Bookmarks For Bookworms

[mono]

A very trivial question, but I find it something that could apply to us all: what do you use for a bookmark?
I, personally, love bookmarks, and often own more than the average number of books I read simultaneously, which usually adds to very few.
My most common bookmark: "Day and Night" by M.C. Escher --

http://www.iitb.ac.in/~insight/iyp/issues/2002/images/escher.jpg

Besides that, I have one with a sun-and-moon emblem, another with Celtic knot designs, and one strip of twined silk. When I read something with some useful quotations, however, I will use a standard piece of paper to copy down any good quotes. :)

[Snukes]

I heart bookmarks as well.

I have one I cross stitched when I was very young with my name on it. I have some of those sappy momento ones that people give you as presents when they know you like books but are too cheap to actually buy a book...

My favorite is my Book Thong. :) It looks like an amoeba on a string. I really like it.

[Logos]

I have a `thing' for bookmarks too.

My favourite is one I have had for about 10 years, is cardboard about 6 inches tall in the shape of `Miniature Sarcophagus of King Tutankhamun' from MoMA.

[Zooey]

I have a thing for postcards, and have found using them as bookmarks is a good way to keep them from being simply stowed away in a box.

Often I try to find a connection between the two- sometimes it's through common images and themes, sometimes it's simply because they feel "right" together. For example, I often pair Woolf novels with Berthe Morisot paintings, Fitzgerald with vintage b&w photography, etc.

[mono]

I have a thing for postcards, and have found using them as bookmarks is a good way to keep them from being simply stowed away in a box.
Thank you, Zooey - that reminds me of another bookmark I have that I forgot to list: also a postcard with a picture of Dr. Faust meeting Mephistopheles from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust and/or Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus.
Strange that I forgot, it being one of my favorites. :rolleyes:

[kilted exile]

I am probably in the minority here. I do not use bookmarks, for hardbacks I use the book jacket to keep my place and for paperbacks I have a habit of corner folding (*waits for screams/ howls of derision*). I used to use bookmarks but they would also fall out of my book when I carried it in my bookbag :mad:

[Scheherazade]

I don't use bookmarks either... Usually do not stop reading a book till I reach a new chapter so either keep the chapter or page number in mind.

[wanderlust_ox]

paper. Basically whatever I can find at the moment. I just tend to lose bookmarks, so I don't bother buying them. My friend uses a piece of leather. He's had it forever.

[Nightshade]

I have a thing for bookmarks and post cards in that I collect them... ;)
If I put a book down without finishing it its usually for somthing like dinner than I just memorise the page or the thickness but if its for longer then 10 minutes anything I can reach at the moment Junkmail.
:nod:

[papayahed]

I love bookmarks too but I have a bad habit of losing them so I end up using whatever is handy: dollar bill, scrap piece of paper, my latest bookmark a tag from a top I bought last week.

[Jack_Aubrey]

A rectangular, folded up piece of loose-leaf paper. Kind of boring but it's my tradition.

[mono]

Odd that I create this thread, and, days later, I find a bookmark in a book I purchased recently. I cannot call it a purposely-made bookmark, but it features an amateur laminated picture of a woman smiling glamorously (the only word that comes to mind), holding a cigarette with cut-out cardboard stars in the background.
Ironic, eh? :p

[Jay]

I also have a thing for bookmarks, I usually make some, last I made is a piece of... harder paper, lol, with colorful stripes on it. I used to draw some (lots, hehe) lines or circles and color them. I lost all of my former bookmarks. I sometimes memorize page numbers but if I read more than three books at once I tend to confuse the numbers, so bookmarks are safer. I got a papyrus bookmark with hieroglyphic 'alphabeth' on it from a formal schoolmate a few years ago but I'm not using it because I'm afraid I'd ruin or loose it.

[Capnplank]

I tend to get all my books at a place where they give me their store bookmark every time I buy something there, so I use those if I happen to see one laying around when the need arises. Otherwise, the corner off the nearest piece of unneeded paper laying around tends to work, as well as just memorizing the page number I was on (though done too often is just begging to have to spend 15 minutes re-reading to find your spot).

[Logos]

I also use pipe-cleaners, those things with wire in them, so that when I put it at my last page I can then bend the ends of it to `hook' over the spine at top and bottom of the book so it doesn't fall out! I've got 5 books on the go right now, sometimes I even leave them lying face down opened. <-- I know, bad! :p

[shortysweetp]

i make mine out of posterboard i cut fabric to fit and sew it 3 sides then insert posterboard into sleeve and sew up the other side. i made my husband a New York Yankees one his fav baseball team

[faeirian]

I like to sew ribbon on to my large books. I buy paint and I collect the sample cards and used them as well. mind expanding thread:)

[Mark F.]

