Even though I have read several books over the years, I was never one of those girls who annotated their books– unless it was for academic purposes. However, after seeing a lot of cute-looking pictures of book marks, highlighters, and different color pens, I decided to start this new journey of annotating books.

Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Glory by Raphael Bob-Waksberg was the second book I formally annotated. I say “formally,” because I have written in the margins and underlined sentences before, but I never did it with the intent of color-coding and reflecting upon those annotations.

First, I will give a brief explanation of the book so you can better understand my choices. This book is a compilation of short stories, all experimenting different formats, in which the author explores the idea of love.

I started simple: highlighter, pen, and index tabs. While I used only one pen (black ink) and one highlighter (pink), I made sure to have different color index tabs so each one would serve a different purpose. My categories were as follows:

• Orange– favorite lines.
• Purple– favorite short stories.
• Blue– inspiration.

Most of my color-coding is very straight-forward. Perhaps “inspiration,” requires a bit more explanation. As a writer, I like to find inspiration in everything. Reading, as many English professors like to argue, is a huge source of inspiration. For this reason, I used the blue index tabs to bring attention to either a format I liked or an idea that sparked interest in me. An example would be the short story titled “Rules for Taboo” in which the author uses the game Taboo as the main format for his writing.

With the pen, I write ideas, thought, and even questions on the margins. Things that I would like to remember if I ever read the book again, or perhaps ideas that I would like someone else to consider if I happen to pass down/ lend the book to anyone.

I do think that annotating takes a lot of effort and consideration. I also believe that some books are worth annotating while others are worth enjoying in the moment. This book, Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Glory, is definitely worth annotating and reading!

Let me end this blog post with some of my favorite lines:

“It’s not what we do that makes us who we are. It’s what we don’t do that defines us.”

“You can write it all down, you can put it in your book of facts, but the truth is no one can ever really understand the tangle of experiences and passions that makes you who you are.“

“That life is terrifying and overwhelming and it can happen at any moment. And when you’re confronted with life you can either be cowardly or you can be brave, but either way you’re going to live.

So you might as well be brave.”