Hello friends! Today I’m going to teach you how to annotate books! my definition of annotating books basically means that you take notes or add personal comments to your books. I know some people annotate for academic purposes, but I just annotate my books for fun!
before you ask, yes, I write in my books. I spent money on them, so I’ll do with them what I want. however, there is some method to my madness. So, this is how I annotate books, and if you want, you can try it for yourself!
You are reading: Post its for books
why you should annotate your books
because it’s fun. that’s the main reason I annotate books. yes, you can write them down for your classes or homework, but annotating a book for fun is different. you can write your wildest thoughts or your bad shots or funny comments. no rules. however, if you need further convincing, here are other reasons:
helps you with memory: I still remember what happened in furyborn (a fantasy book I read over three years ago) because I wrote it down and took notes. the same with the dawn rising. it really helps you remember what happens in a book.
You gain a better understanding of the book: Annotating a book can often help you look at it more critically. It helps to better understand the plot, the story, the characters and the structure.
want to write more detailed book reviews; I’m not saying you have to annotate books to write good book reviews. however, annotating a book can sometimes help you formulate your review and point out things you liked or didn’t like.
I could list many more reasons, but I think the main one is: have fun!
Supplies for Annotating Books
The first thing you need are some supplies. Here are some supplies I use when annotating books:
- multicolored pens,
- black pens,
- highlighters,
- sticky notes,
- sticky index cards,
- pencils,
- and note cards or a notebook.
See Also: 18 Best Books to Learn Polish for Beginners to Advanced Learners – Learn Languages From Home
I use them to annotate my books, especially the sticky tabs. I use a pack of 8 colored sticky tabs (pictured) to annotate. I love color coding with annotations, it’s the easiest way to get started. I’m not going to add where I bought all my supplies because they’re all from South African stores, but you should be able to get them at your local stationery store!
Now that you have all your supplies, you need a key!
annotation key
grab your pack of sticky notes and assign a color to whatever you want to jot down. my basic annotation key looks like this:
- red – scenes that make me angry/things I don’t like
- pink – romantic moments
- orange: important things/related moments
- yellow: world building
- green: rendering</li
- blue – sad moments/scenes that make me sad
- dark purple – favorite quotes/moments
- light purple – character development
As soon as you have the colors assigned, you can also match the sticky notes with your colored pens and highlighters. so if you’re reading a book and the characters kiss for the first time, you can highlight it with pink, add a pink tab, and even write your thoughts with a pink pen. make sure you buy fineliner type pens that won’t bleed through the pages. my advice is to have a few different types of pens as books sometimes have different types of pages.
here is an example of the aurora output, where I marked a sad scene with orange:
I also pasted the annotation key to the front of the book!
what books to annotate?
You may be wondering what books I can annotate. the short answer? any book! you can completely do whatever you want with the annotation. There doesn’t have to be any rhyme or reason to it, you can just go with your gut.
Personally, though, there are some types of books I’m more likely to bookmark than others. first, I would write down the books I’m reading for a book club. Since we have some deep discussions about these books, I really want to delve into them. so he is more likely to write down a book from the book club.
Secondly, I would note the books I reread and previously gave five stars. it takes some time to annotate books and often prolongs the reading process. that’s why I just want to put my time and effort into a book that I already know I love. although it is not a difficult rule. sometimes I review books on a first read that I know I’ll love (or sequels to books I loved).
See Also: N.K. Jemisin – Book Series In Order
Lastly, I would write down the books I need to review. I get a lot of books from publishers and netgalley, and as I mentioned before, annotating helps me write those reviews. do I do this for all my review copies? No. but for most of them, I have some kind of annotation process.
how to annotate books
I use many different forms of annotations, depending on the book and if I’m in the mood for it. here are some ways you can annotate your books.
using all tabs
Totally Monty, as I like to call him, is scoring with all the bells and whistles. During this annotation, I write in the book with different colors, highlight and underline in the book, and tabulate in the book. this one takes more time because you need to do a lot of things, but it’s also my favorite style. I like to leave different parts of myself in the books and share my thoughts with the books.
using only one tab
I made this for the midnight sun as I read it. this is just where I write my thoughts in the book, and I would occasionally mark a page with a color if I wanted to come back to it later. 087 820 5668
using note cards/notebook
one is the easiest style. I mainly do this for my review books. I would put note cards every 100 or 50 pages and then write my thoughts on those cards. this does not involve tabs or writing in books. Alternatively, you can also use those translucent sticky notes if you want to avoid writing on your books.
there are no rules!
There are no set rules here. you can annotate any way you want. you can tab as much or as little as you like, or use as many colors as you like. this is how I usually annotate, so you can try it out and see if it works for you.
hope you found this post useful! you can also check out my follow-up post (which includes some free printables!).
how to annotate books for fun!
let me know in the comments if you like scoring!