Studs Terkel, the oral historian, was known to admonish friends who would read his books but leave them free of markings. He told them that reading a book should not be a passive exercise, but rather a raucous conversation.

Coleridge was such a renowned marginaliac that his friends would actually lend their books to him so that he could scribble in the margins.  Studs Turkel expected the books he loaned to friends to come back with additional marks made by friendly fingers.