My First Annotated Read: Orbital by Samantha Harvey
My experience:
Orbital by Samantha Harvey, winner of the 2024 Booker Prize, was the first book I ever annotated. It’s a short literary novel that takes place over one day aboard the International Space Station. It’s not a plot-heavy read, instead, it focuses on themes like time, meaning, and mortality. The writing is very lyrical, and because it’s filled with introspective and thought-provoking lines, it felt like a good starting point to try annotating for the first time.
I’ve always seen people post their beautifully annotated books, color-coded tabs, notes in the margins, detailed reactions, and while I love seeing that, it always felt intimidating. So I kept it simple.
Here’s what I did:
I used little cat tab stickers to mark quotes or moments that stood out to me.
I highlighted or underlined depending on how strongly I reacted to a passage.
I didn’t worry about perfection. No color-coded system.
One of the first quotes I marked was:
“…all being are living in life-support machines commonly called bodies and all of those will fail eventually.”
That line made me stop and think. It was the first one that really made me think “okay, I need to remember this.”
Another section I underlined in full was:
“maybe it's hard to shift from thinking your planet is safe at the center of it all to knowing in fact it is a planet of normalish size and normalish mass rotating about an average star in a solar system of average everything in a galaxy of innumerably many and the whole thing is going to explode or collapse.”
This quote really captures what Orbital is doing, zooming out from the personal to the cosmic. That theme repeats throughout the book, which made it feel really natural to underline and reflect as I went.
Tips for First-Time Annotators
If you’ve never annotated before, please know that any book can be an annotated read. It doesn’t have to be literary or serious. People annotate everything from fantasy novels to romance to non-fiction. The key is to do what works for you.
Some common methods people use:
Tabs: Color-coded or not, they’re great for marking key moments or quotes. Some people will color code based on things like romance, humor, seriousness, plot points, magic system etc.
Highlighting: Use this for lines you love or things you want to come back to.
Underlining: A good alternative if you don’t like highlighters bleeding through pages.
Margin notes: Some readers write short reactions, draw stars, or even doodle.
Sticky notes: Perfect if you want to keep the book clean but still track your thoughts. I bought some clear sticky notes to try out next time I want to annotate.
You don’t need a system to start. You can always build one later if you find yourself wanting more structure.
For me, annotating Orbital helped me slow down and engage more with what I was reading. It turned reading into more of an active experience. I’m planning to pass my copy along, annotations and all. There’s something cool about the idea of someone else reading it and seeing what stood out to me.
Have you ever annotated a book before? Or is there one you wish you had?