Reading on My Computer
December 6, 2008
I picked up Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate at the Lawrence University library. It was published back in 1900, but it holds up well since it focuses on original sources and attempts a project of limited scope: the re-construction of Baghdad as it existed during its golden age. There's lots of speculation about where this bridge or that canal once lay.. and attempts to determine exactly when famous palaces went to ruin.
But here was my problem: I had a library copy, but for reading of this kind of material to be really valuable, I need to be able to underline and make marginal notations. That's just the way I operate. In the future—for who knows what project—I may want to find a specific passage. So instead of just reading the library's copy I looked to see if it was available for purchase online. I found it on Amazon.com from a third party seller for $125. Not too bad.. not out of reach. But then I decided to look on Google Books, and there it was: I could download a full text PDF for free.. just like that.
The problem up until now has been what to do with the PDF. I can print it out, but that's a waste and leaves me swimming in paper. My new strategy is to read this PDF on my computer and make use of Adobe Acrobat's editing tools to mark up passages like I would in a book:
This is an example of how I can mark up my reading. (Obviously this is a page with more underlining than usual!) I can circle the footnoted sources at the bottom of the page and even put in a blue checkmark connected to a textbox where I can type in marginal comments. I developed this method of marking things up as I graded papers this term.
One of my necessary discoveries has been the process of creating multiple bookmarks as I read. In a column to the left of the text I keep a running list of bookmarks organized according to subject. For example, I am interested in the places in Baghdad mentioned by the traveler Ibn Jubayr.. and so when Strange brings up Ibn Jubayr I bookmark the reference. Here is an excerpt from my bookmarks:
This running list of bookmarks is an improvement over what I could do by marking up books. As I finish reading I simply save my markings and these are present whenever I open the book. Right now I have a folder for PDF books.. and eventually maybe I will have an external hard drive where I can keep my reading and other files.
The problem comes with reading on a computer screen. I can do it, but I do enjoy lying down on the couch and reading.. something impossible to do if I want to read this book by Guy le Strange. On the other hand this wouldn't be a couch book anyway. It's a sit up and pay attention book.. and right now that is the kind of books that works well with this reading method.
