Thursday, August 23, 2012

 

Cyber-Assignment How to Mark a Book

Post your essays here. Comment on at least one classmate's essay. Agree or disagree with an idea as you expand it.

Comments:
Latasha Smith
Professor Sabir
English 201A
25 August 2012

Summary: How to Mark a Book

The author Mortimer J. Adler essay “How to Read a Book” reflects of the art of reading and how it can benefit the reader. In the process of doing so Adler talks about other points; owning a book, books owners, reading and active reading, and writing which are all benefits to knowing how to read a book. “There are two ways in which one can own a book.” A person can purchase a book and a person could make that part of them, when they finally take that step of writing in the book.
According to Adler not only is there two ways to own a book, but the person can have three different characteristics of book ownership. Theirs the one that book owner whose books collect falling dust, the book owner who reads all of their books purchased from beginning to end, and the book owners whose books are falling apart. One would think that the destroyed book is with an owner who could care less, but according to Adler this is what one would call a true book owner.
“If reading is to accomplish anything more than passing time, it must be active reading.” With this quote Adler is saying there’s reading and then there’s active reading. Reading gives a story to enjoy and is easy to recall, with no problem. Active reading is a bit more challenging. When active reading, one engages the mind in deep thoughts, asking questions that can only be answered by understanding the deeper meaning of the reading.
The author reflected on the importance of writing when one is active reading. In active reading writing is a good way to recall many of the information gather. It helps the mind recall what is just read, which could be very useful for the writer. Those thoughts that come along when reading can be written down and one can go and look back at their own thoughts and interpretations of the book. “Even if you wrote on a scratch pad, and threw the paper away when you finished writing, your grasp of the book would be surer.”
When your book truly becomes a part of you, only your eyes are set its sights in the book. According to Adler one wouldn’t dare let a person read the book let alone burrow it. When a person goes through the process of truly reading, the book becomes a sacred part of them. Buried within those pages are ones notes to an “intellectual diary” as Adler would say.

 
Elijah Benton
Professor Sabir
English 201b
26 August 12

Adler uses two analogies in his paper, How to mark a book.
One between books and steak, another between books and music. Some people may think that books, steak, and music have nothing in common but in my opinion everything has its similarities.

The first analogy Adler uses is the transfer of beef, steak from the butchers ice box to your own, and the transfer of a book to the shelf. Adler states, “The first is the property right you establish by paying for it.” Yes you paid for it, but is it truly yours? I don’t believe so. You can always give your steak or book to your neighbor, friend, or the trash if it goes bad or you don’t want it. When that happens it was yours by purchase not by use and by saying it was yours you didn’t get anything out of it. Adler also states, “Full ownership only comes when you have made it apart of yourself.” I agree with that because in order to make it apart of you, you have to use the product you have purchased. You have cooked the steak and read the book to get something out of it such as receiving enjoyment, knowledge, and/or strength. You cant give away the steak because it is in your stomach and you cant give the book away because its probably loved, dog eared, and written in. So in my opinion Adler is saying you cant truly own a book if you buy it and just let it sit.

The second analogy Adler uses is between books and music. Adler references how Arturo Tosconini respects Brahm buts marks up the C minor symphony to where no one but himself can read it. Then he states, “The reason why a great conductor makes notations on his musical scores is the reason why you should mark up your books.” What I believe Adler is suggesting is that it is not disrespectful to mark up a book. To mark up a book is to fully understand it and the author. Marking up a book is asking questions, getting answers and having better outcomes.

Once again, people may not agree but as well as Adler I think Books, Steak and music have similarities. They are different because of their uses and materials, but they can be used, perfected, or left to be.




 
Caroline P Lee
Professor Sabir
English 201A

27 August 2012

Summary: How to Mark a book
The author Adler points out that writing between lines of a book most likely to practice the art of effective reading. Most of the greatest books in the world are having the reprint editions, when you really love the book that others lend you, you can go get a new one and mark things on it. Marking a book is an act of love, what Adler likes to call, “full ownership” of the book. No matter ho to mark or keep a book, show some kind of respect to the author is very important.
According to the essay, he said that, “There’s two ways in which one can own a book.” One of them is purchasing a book with money is only a prelude to book ownership; he only owns pulp wood and ink if he does not read them. Also, he shows that there are three kinds of owners on owning a book. There are two negative ways in owning a book, first of them is who owns books but does not read them or even touch them; the second one is who exhausts the book content into his brain by marking the book. But there is a positive way in owning a book, that is a person who may have many books but has read few and most of them are in good condition. This person probably wants to make full use of the book but it might get false respect for the book.
On the other hands, the author points out that why marking a book is necessary. That is because when you are marking a book it can keep yourself awake and clear to the point in the book. Also, when it is active on reading a book, thinking can tend to express in words. The last thing of an advantage on marking a book, is help you to remember the thoughts u had the express the thoughts of the author. Even you wrote the points on a scratch paper and threw it away after reading, you will find out that you can still have something about the book in your mind.
 
