Marks a reader leaves

Folded corners, ticks and underlines are the proofs readers make without meaning to.

Issue

September 2026

Section

Filed

Reading

1 min read

A street performer dressed entirely in newspaper sits on a chair reading a newspaper.

A second-hand newspaper tells you how it was read. A folded corner marks the crossword. A ring around a listing marks a plan.

Reading as editing

Readers correct as they go: a circled typo, a question mark beside a figure, a line under a name. None of it goes back to the paper, but all of it is a kind of proof.

This story collects a week of such marks, found in papers left on trains.