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Tana Pageler's avatar

Marginalia. For fiction, I circle names when characters enter a scene or say/do something important. I put boxes around time and place. I underline main points of action so I can easily skim and follow the story by just glancing at what I've underlined. Squiggly underlining is for passages I find noteworthy or quote worthy. This would be your dad's system without using highlighters. In the margin, I use the good old-fashioned pound sign or hashtag to indicate a critical decision is being made, which is very helpful when leading discussions with book groups or classes. Finally, I use the simple "cf" as an abbreviation and then note to what I am comparing, either another point in the text or a completely different work altogether. For nonfiction, the ideas themselves become characters and are circled, the main arguments get underlined, etc.

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Miriam's avatar

Congratulations Sean & Heather on your beautiful baby Brendan. He’s so sweet! (My Grandad was another Brendan, it’s a great name.)

My marginalia ‘system’ is haphazard but I’m consistent about my pens! Muji 0.35mm black gel pen only, definitely no colour. I mark up nonfiction liberally but almost never write in fiction. I think comes from a lifetime of reading library books.

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