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Had a chat with my neighbor that made me rethink how I pass along books
So my neighbor Dave is a retired librarian, and last week he told me he never gives away books that have underlines or margin notes anymore. He said it's like handing someone a half-finished puzzle because they miss the whole experience of discovering things themselves. I used to think my scribbles were helpful, you know little highlights of good parts, but now I'm wondering if I've been ruining books for people. Has anyone else had a book they got from a swap that was all marked up and it totally took you out of the story?
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patricialee6d ago
Honestly I'm with Dave on this one, "half-finished puzzle" is exactly right. When I get a marked up book from a swap it feels like someone else did my homework for me and now I can't have my own thoughts about it. Underlines and notes just pull me out of the flow every time and I end up scanning to see what they found important instead of just reading.
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Patricialee has a point about the flow getting broken, it's like when someone shows you a movie clip and says "the good part starts here" so you spend the whole movie waiting for it. The whole thing ruins the rhythm of finding your own way through a story.
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