I find the notes and random enigmatic markings people leave in books to be tremendously fascinating. Since people generally don't leave markings in books for other people's benefits, they're often completely incomprehensible to any following readers. Hell, if the people who leave notes in books are anything like me, they're probably totally meaningless to themselves after a month or so.
So, divorced from the original intention as they so often are, I find it fascinating to speculate on why someone would take the time to mark a passage or write a word or two. What was it about that passage that they felt needed comment, or deserved coming back to? And, of course, some people will use the blank pages at the back of the book, or the inside back cover, to write more general thoughts on the work itself. But usually these are no more understandable than something written in text. My favorite note is in a copy of Beckett's Watt at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee's library. Just above the start of the text someone wrote, in large letters, "You're supposed to like Watt." Do they mean the character? Do they mean the book as a whole? If it's the former... well I don't really think that's a requirement, but whatever. But if its the latter, that's just hilarious. Were they some burgeoning Beckett scholar, but just couldn't stand Watt (which is totally understandable)? "Goddamnit, I just hate this book! But if I don't like it... what kind of a Beckett scholar will I be? No! I HAVE TO LIKE WATT! I'm just going to write it here so I remember that."
So, divorced from the original intention as they so often are, I find it fascinating to speculate on why someone would take the time to mark a passage or write a word or two. What was it about that passage that they felt needed comment, or deserved coming back to? And, of course, some people will use the blank pages at the back of the book, or the inside back cover, to write more general thoughts on the work itself. But usually these are no more understandable than something written in text. My favorite note is in a copy of Beckett's Watt at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee's library. Just above the start of the text someone wrote, in large letters, "You're supposed to like Watt." Do they mean the character? Do they mean the book as a whole? If it's the former... well I don't really think that's a requirement, but whatever. But if its the latter, that's just hilarious. Were they some burgeoning Beckett scholar, but just couldn't stand Watt (which is totally understandable)? "Goddamnit, I just hate this book! But if I don't like it... what kind of a Beckett scholar will I be? No! I HAVE TO LIKE WATT! I'm just going to write it here so I remember that."
