Why to Mark a Book by Leigh Lowe

Why to Mark a Book

by Leigh Lowe

IN addition to the people, the books in my house are my treasures. Our books aren't rare or collectible. We usually buy paperbacks. The titles vary wildly; they run the gamut from Hop on Pop to City of God. I have a habit of hoarding favorites. I own several copies of my daily devotional because I'm constantly misplacing it along with my coffee cup, and I keep a few copies of C. S. Lewis: Readings and Meditations for Reflection by Walter Hooper because I like giving this favorite away.

As an extrovert at home raising five children, books have become my everyday friends. I escape into a book when I want the world to be a little larger than my kitchen and my company to be a little wiser than my six-year-old. Books represent people to me—the authors

Leigh Lowe is the daughter-in-law of Cheryl Lowe, founder of Memoria Press and Highlands Latin School. She worked closely with Cheryl for years, as a teacher, editor, and writer, helping to develop Cheryl's vision for classical education. Leigh is currently busy raising her five children with her husband, Brian. I dream of chatting up until dawn, the heroes I want in my foxhole, the saints who straighten my path.

My books don't only connect me to people I wish I knew, however. They connect me, in a very special way, with people I love from afar. The books in my house have been marked; I get to hear voices that would otherwise be silent.

When my mother-in-law, Cheryl Lowe, passed away, my father-in-law knowingly gave me her books. This was one of the most endearing gifts I have ever received. Seeing her titles, I know her better. It is as if she were sitting with me and telling me her life story. Evident on the shelves are her interests, her passions, her whims. By a landslide, her books on religion win for quantity; she had three shelves of Bibles alone. Of course, there are Latin books—lots of them—and history also shows up in spades. But her collection is well-rounded. She was a chemist with a research mind, so I received more books than I'll ever read on the sciences, plus every available MemoriaPress.com

translation of the classics. Though inordinately wellHer insight shines through too. Rat explains read and discerning, she was definitely not a snob. to Mole in The Wind in the Willows how he catches

She collected children's books and poetry books and words at intervals from the wind in the reeds. "I art books. She loved cookbooks and travel guides passed them on to you as they reached me. Ah! and good fiction. If a book came recommended, my Now they return again, and this time full and clear! mother-in-law gave it a chance. This time, at last, it is the real, the unmistakable

This meant she was flush with suggestions too. The thing, simple—passionate— perfect—" Knowing the majority of the books I read from age eighteen on were purpose of book marking and the benefit of limited influenced by her. Often she'd gasp in the middle of a space, she synthesized this beautiful passage in conversation and scurry away to retrieve a book she the margin with concise and meaningful words: was appalled that I had missed. Sometimes she'd gush "inspiration—the muses." over the most unexpected selections. Without notes and underlines,

Just when I thought she'd insist that these books would still hold their

I read the Summa, she'd hand me a timeless literary value. But with poetry book for children. She chose them, they are so much more. perfectly every time. They are priceless. They are But, without question, the very personal. Even better than a Great best thing about her books is that Marking books Conversation, her books offer an she marked in them, nearly every book she read. ennobles both intimate one. My children can have a conversation with their

What an amazing gift! reading and grandmother because she took up

Because of this I can visit her, a pen when she read.

I can talk to her, I can ask her relationships. Mortimer Adler tells us that opinion on a world of topics—even the "most important thing about though I can't. reading … is that it must be

Last Thanksgiving, I needed active, not passive." He goes on to to talk to her about dessert. An say that there are two clear signs excellent cook, she often consulted to indicate that reading is active. many recipes before settling on The first is that "you really have one or combining elements of each. Her favorite some fatigue" and the second is "pencil and paper resource was Cook's Illustrated, naturally, with its work, making notes, marking the book, marking the detailed explanations, rigorous testing processes, margin, underlining passages." I agree with Mr. Adler. and scientific bent. In an article by Christopher And experience proves there's even more to it.

Kimball detangling theories on pie crust, she Marking books ennobles both reading and underlined large sections of the text in red ink, relationships. Writing in margins is more than proof including the sentence, "I was desperate for the of good reading (though it is that). Underlining is not simple truth." Ah—she relates! "Persevere," I heard just about being able to quickly find the good bits her say. "It's tricky." (though it is that too). Marking a book personalizes

In addition to her empathy, her personality shines the reading experience. Visually demonstrating through in her markings. In one book there are contemplation, the exercise reveals the ideas and three glaring typographical errors in a two-page images that speak to our souls. When we return to spread. With her pencil, she circled the first one. the books we've read, our marks can show us how

The second one she marked with a question mark in our perspective has changed—how we've grown in the margin. Next to the third error, she put a large, wisdom and maturity. When we read the markings of dark exclamation mark. I could just imagine her others we benefit not only from the author's insight, exclaiming, "Inexcusable!" but from our fellow reader's too.

In her Samuel Butler translation of the Iliad, In my mother-in-law's copy of Charlotte's Web, she she underlined Achilles' quote, "If I stay here and wrote in a final chapter: "Life is full of hard things but fight, I shall not return alive, but my name will live we can strive to help each other and raise ourselves forever. Whereas, if I go home, my name will die, to nobility. Charlotte knew all along she wouldn't but it will be long ere death shall take me.…" She survive the Fall season, but she helped Wilbur to enjoy deftly summarizes the dilemma—quoting either what she could not." When we mark books, we, unlike

Herodotus or Billy Joel—with the words "only the Charlotte, can live beyond our season. We can continue, good die young." indefinitely, to help and speak to those we love. 1-877-862-1097