Jan. 10, 2018

Adler Response

Adler begins his essay with the idea that to truly understand something, you must read in between the lines. He’s trying to say that to get to the true meaning of something you must dig deeper than surface level. He then begins to list out various types of book owners and states that a true book owner is one whose books are thoroughly read and marked from head to toe while people with large collections of unread and untouched books are merely owners of “woodpulp and ink”. He makes sure to clarify that there are some rare and valuable books in which he would never put the slightest mark in. But holding a book in that regard is more respectful to the physical shell of a book rather than the content which makes it what it is.

Alder makes the comparative analogy of books being more like written pieces of music rather than statues or portraits of visual art. The beauty in visual art lies in the masterful construction of the piece and what it means to the creator and/or the audience. The beauty in a book or a symphony lies in the magic of the content you juice out of it. Books and sheet music are much like blueprints. They are guides to creating and art form which can only exist if the owner of these blueprints allows it to be and puts in the effort to do so. Marking music is a valuable analogy to me personally as I am a consistent user of sheet music in nearly every day of my life. Learning a piece without marking a single note or idea into the music is a very surface-level approach and would result in a weaker, dryer performance of the music.

Adler closes on a rather sentimental note as he describes how marking your books can give them a sense of connection to you. He mentions how it'd be difficult to loan a book to a friend as the marks may be distracting, but who would want to loan someone such a valuable piece of your thinking expressed in pen and paper?