Solofo Odon RAVELOJAONA

Michelle Donner

ENG 150

08/01/2021

Annotated Reading: "How to Mark a Book"

For a sincere seeker of information in life, they set a print of achievement in each line,

percept of their point. At whatever point we need to develop our understanding of something in

common circumstances, we must develop each accessible gift and tool to discover the available

treasure in it. In case, here Mortimer J. Adler instructed on his works on “How to mark a book”,

rather than just scanning it and getting nothing out of it.

I appreciate Adler for giving me the idea and advantage of marking a book, and I ponder

on each of the steps and the details that Adler provided is the proper way to win understanding

from a book. The author of the book highlighted that readers must keep others’ book neat and

clean and return it back after borrowing it, nevertheless, he pointed out that “You can’t lend them

to your friends because nobody else can read them without being distracted by your notes.” It

means that books should not be marked or make explanation in books that is not yours, we must

purchase them for ourselves, and then if the book belongs to us, we can do whatever we want to

do with it. Besides, I like how he advices us to buy a book to honoring the rights of the author.

Adler himself clarified that marking a book is unique for the reader as he stated that

“marking books is going to slow up your reading” and he gave three reasons why the readers

would mark the book we read as:

  it keeps the readers conscious.

 it is thought-through book.

 the notes offer the readers keep in mind the author’s reviews in reading the book.

I would like to mention the significance of writing and marking a book by using hands with

notes, he said with convincingly “Well the physical act of writing, with your own hand, brings

words and sentences more sharply before your mind and preserves them better in your

memory….And that is exactly what reading a book should be: a conversation between you and

the author.” I believe in Adler's thoughts and I really approve it with him. I know that is it

important to read in order to understand better and communicate well.