Calgacus delivering a pretty good speech.
I hate it when people write in books. However, if you feel the need to do so you should at least (1) write in pencil so someone can erase your scribblings later, and (2) write something interesting.
I recently picked up an old Penguin Classics edition of Tacitus’s Agricola and Germania at a used book sale, where the editor had this to say in his Introduction about the formation of the second triumvirate: “Then the leaders of the Caesarian faction partitioned the state between them.”
Much affronted by this, someone had underlined “between” and written “among, there were three of them”. Quite pedantic, and not even correct, at least in my opinion. As a rule of usage, “between” only being used of two and “among” for more than two, is only conventional at best. But the note still gave me a grin. To think that someone cared about this enough to want to correct it! Plus it was written in pencil, so now it’s gone.
As an added bonus, after the long address delivered by the Caledonia chieftain Calgacus to his troops, which is probably the best-known thing Tacitus ever wrote (“they create a desolation and call it peace”), the same scribbler has added his summary judgment: “a pretty good speech.” This guy!
Alex Good 
Pedantic indeed.
but if more people were like that, maybe some of the utter tripe that gets put out wouldn’t be put out and the world would be a better, nicer place 🙂
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A bit of pedantry does keep us on our toes.
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and keeps the thin skinned, no-talent, hack writers stuff in the notebooks, where it belongs.
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Well, there are notebooks and then there are notebooks. Mine are considered to be second only to Leonardo’s.
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Do you want me to scribble in the margins? Probably make the value of it skyrocket after we both die….
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If you can draw funny pictures that would be a plus.
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Mrs B could. Are colored pencils ok? She draws in the margins of my journals whenever i’m writing at church.
And I could write something snarky so you’d get the full gamut of emotional marginalia..l..
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Colored pencils are fine. But no markers that bleed through the pages.
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I promise. I’ll even pinky-promise, just so you know how serious I am…
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I don’t mind people writing in books, it’s like communing with a ghost. Kind of.
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Sometimes it’s nice. I don’t mind it as much in library books. I don’t want to buy a used book with writing in it though, unless there’s just a bit and it’s in pencil so I can erase it.
I used to make some marginal notes but don’t anymore. I make notes on a slip of paper and leave it in the book.
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That’s just as good.
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I’m sure they’ll all get pitched into the same bin when I pass anyway.
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Good grief, are you having a morose day?
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I have no other kind!
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Hah! Well carry on that man!
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Sigh. I’m not going to write any more notes on copies of Tacitus’s Agricola and Germania if this is how you’re going to treat them. Since there’s no comments section in these books, I have to make my corrections somewhere.
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If you want to keep your marginalia intact you’re going to have to stop donating your books to charity book sales!
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