Hi lovelies!

Today I wanted to dive into the whole concept of annotating and writing in novels. 

I've gotten a lot of requests and messages from people who ask me how I write in my books and what tools I use for a while now and I've kind of put this whole blog post on the back burner, mainly because I was also trying out different ways to annotate and see what fit me best. 

I know I did a post on how I annotated my copy of IT by Stephen King, which will be linked here if you're curious on reading it, but in the last year, the way I annotate my books have completely changed.

 For starters, I get a lot of questions asking why I annotate. Writing in your books is almost like a sin in the book community, most people are very much so against it. I covered the basis of why I decided to annotate in my IT annotating post, but basically, when I first started reading avidly, I was also against writing in my books and wanted to keep them in pristine condition. That was until I read an essay basically saying, everyone can own a copy of a book, but no one can own the copy of your book with all your thoughts and ideas written into it.

I thought this was absolutely brilliant and decided to try it on my fourth (second at the time) copy of IT.

I love the idea of looking back in the future and reading all your thoughts and memories when you first read the book. I also really want to build my own Home Library (yes, I know I've already started) but I want to build a room full for my future kids and have them read all my thoughts while reading and see what differs my opinions to theirs. 

After doing a little testing on my copy of IT, I decided I wanted to do it more frequently. I'm still trying to get in the hang of writing and highlighting when I can but some books I forget to do so, and will probably end up doing it during a re-read in the future. 

The only books I do not write in are my "collectables" which are mainly Stephen King first editions. Otherwise, I want to write in them as much as I can!

With that little backstory, I really want to get into what I use and how I do it!

I've gone through a lot of trials and experiments with annotating, which is why if you pull certain books from my library, the annotating is a little over the top, but I think I've found a pretty good way that fits my laziness but also helps me. 

When I annotated IT, I used so many different coloured highlighters with different meanings and that really did confuse me when I was reading. I know a lot of people can still stick to this concept, but I cannot.

The way I annotate is really simple: a pen and a highlighter. Both usually corresponds with the cover. No meaning at all, if the cover is blue, I'll use a blue highlighter. If the cover is yellow, I'll use a yellow highlighter. If the cover is rainbow, I get to pick what I use. 

This was really fun for me because not only to I love corresponding colours, but it's nice to see that not every book is the same highlighter, same colour. 

Typically, I'd use the highlighter to highlight anything I find really important; quotes mainly but if theres also something I really want to remember, like a cute moment between characters, I'll highlight that as well.

Otherwise, I'll use a pen and underline the sentences. I also use a pen to write in the margins.

Whenever I decide to write the the margins (which is often) I write whatever I feel. If I'm mad at a character, I'll yell at them in the margins, whenever I have a little giddy "fangirl moment", I have a suspicion on something that could possibly be foreshadowing, or anything like that, I write in the margins.

This colour pen usually is the same colour as the highlighter, unless I'm highlighting with yellow; then I'll use a black pen to write. Because writing with a yellow pen isn't very affective -- I also don't own a yellow pen, and I definitely don't own a black highlighter, they go hand-in-hand well.

I have very specific brands I use for writing utensils.

I am a huge retractable writing item gal because I hate pulling the cap off and putting it back on when I'm finished. (I also hate when my highlighters dry out easily, so open cap isn't an option for me.)

Most of the time I read, I follow along with the audiobook. I learn best with my ears, so when something is told to me, it's easier for me to remember than me reading off the page. I'm a slow reader originally, and this has helped me pick up the speed with my reading. (I plan to get more in depth with this in a future blog post.)

But because I listen to an audiobook, I don't like to pause my book every couple of minutes, and I think the app wouldn't like it either.

When I first started annotating, I used the Staples Hype Pocket Highlighter and the Sharpie ACCENT Highlighter but they both had the biggest problem I disliked -- they both came with caps.

I really wanted to put no effort in fiddling with caps, so I now use the Sharpie Retractable Highlighters and I love them so much!

They don't bleed through pages, they don't smear, and they come with a small door (Sharpie calls it a Safety Shield) that's pushed out when you retract the highlighter to use it. When you're done highlighting, click the end of the highlighter again and the door shuts -- that way, your highlighter won't dry out.

As for pens, I use two kinds. I use the uni-ball Signo Retractable Pens  and the Bic Velocity Gel Pens which are both retractable. (I've only tried the Bic pens in black, but I absolutely love them. I'll definitely look into the coloured ones in the future!)

Both brands of pens are absolutely amazing, they work great and write very smoothly.

I know some people prefer to write in their books with pencil because it can be erased, so I highly suggest if you are debating on writing, or you're just starting out but have a gut feeling you''ll regret it, I definitely think you should write in pencil first. Because if you change your mind, it can be erased!

Now I know a lot of people who annotate, tab their books, or people who annotate, right now, are saying, "Jessica, why don't you tab your books?! You write reviews for them all the time!" and I've tried.

I've tried to tab my books -- which by the way, tabbing means adding book flags to pages to keep a spot, and it just never stuck with me. Mainly because I wasn't a huge fan of them sticking out of my books. I use them often as models for bookstagram and I'm personally not a huge fan of the flags sticking out of my books.

With that being said, if you're into tabbing your books, feel free to do so!

There really isn't a right way or a wrong way to annotate a book. If you want to use the "Multiple highlighter mean multiple meanings" method, go ahead and do so! If you don't want to highlight, and you only want to underline, go ahead! It's what works for you, the reader. It's essentially your book, and you should annotate it as you please.

I want to hear from you lovelies, do you write in your books? And if you do, how do you do it? Let me know in the comments or on my Instagram!