One of the ancillary benefits of having been a manuscript editor is that I can usually remember where something is in a book. I can see in my mind's eye that it was at the top of the left-hand page about 20 or 30 pages in - and I usually have little trouble finding it. When I'm reviewing, I put a little mark next to passage and write the page number down somewhere. Usually it's an uncorrected proof. I never write in books that I am reading for pleasure (which includes instruction and edification).
I will not write in my books, even if I'm reviewing advance readers/UCPs. I can't do it. It must be my rare book librarian training.
ReplyDeleteThat said, books with notes in them that were formerly owned by people like Theodore Roethke, James Wright, or William Stafford--or the anonymous 15th-century hand-written marginalia found in incunables--that is priceless!