Have you seen TikTok or Instagram posts of aesthetic pictures of book annotations? Chances are you have.

Recently, the Washington Post covered the new hot trend on Instagram on TikTok—book annotations. Once used for academic purposes, using text to comment on texts has been aestheticized. This trend aggregates cozy settings and carefully marked pages, romanticizing reading and studying. It’s quite beautiful in the way it shows how annotations personalize a text and serve as registers of initial impressions. Annotations allow readers to collectively share their thoughts, in turn, allowing viewers to annotate the annotations.

I’m reading Beloved by Toni Morrison for the second time, and my previous annotations reconnect me to my initial understanding of the text that I would have not otherwise recollected solely from memory. Annotations are a way of making the book my own, personalizing it with my reading experience. When I see other people writing in their books and see what they find is important to them, I realize it’s just people going about their lives. It’s wholesome and what I like to call “people being people.”

Here, I’m reading On Writing by Stephen King. The book includes some of King’s annotations and paper edits. You can see my exclamation points alongside his. I look back at what I chose to exclaim and realize again that it deserves it. Sometimes the writing speaks for itself and all you can do is emphasize it. 

Here, I’m reading Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko for an American Literature class and made a note that a character was re-entered the narrative. Amidst my homework, I felt compelled to take a picture, mug in hand. I aimed to capture a cozy moment where I was enjoying reading. This trend amongst book lovers allows people to share mundane moments, making something that is personal and marginal (literally) sharable and public—unlike other trends that are about revealing what had not been before. 

This is from when I read Just Kids by Patti Smith. I found what she wrote to be so moving that I scribbled my thoughts and interpretations down. It’s in moments like these that my annotations aren’t very aesthetically pleasing. Instead, it is capturing the emotion of my response, in a way my commentary right now is annotating my annotations. A way to make sense of what captured my attention, deciphering my messy handwriting and thoughts. There are other pages where I write “This is so me.” Not very insightful, but it was important for me to make note of.

Sometimes my annotations aren’t as pretty. Here is my copy of Hamlet that I borrowed from my older brother. When I came across the page, to annotate for myself, I had to annotate his notes. Now, sharing it, I’m annotating it again. Clearly, we were both grappling to understand just what was going on between Hamlet and Ophelia. I smiled when I came across this page, realizing I was getting a look inside my brother’s brain. Even though his thoughts were written down for himself, eventually they made their way to me, embedded on a page, held by a spine. When reading through a secondhand book, regardless of who it was, I love being able to see how our thought processes differ and overlap. Even though it’s not as aesthetically pleasing, there is still something artistic about the way the scribbles and handwriting work with the text on the page. 

What I love about this trend is that it shows that people still read and enjoy it. I feel like fewer people pick up a book in their free time. Even if they have books, they end up sitting on bedside tables. This trend is allowing people to rediscover the pleasure of reading, rather than it feeling like a task. It also shows that even if we read the same books, we all interpret it differently, finding what is the most important to us and making note of it. It’s also just about the collective sharing of annotations, whether a secondhand book, over text, or on social media. I realize my sharing of my annotations, is a way to re-annotate my annotations. It’s a quiet and secretive way of sharing your thoughts.

Images via Author