There have long been heated debates about how we treat our books – and what is and isn’t permissible amongst readers. Do you use an old receipt as a bookmark, or simply fold down the corner of a page? How about highlighting or adding sticky tabs to your favourite passages, or even adding your reactions - in ink – to the margins? But what if rather than damaging the book, those additions increase its value and make it all the more precious?

Dr Shanti Graheli, Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature, joins Cia on the podcast for a conversation all about materiality, memory, and meaning, in advance of Book Tales, a series of engaging events celebrating books and their readers as part of the 2025 Being Human Festival. Dr Graheli shares how the value of books can extend far beyond their texts, forming connections between readers across borders and generations. Whether left by a beloved family member, or simply the book’s previous owner, inscriptions and annotations, make-shift bookmarks, or even torn pages taped back together can come together to tell the fascinating stories of readers past and present. 

Listen to learn more about Book Tales, and hear Dr Graheli’s manifesto as to why we should begin to leave written traces of ourselves in between the lines.

Find out more about Dr Shanti Graheli and her research: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/mlc/staff/shantigraheli/

Check out the full line-up of Book Tales events as part of Being Human Festival 2025: https://www.beinghumanfestival.org/book-tales-storytelling-between-text-and-object

Book your free tickets for the Book ‘Antiques’ Roadshow: https://www.beinghumanfestival.org/events/books-antiques-roadshow

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