When I trawl through pile of 2nd hand chess books, I often see that previous owners have underlines certain moves or written notes in the margins (I have found a forced win for White in the starting position, but this margin is too small to write he proof ...).
At first this horrified me, but now I am starting to see that this is sometimes acceptable. I am working through some coaching books, and to get full value, I often think I should highlight unsuggested alternatives, or record analysis for later checking. While this would obviously reduce the quality of the book, it would probably improve my understanding of the text.
However, there is one problem. When I tried to do this, my hand refused to put pencil to paper! So for now my books remain unsullied, at least until I can overcome the psychological road block that stands in front of me.
3 comments:
I love buying Chess Books with the unlined and other thoughts and analysis that they have done in the pages.. Bring out the owner style of play and what he was thinking about and how he got the info on the games (which books he used to gather the info). I got a lot of those books with the writing that I must buy a second copy just to read them.
Pencil is fine. It can be erased. I abandoned all use of pens and highlighters for marking all books fall semester 1980 as a young college student. When I buy books and then find ink marks inside, I feel pain. Some marks are less damaging than others, of course.
That's why you need at least two copies of every book, preferably three - first to deface; second to actually read; third to put in a locked display case ;)
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