Why Margin Notes?

I have rules about books.

1. Collect them.
2. Read them.
3. Write them.
4. Underline, highlight, circle, and star the text—and then comment in the margins!
5. Never, under any circumstances, fold or dog-ear a page.

Bookmarks, people!

The sticky ones are amazing. They don’t fall out!

Now that we have that business handled, I want to spend our time today on Rule 4.

Annotation.

I taught text analysis for years, and good text analysis begins with annotation.

Have a conversation with the author. Disagree vehemently. Agree wholeheartedly. Ask questions. Note the ideas that seem important or the sentences phrased in such a way that they simply must be remembered—and quoted.

Circle things. Draw arrows to corresponding thoughts. Put a star—or two—next to something you want to be able to find again. Create your own subheadings at the tops of pages for easy reference.

You should see my Bible. I have one with really wide margins, ready for sermon notes, cross-references, questions, and whatever else I need to write down before the thought gets away from me.

Because that’s what we do in margins.

We write our personal thoughts there.

The things we don’t want to lose.

Thoughts worth noting.

And That’s Where Margin Notes Began

I wanted a way for ideas to jump off the page—or the social media screen—and into your life.

Something brief but thought-provoking.

Something that might encourage you to stop scrolling for a moment.

Something you might want to remember.

Or maybe even something that makes you curious enough to read the entire blog.

And Margin Notes was born.

Margin Notes are small thoughts pulled from bigger ones.

Sometimes they’ll come from something I’ve written on the blog. Sometimes from Scripture. Sometimes from something I’m reading or teaching that makes me stop and think. Sometimes they’ll be a note from a sermon that I decide must be shared immediately.

The typeset words are the thought.

The handwritten words are my response in the margin.

And yes, that’s really my handwriting. It won’t be perfect.

That’s rather the point.

The polished words tell you what I’ve been thinking.

The handwriting tells you what I’m still thinking about.

Thoughts Worth Noting

Maybe that’s what I hope Margin Notes becomes—a collection of small thoughts that make us stop for a moment.

And perhaps, every now and then, something worth writing in the margin.

You can find Margin Notes on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.