This comment has been removed by the author.
 
Jamon Barfield
Professor Sabir
Eng. 201B
Aug. 27, 2012

How to Mark a Book

After reading the article it made me realize a lot of her points on different ways how to read are similar to the way I read. She stated, “Why is marking up a book indispensable to reading it? First, it keeps you awake. (And I don’t mean merely conscious: I mean wide awake.) In the second place, reading, if it active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself in words, spoken or written. The marked book is usually the thought-through book. Finally, writing helps you remember the thoughts you had, or the thoughts the author expressed.” Pg.377 I can really relate to this because I sometimes can’t find enough time throughout the day to read my material or a book at that, so I end up reading right before bed. The only thing I find that helps me stay awake and focused in the reading is writing little notes on the side. I’ve always had trouble remembering what I read after, so taking notes helped me remember what I had read.
Being a student and having lots of material to read, it’s hard to remember each and every part of a book when you have three different books going at once. Another reason for marking my books perfect example she mentioned was, “And, the best of all, your marks and notes become an integral part of the book and stay there forever. You can pick up the book the following week or year, and there are all your points of agreement, disagreement, doubt, and inquiry. It’s like resuming and interrupted conversation with the advantage of being able to pick up where you left off.” Pg. 379 I couldn’t of said it better because I find myself around mid-terms or even finals trying to go back to my books and remember sections and I can’t but after reading my little side notes everything seems to come back to me.
There are many other great points so makes about reading and note taking. She stated, “If you’re a die-hard anti-book-marker, you may object that margins, the space between the lines, and the end- papers don’t give you room enough. All right. How about using a scratch-pad slightly smaller than the page.” Pg. 379 That’s exactly what I do because to me a book mark makes it easier for me to read and stay focused. There’s never enough room so I use sticky pads and it does the job. She talks about, “the sign of intelligence in reading is the ability to read different things differently according to their worth. In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through you.” Pg. 381 I agree with this because we can pick up a book and read but if we don’t understand or remember what we read it was a waste of time and pointless. So having our own methods on how reading works for us is perfectly ok.

 
Shuluo Fu
Professor Sabir
English 201A
27 August 2012

The summary
How to make a Book
   According to the "How to mark a book", the essay written by Adler over fifty years ago, every readers should keep in mind that the real meaning of owning a book is what we absorb by writing and marking up in a book, instead of buying a large amount of books. As the author states in her essay:"Full ownership comes only when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it is by writing."
   First of all, the author indicates the significance of writing and marking up by comparing two approaches of owning a book and three kind of book owners. In order to emphasize this significance again, the author give her audiences the false respect as an negative example, trying to tell us that it not a matter to respect for a printed book if we mark up on it. Besides, the author gives us some reason why is writing and marking on a book extremely necessary. That is, helping to protect our thoughts in our mind during your reading, marking us absorb the idea of author more efficient, preserving our reactions, agreement, disagreement, or something important in a book for a long time, as Adler tells us"Marking a book is literally an expression of your differences, or agreement of opinion, with the author".
   Furthermore, the author also gives us some suggestions about marking a book and some personal experiences about writing. Meanwhile, she bluntly offers some specialized way for those"die-hard anti-book marker" what should they do or what they are able to do. Finally, the author advises that those books have a mark copy should not be lent to others cause "lending it is almost like giving your mind away". After all, It is no doubt that everyone should let books make us one part of our body and soul like by writing and making. Remember:"your books are as much a part of you as your head or you heart".
 
Tova Solomon
Professor Sabir
English 201a
August 28 2012

How to Mark a Book Summary
Professor of philosophy, Mortimer J. Adler begins his essay “How to Mark a Book” by stating that writing in a book is the most effective way to read it. According to Adler, most people possess the physical book, just the paper and ink, but those who absorb the book into their consciousness do so by mutilating the physical book. Books written and read purely for entertainment are excused from being written in because they require no deeper thought, however books with any sort of deeper meaning require deeper thinking from the reader and Adler thinks that the only proof of deeper thinking is writing in a book because it shows what you were thinking at the time you read it and it makes the book into a “conversation between you and the author” because “understanding is a two way operation.”
Next Adler lists different ways to mark a book to maximize the effectiveness. The seven things he lists are all to emphasize text from the book. Adler ends his essay by addressing the fear that marking a book in his way will slow the reading experience. He admits that this is true, but defends it as necessary because thinking deeply and putting work into thinking deeply takes time. The last objection Adler addresses is that a marked book can’t be lent out to friends. Adler admits this is true, but good as it will force the friend to buy their own copy, and maybe they’ll mark up their book too.

