Bite | Should we write more in our books?

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]This brings me to a question I wanted to ask you on the pod. Okay. Actually, I'm extremely glad that I remembered because I want to hear people's thoughts. I want you to all chime in with your ideas on this one.

[00:00:12]>> Do you think that I should start writing in my books >> when I've purchased them?

[00:00:26]>> Yeah, why not?

[00:00:26]>> Yeah. And I think that is nice to know because sometimes it's like >> you don't even realize how long you've had something. Like I was actually just thinking like uh Grotesque by Natsu Kirao. I just recently rebought that in a hard cover cuz I found it while I was thrifting or something and I just realized yesterday like >> I remember where and when I was when I bought that book originally in paperback and that was over a decade ago. Like I just it just occurred to me how long I've actually had that book and I was like, "Oh my god." Like I I wish that I had like remembered that because now I'm realizing like how big of a mashed potato book it really is. But yeah, I think it's a good thing worth doing, especially for you. Like you keep pretty much all of your books. So it's a nice thing to have in there, you know.

[00:01:07]>> I really agree. So I have a lot of books that I totally remember buying.

[00:01:13]>> Like a lot of them will be very memorable. I will remember the bookshop I was in or the person I was with when I bought them. A a lot of them. I'm just looking at my shelves now. I'm like, "Oh, yeah. I remember getting that one with Connor and that one with like I remember a lot of them."

[00:01:29]>> I also always say yes to the receipt.

[00:01:33]>> Yeah.

[00:01:33]>> And put in the book.

[00:01:34]>> Yeah.

[00:01:35]>> But that only works for one of the books. Like, >> can I get four copies?

[00:01:38]>> Often I'll buy I know often I'll buy three books and then I'll put the receipt in one of them. And so that kind of record is useful for that one but not for the other two. And what I think I've realized is this was sparked I have thought about this many times over the years. Like I genuinely have wondered this like should I write when I buy a book?

[00:01:56]>> Yeah.

[00:01:57]>> I don't know. Two things have kind of changed my thinking here. The first is that I bought those those really beautiful editions of um some of the Lucy Ma Montgomery books and in them were written like somebody wrote Green Gables PEI 1954 or whatever year it was and I'm just like this is awesome. I love knowing that. I love knowing that some lady bought this so long ago. So I don't think that it ruins the resellability of the book or whatever. I also never worry about that because books while they're special and and important to us, there's a lot of them.

[00:02:32]Like I don't own any first editions that I'm going to mess up or something.

[00:02:36]>> It's like a the 18th printing of the fall in our stars. Um >> actually I do have a first edition of the fall stars, but we all do actually.

[00:02:46]So >> there are a lot of them.

[00:02:48]>> Yeah. Seriously. Um, but I seeing that one just kind of like I was like reminded of this thing where I was like I kind of want to do that. I want a record of I want more of myself in my books. Yeah.

[00:03:00]>> In that way where I already I've always annotated my books and like I'm not afraid to write in them or or to have them seem worn, >> but I'm like this is like taking it to the next level. Yeah. You know what I mean?

[00:03:12]>> Yeah. The second thing that happened is that I realized that my memory is a little worse.

[00:03:21]>> Oh yeah.

[00:03:22]>> Because I'm 31. And it's not like actually worse. Like I think I'm fine. I have I happen to have a friend who's a memory specialist.

[00:03:32]>> She's like a professor. She's a professor at the neurological department of a fancy university uh university in Toronto. Like she is like actually a memory specialist. And I started talking to her all about memory because I was like, I think I have really good memory, but I feel like over the last few years it's not as strong as it used to be. And and so she started asking me all these questions about she's like, your memory is amazing. It's just that you're 31.

[00:03:59]She's like, you just now are remembering more things than you had to more information that is needs to live.

[00:04:07]>> And that's what I think and that makes sense to me. There was act that that's a very reduced version of a very interesting conversation. There's a lot of other things going on. One of which was that because I moved so much throughout my life. She's like, "It's been very easy for you to tag things to certain places." Oh, yeah. Whereas now you've lived in Nova Scotia for 5 years, it's going to start to blend together.

[00:04:26]And I was like, "Oh my god." So, like I say, very interesting conversation. It's not that simple. But anyways, moving on.

[00:04:33]It is true though, right? Like when I was 21, yeah, I remembered where I bought every single book cuz I only bought a hundred.

[00:04:39]>> Yeah.

[00:04:40]>> Now I'm 31 and I have a thousand that I'm expecting myself to remember. That doesn't make sense.

[00:04:48]>> Yeah.

[00:04:48]>> Yeah. That doesn't make sense. And so because of that kind of realization and recognition of the future where I'm like, I'm gonna keep buying books. I'm gonna keep doing it. Like it's not going to stop and my memory is not going to get better.

[00:05:04]probably not.

[00:05:05]>> So it's like okay so in that case I think I should just write in them because it's not like uh because because the recognition does totally work.

[00:05:15]Sometimes if I hold up a book and I think to myself where the hell did I buy this is a bad example because I remember buying this in Birmingham but like where did I buy this book? I don't remember.

[00:05:24]But if I were to flip open the page and it says Birmingham 2015 I'd be like wait yes I do remember. Sometimes you just need a little to help you recall.

[00:05:34]>> And that'd be a fun project cuz you could go through and like write in the ones that you do remember now and then just moving forward >> continue to do that. You got me thinking over here, friend. Maybe I should >> I think I'm going to do it.

[00:05:46]>> I think I'm going to do it. And it's kind of a fun change in my life because then I was starting to think like, do I get a stamp?

[00:05:52]>> I was thinking that, too.

[00:05:54]>> Yeah, it's a bit overkill. I think >> I do love stamps. It's a little bit of overkill and it's like mainly I feel a little like if I'm in London and I buy a book and I'm not going to have my stamp on me so I'm going to wait until I get home. I'm just like >> it's just over complicating things.

[00:06:08]Yeah, >> you're over complicating things. Um maybe it's just simple and elegant to write it in. Just use a pen that whatever pen you have on hand and write it in. I I am thinking about the formatting though. I think like what is the information I want to collect? I want to collect when I got it.

[00:06:24]>> Yeah.

[00:06:25]>> Where I got it.

[00:06:26]probably not just the city, probably also the bookstore.

[00:06:30]>> Yeah. So, I'm just like, how do I think about that suggestions and I'm going to start thinking about this now, too. So, >> I'm excited, but I think I'm going to do it and I'm excited that you think I should do it, too.

[00:06:43]>> I think you should. I like it just makes perfect sense to me because I agree.

[00:06:46]Like, I love it when you open up a book and it's like this person bought it on that day.

[00:06:51]>> That's so cool.

[00:06:53]>> Yeah, >> that is so cool.

[00:06:54]>> Yeah. 100 years from now, someone will be very happy to find your books and be like, "Look at that."

[00:06:58]>> You'd all I mean, you would start to feel like a celebrity if you had to write that in all you because you look you just are about to haul what did you say? 13 books for us. So, you'd have to write like like you'd be like signing like next book, next book. Just line them all up. Yeah.