I frequent used bookstores and sometimes they're marked up—though I try to avoid it because it can be distracting.
Still, sometimes I end up with a book with underlined passages. Some of those times there's an inscription in the first pages suggesting, for example, that it was given as a gift in 1951.
Of those times, a precious few have underlined the same passages that I want to mark myself. In those moments I feel deeply connected to this unknown person across circumstance, space, and time.
And it's wonderful. That's all.
by pchrisl