 
SUMMARY:
The article How To Mark a Book by author Adler mainly focuses on the importance of making notes while reading which he believes it is the most efficient way of reading . He also tells reader how he marks intelligently.
Adler persuades to maintain the integraty of the soul of the book and its body. A book itself is what he describes as "body". In his opinion, there are three different kinds of people own books. The first one is those who own the books but never get to read the contents, for example, the sellers or the libraries. The second one is those who own the book. They may get through with reading quickly but nothing absorbs in their brains. The book is more likely to be used for entertainment purpurse. The third one is what the author strongly recommends, the one uses active reading technique to process their deep thought throughtout the book. They constantly communicate with the author by jotting down notes on the books. They are the one truely own the books.
In this article, author address the variaty reasons for marking up a book such as to keep readers awake, express thinking in words, spoken or written, memmorize reader or writer's thought as the story develops. Those notes could also be preserved as the memory in the future. Besides all these reasons, the author believes that marking a book is literally an expression of the difference or agreement of opinion between readers and the author. Therefore, author strongly opposes to lend a book. He believes that it is just like to give away reader's mind as the book contains the notes with reader's thought.
 
yes it is so true. in the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through you. I think that is the main discussion throughout the article.
 
Anonymous said...
Jorge A. Rodriguez
Professor Sabir
English 201A
28 august 2012

The author Mortimer J. Adler in the article “How to Mark a book” is giving a point of view of the benefits of marking a book and also give reasons of why people may be against it or just choose not to do it. Sitting down reading a book is a good way to pass time, but do people really retain information and comprehend what they read? Marking a book keeps you on point and demands the reader to pay attention to the piece of literature they are reading. While marking a book a person underlines or puts stars next to a word they don’t know or simply because the sentence they read may be the theme of the book or it’s just a sentence they believe is interesting. Whatever the reason the reader needs to be alert because the markings they place on their book is for them to understand what they are reading and if they only write nonsense its really no help for them and they are only hurting themselves. There are some who believe marking a book is vandalizing the book that the only writing on the book should be what’s already printed on its pages. Other people say taking your time to stop get a pencil or pen write your thoughts down then continue reading takes up to much time and extends the reading process of a book. Overall like any other issue there are people who believe in something and then there are people against it at the end of the day it’s what people prefer.

4:55 PM

 
Aden Hagos Professor Sabir
English 201A
25 August 2012

Making a book your own

In Mortimer J. Adlers article "How to Mark a Book" he explains the details on how to make a book your own. Adler claims you can not understand a book without leaving annotations through out the book. Adler gives readers a better way to grasp the concept of how to comprehend a book. Adler states "The marked book usually the thought through book". This means a book that is annotated be the book that the reader understood over the book without annotations. He also explains why "marking up" a book is necessary for readers to perceive the subject or material. Adler believes you can not let anyone else borrow your "marked up" because it's supposed to be for your comprehension only an that's when you own a book.
 
Jack Chang
Professor Sabir
English 201B
Aug 30, 2012
Mortimer J. Adler in the article “How to Mark a book,” is about how to really absorb knowledge from reading. He explores strategies on how to take notes on a book.Adler explains how three types of book owners.The first type of book owner is a person that owns a lot of books but never reads them . The second type of owner is a owner that has books, but only reads a few , but never writes anything in them . The third type of book owner is someone that owns few books, but all of them are worn out, used and has alot of notes in them. In the article Adler clearly likes the third type of book owner best. Adler describes how taking notes as you read could benefit you. If you leave a book on a shelf and haven't read it for a long time, and pick it up again, because of all the notes, it would be easy to pick up from where you last fell off. This article really influenced me to take notes, next time I read a book.
 
Manuel Rico
Professor Sabir
English 201A
30 August 2012

Selected Classic Arguments

“How To Mark A Book” by Mortimer J. Adler A longtime (1930-1952) professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago”.

As you read a book of your own, you mark between the sentences as Adler suggests. Adler also says that if you do so, you can understand what you are reading better. Marking is done only on books that you own and no one else’s books. You should mark this book with your own code or own words as you wish on the book pages anywhere or anyplace as you wish.

Adler states that you may have the best collection of books, but if they are not read with your own notes taken, then it is useless to have such a collection of your own. If your book is all filled with your notes, then you know you have read actively and understand what you have just read. You can read through a book and not understand the meaning of things you have just read in the book if you don’t mark it. If you mark the page where you left off, you will never need to search through pages to figure out where you left off. Adler says, “And that is exactly what reading a book should be a conversation between you and the author.”

The front and back pages are great to write your own view of the book in your own words. This way it is now in your own words what it means to you. You can use scratch paper if you don’t want to mark the pages of the book and insert the paper in front of the page, so your notes match the page they belong to. Don’t worry about reading too slowly, because reading slowly is a way to help you understand what you have just read. Adler says, “You can’t lend [your books] to your friends because nobody else can read them without being distracted by your notes.”
 
Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?