeous creamy paper and brown ink that echoes da Vinci's notebooks. It would be a crime to take pink highlighter to that. So instead it got flagged with dozens of post it notes. And then when I have time I take all my post it notes and highlights and throw them up in the wiki Flidget gave me to keep said notes in. So I will always have this oddball collection of notes and ideas when I need them.
I wonder if I will remember what these notes & highlights were for in 10 years.
