How I Annotate my Books!

Late last year, I saw a video of a fellow reader who was annotating her favorite book as a gift to one of her friends. I think that is such a good idea! It's really sweet and thoughtful. Now, I love the idea of annotating my books just as much as the next overachieving and book obsessed next girl....however, I cannot bring myself to physically write in or permanently alter a book. Pen, pencil, and highlighters are all no go's for me. It makes me sick and really pains me to think about doing that to a book. I admire those who do it and I think that it is so cool to actually be able to go back and know exactly what you were thinking or feeling when you read a specific scene or line from a book. I was introduced to book 'tabbing' by @Jennajustreads on TikTok. Now this was a more approachable form of annotation for me!

I bought these tabs in a big pack from Amazon, I will link them below for those of you who may be interested. What I love so much about them is that they do what I intended for them to do yet they don't damage the pages or totally distract me in the way that writing in a book would. If I place a tab in the wrong spot or if I leave it too far out past the cover, I can easily move it without ruining my book or the tabs.

Personally, I don't really mind that they stick out a bit past the cover. I have seen other bookish friends who cut the tabs down after they put them in the book. I have also seen others who place their tabs so far on the page that you can hardly see them when the book is closed. It is all up to the personal preference of the reader.

I don't do this with every single book that I read but I have done it for quite a few. Usually, I go back and tab a book on a re-read or when I am reading a book that I know I will keep in my collection. For example, I am a big John Green fan. I really love my collection of his books and will probably never get rid of them. I have annotated his books before because I know that I will keep them for a long time. If I am reading a book that I am not sure about or exploring a new author, I usually won't annotate because I don't want to have to peel all of my tabs off when I decide to donate the book! I usually choose to tab books that mean a lot to me but sometimes, I'll just tab whenever I get the urge.

I will admit that I have been slacking a bit in the annotation department. I haven't really been tabbing my books recently... :(

Here are some of the books that I have tabbed previously:

"Five Feet Apart" by Rachael Lippincott

"The Spectacular Now" by Tim Tharp

"Turtles All the Way Down" by John Green

"We Were Liars" by e. Lockhart

"A Good Girl's Guide to Murder" by Holly Jackson

You may be asking yourself if I have a system that I use when tabbing and the answer to that question is yes..... but also no. I started out with a color coded tabbing system----which I do still use occasionally. To be fully transparent with you, I will own up to the fact that I have opted to tab some books using only one color. Sometimes it is for the aesthetic purposes (because the color of the tabs that I chose coordinated with the book cover) and sometimes it is just for the ease of tabbing the parts that I enjoy rather than having to remember what my color code is. I have also resorted to the single color method when I am running low on a few other colors.

When I do abide by my tabbing color code, this is how I tab my books:

Orange ---- Funny Scenes/Dialogue (all the silly stuff that made me laugh)

Yellow ------ Specific Quotes (any quotes that just stood out or spoke to me)

Green ----- Action Sequences (characters partaking in any and all 'Bond-level' madness)

Light Blue ----- Sad Scenes/Moments (I may not cry much but, contrary to popular belief, I do still feel the general emotions)

Dark Blue ----- Foreshadowing (signs of trouble/plot lines yet to come)

Pink ------ Lighthearted or Romance Scenes (Romance Scenes for books that do contain romance---lighthearted scenes for those that don't)

I do not tab every single lighthearted piece of dialogue or every single sad moment in a book, to me that isn't the point. I tab my books so that I can find certain scenes/moments/or quotes and go back to them later. The color coding does kind of help with knowing why I tabbed something but I do have the confidence in myself to figure it out even without a color code. Context clues, you know? They didn't give me this fancy schmancy college degree for nothin', that's for sure!

Here is the link to the tabs that I bought on Amazon. There are plenty of other kinds/designs so shop around for a bit to find the ones that you like the most!

I do see the benefits of tabbing/annotating my books and I do enjoy the process. Personally, it is something that I only do occasionally. I don't think that this is something that I would do with every single book that I read.

Are you on team annotation nation or are you more of a non-permanent plain Jane, like me? I would love to know more about your thoughts on annotating and/or tabbing your books!

As always, thank you for reading!

XO,

Madison