Hi Everyone!
As you may know, I recently finished Sense and Sensibility and it is the first book I've properly annotated! I did take a few tentative steps into annotation before going full out so I want to take you through a few things you could do it you want to get into annotation or if you just want to know what I did!
First of all though I want to mention that Carolyn from her BookTube channel CarolynMarieReads is the one who inspired me to annotate and someone who inspires me so much in general! Please check out her channel here! I also want to say that it was a friend who gave me the idea to do this because I explained to her what I was doing with regards to annotation so thanks Rebecca!
The first book I considered annotating was Letters To A Young Poet. So one day we went to the beach and I brought a pencil and highlighter with me and annotated it. I didn't have any tabs or post-its but when we got home my mum gave me hers. They were not clear like the ones I have now but I used them and found it really good.
I also put a few post-its in other books to mark a few things which was another step into annotation.
I'll say now that my annotation is a personal thing to me and is in no way critical or analytical, though there are a few things that I find that I want to explore further, especially historical notes.
I then wanted to annotate a novel so in preparation I put together an annotation pack. The only thing I bought specifically for this were the clear post-its and they were quite cheap on Amazon (even if I don't love using them). My annotation pack consists of:
-a pencil
-a pen
-three different sizes of clear post-its
-a highlighter
-a spare bookmark (you never know)
-small paper cut into rectangles that I already had
-the old paper post-its
-washi tape
You might be wondering what the use of some of this is so I'll explain now!
I use a pencil to annotate and NEVER pen (I'll come to the use of the pen later)! This is just writing comments and my thoughts as well as underlining quotes and phrases I want to refer back to. I use the clear post-it notes (all sizes) to mark the page but the bigger the post-it, the more important the moment. I only use the highlighter in certain books so for example when I read Sense and Sensibility, I didn't use the highlighter. The spare bookmark is in case either I've forgotten one or because if it's something I want to change (like if I made a mistake) once I get home then I can mark it out with that but it doesn't stay in the book permanently. The paper I had in a box as a gift once and it has a pink pony design on one side but the other is white and it's just a perfect size so I use that side to set out a key which is where the pen comes in! See the picture below for what I mean by the key. The old post-its won't remain in there permanently but while I'm still figuring it all out it's nice to have something else in case I want it. Lastly, the washi tape is to stick in the small rectangular paper.
I don't know if any of that makes sense but I'll explain now with pictures from my copy of Sense and Sensibility! :)
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| This was my VERY messy key for Sense and Sensibility |
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| In this image you can see how I have underlined a quote in pencil and then added a yellow post-it for a quote and then the pink one for love, because it's a passage and quote I love. |
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| This is from Letters To A Young Poet and you can see that the post-it covers the text which isn't ideal at all but I did highlight in this book. |
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| I love how you can see where there are a lot of a certain colour so where there are multiple pinks, it means it's a passage I obviously loved. |
I wan to now tell you about how I annotated Sense and Sensibility specifically...
As you can see in the key, different colours mean different things and in certain cases different sizes do too, which was either because I ran out of colours or because I ran out of tabs of a certain size and colour. This is an explanation of what the colours mean:
Pink- Love: any quote or passage that I love and made me happy or warmed my heart
Yellow- Quotes: quotes I love and want to remember or note in my reading journal at a later date
Orange- Language/anger: I didn't use it for language that much in the end but I did use anger for characters that angered me or passages that annoyed me because possibly things were going wrong etc
Light Purple- Historical Note: anything that relates to the time the book was written and things I want to then research with regards to history
Green- Other: anything that is pretty random that doesn't fit into the other categories
Blue- Funny: things that made me laugh because Jane Austen is hilarious
Dark Purple- Character: character development or descriptions, introducing characters or important part in the character's plot line
***
Blue large post-its and large tabs after page. 192 (I ran out of large post-its!)- sadness/melancholy: anything that makes me sad :(
Green large post-it- Major plot points: very important things that happen plot wise
***
Next time I annotate a book I will adapt it and hopefully be able to change the way I annotate, so things I realised I wanted to track only part way through I will have provided for before!
I found it a great way to keep track of certain things and also to engage more with the book and the characters. It made me feel more a part of the book and more a part of the reading experience. I also now have my first time reading this tracked and my reactions noted so when I reread this one day I can see what my first reaction was, which is priceless! It also forced me to take my time and absorb every word, which I feel is something I occasionally miss. It was so fun too and I'm so happy I did it!
If you want to get into annotating then I would recommend putting together an annotation pack, trying out different methods of annotation to find what works for you and by just having fun with it! Tab what you want to in what way you want to, whether you colour code or not, whether you use tabs or not, whether you use highlighters and pencils or not...and if you don't want to annotate then that's fine too! :)
I don't annotate every book, especially if it's a really beautiful edition or anything contemporary!
Thank you so much for reading this and I'll be back soon! Happy annotating!
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