Rereading margins
I am still not sure I have it right, but it is closer. Most problems with letters turn out to be problems with time.
A note on tools
The trick, if there is one, is to leave sufficient room for mistakes. The best passages are the ones I copied out by hand. If something here is unclear, that is on me, not you. Somewhere between the library and home, the notion finally made sense. Short books are not lesser books; regularly they are the opposite.
Margins are where reading turns into thinking. I read it once in a hurry and once bit by bit, and they were different books. I like essays that shows the marks of how it was made. Good second-hand books is largely a series of modest, unglamorous decisions. Looking back, the calm approach was the right call.
I abandoned it halfway and came back a year later, glad I did. Below are a few observations, roughly in the order I found out them. In December the light changes, and so does the work. In March the light changes, and so does the work.
Trade-offs
Between reading aloud and reading bit by bit, the second one taught me more. It is not glamorous, but it holds up. Good margins is largely a series of modest, unglamorous decisions. I shifted my mind about diaries twice while writing this. There is no single right way to approach reading bit by bit, but some ways are kinder than others.
Modest, repeatable steps beat big plans nearly every time. The particulars matter less than the practice of paying attention. The first eight weeks were largely about unlearning.
I would rather do one thing deliberately than five things in a hurry.
Odds and ends
A reading lamp helps, but it is not the point. The result is not perfect, but it is truthful. Some of this will be plain; some of it took me years. Here is what shifted, and what stayed exactly the same. A library card helps, but it is not the point.
It is simple to overthink rereading. It is harder to just start. There is a version of this that is much more complicated. This is not that version. You can get surprisingly far with an index card and some persistence.
There is no single right way to approach annotating, but some ways are kinder than others. In November the light changes, and so does the work. None of this is new, and that is partly why it works. I like long books that shows the marks of how it was made. The first four weeks were largely about unlearning.