[RheingoldRiver]

I used to feel this way too! But I've rethought it completely. The way I reframed is: If you spend money on a class, you can't then donate/sell that class to a used bookstore; I'm just turning the book into a class by writing in the margins. So, if I can increase my retention by 10% by writing in a book, I'm gonna write in the book. In reality I'm probably increasing my retention by something like 100% to 300%.

Thinking in these terms, I went from being just horrified at the idea of writing in books (I'm the kid of two college professors lol) to a huge advocate of it. There are some books I won't write in; the less related it is to my job & the more I'm just reading it for fun, or the more surface-level the content is, the less likely I am to write in it. (Also some UX books have really glossy pages and I literally can't.) (The one line I draw is, I will only write in pencil, never pen.) But most books I write tons and tons and tons of comments in the margins, and it really, really, really helps boost retention.

Also, writing in the margins is like actively participating in dialogue with the author and makes the experience a lot more engaging! Which makes me able to stay focused for a lot longer. Like if I'm not writing anything I'll start to get distracted / zone out after maybe 10 minutes, but if I'm interacting, I can stay focused for an hour or more. (Depends on the book and what's on my mind at the time and other environmental factors of course.)