Thank you for reading.
One librarian
tries, but can't seem to truly object to marginalia, because it's an attempt to
communicate. She pinpoints this feeling of interacting, or trying to interact,
with the author:
One of the things that I always find so interesting about marginalia in library books is how the unruly patron talks to the author as they're reading. The "you" in those comments is rarely another reader, but is the author. Readers often want to communicate with the author, they feel that reading is part of a conversation.
Can librarians truly object to readers entering into a conversation with authors,
even if it demands that before closing they have to erase some pencil marks?
Go to: Write in my margins ... please!, or
Go to: Is there marginalia for sale on e-bay?, or
Go to: In the margins of cyberspace.