Hi friends, and happy Wednesday! If you didn’t know, I’m fully in my annotations era, and I figured today would be a great time to share my favorite annotation supplies, as well as how I like to annotate — so grab a cup of tea, and get cozy!
Highlighters:
I like to match the colors of the highlighter to the cover of the book, so what I use really depends on the book cover itself, but my go to highlighters are Zebra Mildliners, Pilot Frixion Light Pastel Erasable Highlighters, and some lighter/more opaque Tombows!
Pens:
I normally use Muji pens in 0.38 black to write, but when it comes to doodling, I’m less picky about what I use! I have a ton of pens from when I used to bullet journal more frequently, but I still gravitate towards Muji pens in 0.38 and 0.5.
Sticky Notes:
I don’t use sticky notes as much, because I have very tiny handwriting + have been lucky to have books with larger margins, but when I need to, I use either Monolike sticky notes, or the clear sticky notes that I have lying around!
Tabs:
I like using Morandi & Color Note tabs! I like to match the tabs I’m using to the page covers for aesthetic purposes, and these are the ones I usually use.
Now that we have the supplies out of the way, I figured I’d just chat a little about my annotation style! There’s no right way to annotate, and whatever works best for you is the way to go. My personal annotation style has definitely molded over time — I initially started with just tabbing (which is probably why I’m such an overtabber), and now in addition to notes and analysis, I’ve also started incorporating doodles.
One of the things I’ve learned about tabbing is that it’s really important to put a key somewhere — I like putting it on the first couple of pages in the book, depending on where there’s room. I was recently flipping through a book that I had tabbed when I first got into tabbing, and realized there wasn’t a key and none of the tabs made any sense. Here are some examples of my keys:
As mentioned earlier, I’m a huge over-tabber! Normally, I tab for the main characters, specific themes in the book, specific relationships/dynamics, literary devices, as well as my personal favorites/things I relate to.
In addition to tabbing, I also like to underline, circle, and highlight. I’ll underline sentences/phrases that stand out to me, circle if it’s just a few words, and highlight things that are more important!
Here are some things I like to annotate for, in addition to literary devices and analyzing the text:
- In classics specifically, I like to write down summaries of what’s going on so far, or a summary of what’s going on in modern day English.
- I always have fun web-weaving, and linking scenes, dialogue, and moments with other things it reminds me of — Normally, this is in the form of Taylor Swift lyrics, movies, or other books!
- If a book (or a moment/scene) resonates with me, I often end up treating it a bit like a journal and writing about how I relate to it.
I also really love annotating for friends, and how I annotate for them is different from how I’d annotate for myself. I’ll often add references to inside jokes, what I’m thinking at that exact moment, and little messages for them as they read!
Do you like to annotate? Let me know in the comments below! As always, you can follow along my annotations journey on my bookstagram!
