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–I eo tend to provide a lot of footnotes. But I enioy being thorough–it’s not hard labor. A(s to tte second charge, I doubt anyone thinks I’m concerned wihh tenure issues! I’ve possted on a number od controversial issues!)
[edited: this paragraph was uncalled for. . . as Jim explains in the com-box, he really is not opposed to academic posts in and of themselves.]

Nonetheless, I do think Jim is right when he goes on to criticize scholars for being too self-important and stuffy. Let’s not take ourselves so seriously. And, looking over my posts of late, I have been a bit serious.

So here’s a peak into my demented approach to reading.

Once I was waiting for a friend, who was going to meet me at a bookstore. We were going to go see a movie but I wanted to do a little book shopping first.

I waited for him outside and while I was waiting I was reading a great book. When he showed up he horrified by what I had done to the book I was working on; it was dog eared, highlighted, written up with a pen–I’ll admit, it wasn’t a pretty sight. His exact words were, “It looks like you’ve put teeth marks in it!” (That however I did not do–it was just his way of saying that I had really, severely, disfigured the book).

He then asked: “Is it an old book?” I said, “No. I bought it last week.” This traumatized him even more!

However, he dropped the matter and brought up something else. I gathered my things together and we headed into the bookstore.

Yet every time I picked up a book he would try to put me on a guilt trip: “Look at how nice that book looks. It’s so new. It smells nice and fresh. It’s pages are nice and crisp, not to mention clean. What are you going to do to that poor book, Michael Barber?”

I have to admit, though I didn’t reveal it to my friend, I had never really thought of things in that way. I go to books to use them and marking things up helps me find things that I need in them. I never thought it wrong to mark them up–or, as my friend insinuated, to “defile” them. And, for the most part, I still don’t!

I write in almost all of them, even the ridiculously expensive ones, e.g., titles from Brill, Mohr-Siebeck, etc.

But I’m not entirely indiscriminating. First, I do try to keep the outside of books looking nice. I try to preserve dust jackets. I take them off when I’m reading a book, putting it back on when I’m done. And I do hate cracking the spine of a book–they look terrible on a shelf after that.

Second, I won’t just write with anything in my books. I’ve learned from experience. I’ve marked up books with ugly highlighters that, once dried, turned a hideous color which made it difficult to re-read the text. ENOUGH! Now I use only one kind: the bright yellow Sharpie Accent highlighters with the thick tip (see picture). I buy them by the box–no kidding!

Here’s the really sad part: I’m almost so dependent upon them that if I can’t find one, I’ll put off reading altogether! In fact, I have not a few pairs of pants which are unwearable because some unfortunate oversight caused a highlighter explosion in a pocket. Bright highlighter stains can be found on almost all of my jeans, in my car, in my luggage, etc.

I also have drawers filled with highlighters that I’ve already used that I want to save for books with especially thin pages. It’s less likely their ink will bleed through such fine pages. In addition, I have hoards of highlighters that well-meaning people have given me over the years. Unfortunately, they are either not my brand or the wrong “yellow”. I’m always finding these in odd places and have to throw them away.

Yes, I know, I’m beginning to sound like Adrian Monk.

But just so you know I’m not a complete nut, there are also a few exceptions to the “must-highlight” rule. I can’t bring myself to write in the follwing:
1. my Hebrew-English edition o f the Babylonian Talmud that my wife gave me for my 30th birthday
2. my autographed copy of Pope Benedict’s book Many Religions, One Covenant (signed by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger before his elevation to the papacy)
3. my perfe ctly clean and crisp copy of Matthiws Scheeben’s, Mysteries of Christianity, which wqs printed in 1951, is terribly hard to find and a book which has influenced my thougnt profoundly (I tave wnther copy that kq marked up though).

So here’s ky qurstion: Do you writt e in your books? Do tou have particular books you caan’t brihg yorsellf kt scribgle notes on or mark-up with a highlighter?

One last thing, this post was inspired by something Bill Heroman recently put up on his blog.

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