Sherman's book is engaging and information-dense. The organization is clear and logical. Sherman's theoretical and methodological frameworks are discussed and made somewhat transparent; he does not leave the reader guessing about his work's placement in the field. His notes are generous and extremely helpful, especially for those readers who intend to access the many works he discusses. He gives shelf marks and locations for all items in his notes and repeats this information (by location and format) in his bibliography.
Especially of late I've been reading heavily about book and reading history, with a focus on the early modern period in England. While I am familiar with many of the names and works mentioned, I still learned a number of surprising and interesting things. Sherman spends a good amount of time on the pointing hand/finger used by annotators. He makes it clear that this is not a topic generally treated in other works, but points to other works that mention it, even if they don't go into great detail.
Sherman is certainly a very aware and conscientious researcher and writer. He is sensitive to the gendered nature of much historical work. He has an entire chapter devoted to women reader/annotators.
When discussing anonymous annotators, Sherman is careful in one instance to stop and "unpack" his use of masculine pronouns (p. 96). Unfortunately, this is inconsistent. Later, in another discussion of a different anonymous annotator, Sherman is not so transparent (p. 152). This was disappointing to me; I could not find any mention of why Sherman assumed (?) this writer to be male.
Sherman also has a tendency to both assert the inability to discover intentionality and yet ascribe intention to a particular mark or comment (cf. p. 77--Eliz I and crossing out). This happens throughout the text, but never excessively. More transparency would be helpful here--if there is something in the work with which he is interacting that suggests intention (heavier ink, etc.) that would be both interesting and helpful to this overall argument about the slipperiness of work with marginalia.
Overall, I found myself annotating Sherman's book as I went. Before I finished it, I was looking forward to re-reading it.
I would recommend this book for anyone interested in marginalia, early reading, commonplace books, responses to the Bible and The Book of Common Prayer, women readers, John Dee, and early systems used for marking books. Sherman covers a wide range of topics but manages to keep his focus and point the reader to other work that complements and extends his own.
This book is part of the University of Pennsylvania Press Material Texts series; I looked at the complete series list and would recommend going there after (or before or while) reading Sherman. ( )