defining your annotation style

week 7 of the "become a close(r) reader" series: tips for writing in, on, and about your books

Welcome back to Week 7!

‘Tis the season for setting goals, and this week we’re talking about the art of annotation—as well as adding or adjusting our goal list to include at least one annotation goal.

You can view all previous weeks here.

• Week 1 was all about exploring your reading habits

• Week 2 was all about discovering what you need from your reading environment

• Week 3 was all about literary theories and different lenses that we can use to understand or unpack the stories we read (and tell!)

• Week 4 was all about identifying which lenses are most interesting to you

• Week 5 was about getting all the fodder of your mind onto the page and listing out all kinds of different reading goals and ambitions for 2025

• Week 6 was about focusing your goal list and making sure it aligns to your beliefs about reading

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Over the last six weeks, you’ve examined your beliefs about reading. You’ve reflected on your reading habits, explored your needs for a good reading session, learned about literary analysis, and identified reading goals that align to your “North Star,” or key truth about your reading life.

So, now it is time to think about how you’ll actively apply those goals and ideas in the new year. One of the best ways to do that, in my experience, is to write in your books. Or, to annotate.

My annotations on the first paragraph of Nella Larsen’s “Passing” (1929)

What is annotation?

Today, we are branching out from the act of reading to the art of writing in your books—a process called “annotation.” An annotation is, by definition, an extra. Typically found in the margins of physical book pages, annotations are the little extras you, as the reader, add along onto the pages as you read or re-read your favorite texts.

See, for example, my close reading of the paragraph pictured above, in this post.

Annotations may include:

• Explanations of key moments

• Summaries of important plot points

• Notes on the themes you’re noticing

• Labels to mark the moments certain literary devices or genre moves are evident in the text

• Definitions of words or terms used in the text

• Reminders of who a character is or is related to

• Translations of phrases in other languages used in the text

• Notes on your feelings or impressions while reading

• Anything else that occurs to you as you read

My annotations in Michel Foucault’s “Madness and Civilization” (1961)

You can use annotation as a powerful tool in your reading life—one that can help you deepen your practice every single time to sit down to read. The best part? You hardly need anything to get started. All you need is a pen or a pencil and your current book.

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How to annotate

I’ve shared many articles and essays here on Closely Reading about the art of annotation — and some of my favorite writers here have done the same. Below, I’m compiled a list of places you can go to see more examples and explore annotation styles.

How to closely read a single paragraph in a novel

5 tips for getting better at closely reading

A close reading activity: reading at the sentence level (paid)

What is closely reading?

My favorite close reading tools

I also highly recommend a Pinterest or Google Image search to find examples of how people write in their books.

The Reading Life

Petya is my go-to writer for authentic and honest reflections about the hassles and insecurities that come with evolving your relationship to reading.

Check out her “no-bullshit guide to writing in your books” for some stellar thoughts on writing as you read…

and her other amazing recent piece “on reading authentically” — filled with inspirational goal-setting that is sure to spark some ideas for you!

Subverse Reads

Natalie is hilarious and her writing is so sharp. I love her essays about literature — and I loved her carefully curated gift guide this year, filled with fantastic recommendations for tools for close reading and annotating.

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Step 1: Start to define your annotation aspirations

Your exercise today is to begin exploring and gently defining the kinds of annotations you’d like to do in the books you read in 2025.

• Do you want to use color? (Highlighters? Flags? Post-it notes? Crayons?)

  • Don’t knock the simple tools! Crayons are amazing highlighters; colored pencils work great for underlining!

• Do you want to use a ruler? For clean lines, I always use a ruler.

Reading “East of Eden” by Steinbeck with a ruler.

My initial notes on “East of Eden,” including a list of how the narrator describes the two different geographic areas on the first page—this tension between dualities became my focal point for my first read of the novel.

• Do you want to take notes in the margins? Do you want to take notes in an accompanying journal? Do you want to record voice memos after each writing session?

• Are you nervous about writing in your books? Why?

  • Some of my favorite annotations in my philosophy books are the ones where, 10 years later, I realize I was so wrong. But my annotations show me the growth and change; they mark moments in time. They’re like a scrapbook of my mind. Cringey sometimes, sure, but also sweet. If you’re nervous to annotate because you “might write something stupid” or “might get it wrong,” take a deep breath and let that shit go.

• Do you want to get better at tracking a specific type of theme or literary element? (Character? Class? Economics? Setting?)

My notes on Henry James’s novella “In the Cage” (1898)

Use the answers to these questions, and the others you come up with, to create some ideas for your annotation goals in 2025.

When you have a solid set of ideas, add one or two new goals about annotation to your reading goals list for the new year. And, if you’d like, share a few of your goals in the comments this week!

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Next week is our final week

We’re headed toward Week 8 — the final installment in our “become a close(r) reader” series!

I’ll be sharing my goals for 2025, as well as offering a few final insights for you to take with you into the new year. If you’re joining me for our book club read-a-long of Pride and Prejudice, I’ll have a few tips for getting started with that novel, using your goal list as your starting point.

‘Til then—happy reading!

As New Year Resolution energy looms (or inspires, if that’s your bag), I hope you’re feeling prepped for a great year of reading ahead. If you are, you have yourself to thank for the hard work you’ve put in to define your goals and set some new heights for yourself—and your future self is going to be SO EXCITED to look back at the year of reading you’ve planned over the last 7 weeks.

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