The World of Marginalia and What Could Have Been

As I read through Sam Anderson's "What I Really Want is Someone Rolling Around in the Text", I remembered myself in high school. I had always been an intense note-writer and I can fill out at least two to three 100-leaves notebook in an academic year for each subject. I don't really remember where I first saw the marginalia from but I did had a bit with it when I was in high school through university.

Sam wrote about the art of marginalia and the importance of it to him and what it could be to people. The habit of marginalia boomed through 1700-1820, and here I am imagining those books and notes with yellowed pages and wonderful scripts. I was especially surprised to see that he could apply this to fiction novels. I agree that marking up a book is a way to personalize it and make it your own and it's a whole new sensation to be actively talking with the book as you go. It will also be interesting to see the exchanges of marginalia and footnotes of renowned authors and not just through prefaces.

I own about fifty novels and I would be damned if there's any marginalia in it. I, being the neat and organized when it comes to book, couldn't take the thought of marking up my books because every time I read them there's a new sensation and new understanding and I think if I were to put marginalia when I read it during my immature days then there would be prejudices.

On the contrary, I would definitely do marginalia in terms of academics. As I said on the first paragraph, I've been into marginalia throughout the half of my school years and it helped me a lot. The marginalia I did on my books back in high school supplemented the notes that I have, even my notes had marginalia! Throughout university, I never had books and relied solely on handouts and even though I had my notes back then, the annotations and notes on my handouts got me through most of my tests.

I agree with the digital age hindering the rise of marginalia nowadays. I have read a lot of e-books, and the academic ones, I would have loved to print out and do my own annotations and notes on the margins. In the article it is said that 'marginalia is a natural bridge between the book's strengths: to be intensely private and to be intensely social', which I think is true, especially when it comes to textbooks and theses. 

A good discussion makes a great difference on understanding what was written. A great understanding of what is written will then be a good discussion.

- The World of Marginalia and What Could Have Been