Adler sounds like a man after my own heart, as so many of my books are marked up: lots and lots of underlinings, marginal notes, and even more notes on the endpapers. If I'm reviewing a book, this is the only way to go. I don't believe "books are about sharing"; they're more about stealing, which is why I never share them. I recommend books all the time, but I wouldn't dream of saying "You can borrow mine" -- if only because, for reasons stated. it would be a little like giving away a diary.

Having said that, I must add that there are a few "nice" books that are sacrosanct, usually ones that are slip-covered or precious or expensive. In those cases, I resort to steno pads, copying out quotes at length. I literally have a drawer full of those, each of them full to bursting of notes, notes, notes.

Sometimes I underline AND use steno pads -- how anal is that?

Hi Rodney,

Here's the odd thing: I lend books constantly (and spend hours tracking them down again). I've lost lots and lots of invaluable books this way, including a limited edition, signed copy of three plays by Graham Greene, believe it or not. But I seldom borrow books. They seem to the be the one thing I must have as my own. I, too, make markings but only in extreme cases -- when the book is outstanding, or when it's really bad. I've begun noting page numbers on the end papers and then transcribing them, much as you do, not on paper but onto the computer. I use a nifty little software called Personal Knowbase in which I can collect all this, keyword it, and then find it again if I need it. So yes, I do mark up my books, too. What I detested about Adler was his insistence that this is the only way to read a book and there is no other, or else you have not properly juiced the book. That's utter rubbish. I re-read books constantly and I must say that I just hate going back to a book that I've marked up. It really puts me off. I can only imagine what it does to another.

But I lend constantly, as I said. I love doing that and there's no greater pleasure than seeing someone else as excited and thrilled about a book as I was. I can't count the number of friends I've made through books, like this.

I yield to nobody in my respect for Lynne Truss - I was a devotee of her Margins column when she was the Lit Ed for The Listener, and cling to her dictum that "exclamation marks are the canned laughter of the written word" - but since ES&L became a national best seller, everyone feels the need to weigh in on punctuation - all of a sudden, people who three months ago didn't know a semi-colon from Sammy Cohen hijack meetings to lead a fifteen minute discussion on the placing of apostrophes in last week's minutes. Unfortunately, the one thing that they fail to take from the book is that the point of punctuation is to make the finished article make the sense itended by the writer; it isn't designed as some arcane opportunity for point scoring.

The point is that proper - i.e., clear - punctuation shows respect and regard for the reader, and isnt' that what published writing is all about?