Joe Moran, wrote an article for The Guardian about his own "impulse" for writing in the margins of library books.[38] His argument for the practice is historical since he writes that "until the 19th century books were often used as scrap paper, and few people had qualms about scrawling on a pristine copy."[38] Moran traces his book writing (usually in pencil) as part of the tradition of marginalia.[38]