A few greasy looking smears
and next to them, written in soft pencil-
by a beautiful girl, I could tell,
whom I would never meet-
“Pardon the egg salad stains, but I’m in love.”– Billy Collins “Marginalia“
The New York Times had a great story recently about those who scribble in the margins of books. I hear a chorus of librarians groaning and lamenting the sanctity of bound material – but wait! You see, the idea of virginal pages is a new concept that came to power in the 20th century. Mark Twain, Charles Darwin and Studs Terkel all were proponents of the dirty deed.
There’s a fear among scholars that these valuable historical insights might be less preserved with the rise of e-books. But forget doodles; handwriting itself seems to be in grave danger. I can’t remember how to make a cursive Q.
My books are clean, I swear, but I’m tempted to rough them up a bit.
Better work on that cursive…
I googled the cursive Q and it looks like the number two. Fancy, of course.
All of my college texts have writing in the margins over the sentences…wherever. I wrote in them for ease of remembering what I wanted to say when class time/discussions were held…and It didn’t waste paper. I now just waste paper, when I like something I read, by writing it down in a journal.