They distribute free bookmarks at my university-library, so I tend to just use those. I don't ever fold the page corners of my books. I like the idea of custom made bookmarks though.

[mono]

I don't ever fold the page corners of my books.
May whatever higher power (God, Allah, Yahweh, etc.) bless you, Mark F.
I remember, as a child, I always enjoyed reading, and my father once showed me bending pages when I could not find my bookmark. Somehow, it just seemed strange, and I have never felt able to bend the corners of pages; it seems like someone studying an exact replica of Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa very closely, and marking or bending in a specific spot to remember it.
When I see others do it to their books, I tend not to care; if someone bent the pages of one of my books . . . :smash:
:D

[underground]

i have a few bookmarks (all looking very ordinary: square-shaped with some pictures/writings on them), but i rarely use them. it just so happens that every time i need a bookmark i'm away from home, so i always settle with a ripped paper found nearby, and when i get home i'm just too lazy to replace it. sometimes a post-it note would also do. when there's completely no paper of some sort around (i.e., when i'm in the desert), i usually just memorize the page number. it works when i have only one book i'm currently reading--which doesn't happen very often.

for a hardcover book, i used to use the jacket as well, but i stopped after i found out that it makes the jacket look kind of ugly and unrepressable. as for paperback books, i do fold the corner when the book is from the library because it's usually already beaten up anyway. i'm more careful when handling a hardcover one and/or if the paperback book still looks new and nice, though.

[Eliza]

I love book thongs, but they cost a few bucks. As a cheaper alternative, I use paperclips that I loosen up so they won't bend or mark the page. I can always find a paperclip but never a scrap of paper. Go figure. I never bend pages, but I confess I sometimes leave books open and face-down to keep my place. (does terrible things to the spine)

[baddad]

I use a purchased bookmark rendered with a collage of necromancing theoried paintings surrounding a quote attributed to Edgar Allan Poe that states that existence is but a dream (I'm paraphrasing....perhaps incorrectly). The bookmark is so attractive that on occasion I've found moments where staring/studying the bookmark was more interesting than the book I was reading at the time.........

[Nerd]

Funnily enough, mine seem to disspear too quickly. Although, I still have this BEASTLY one from Oxford that Patrick gave me. It's currently in my Tennyson book of Poetry. woot! There's a connection between the poem (Ulysses) and British History. It works. I like that connection ... (and Brit. Hist. kicks booty!)

Right now in Catch 22, though, I have a blank sheet of paper (small sheet, to be sure) that has Char's phone number written on it. It was the handiest thing available. I can't even use the phone number because her phone is having issues, and it's a British number. So, it's kind of strange to hold onto it, but I enjoy it.

[Logos]

I'm using a miniature carpet bookmark from Morocco right now.

[~Maude~]

I colect postcards/bookmarks and eack of my books has it's own. I know too much time on my hands :blush: :)

But if anyone is looking for bookmarks (or postcards, greeting cards, note cards, art books, etc) this is a good site to buy in bulk and have plenty to share as gifts http://pomegranate.stores.yahoo.net/salesalesale.html

[cuppajoe_9]

Whichever flat object is closest when I decide I am done reading. Sometimes an actual bookmark, more often a receipt, a kleenex, another book, my comb, &c.

[grace86]

I have a lot of different cloth, metal, paper and plastic bookmarks in different shapes with all kinds of ribbons...and plain ones. Just depends what mood I'm in. Those tend to fall out a lot, so I have a "Smart" bookmark, which is probably a book thong. Never used paper clips, but I have bent the corners- eeek!

I've used postcards and basically anything I can find. Don't usually like post it notes because some of the print will come off on the post it.

I also use paper sometimes to write down the page numbers of things I would like to quote.

Usually I don't stick with one thing too long. But my "Smart" bookmark has done an awesome job considering I am thrashing my books around lately.

[Idril]

I have this thing where my bookmark has to match the color of the book I'm reading so I have many, many bookmarks every shade of the rainbow. My greatest joy is when I find a multi-color match..I have several bookmarks that are replicas of Turkish rugs and thusly have many colors and I get such a thrill when the many colors of the 'rugs' match the many colors of the book cover. I'm entertained so easily. ;)

[~Maude~]

I have this thing where my bookmark has to match the color of the book I'm reading so I have many, many bookmarks every shade of the rainbow. My greatest joy is when I find a multi-color match..I have several bookmarks that are replicas of Turkish rugs and thusly have many colors and I get such a thrill when the many colors of the 'rugs' match the many colors of the book cover. I'm entertained so easily. ;)

I always knew I couldn't be the only one that matched bookmarks to books :D

[Idril]

I always knew I couldn't be the only one that matched bookmarks to books :D

And I'm glad I'm not the only one. :lol: My local bookstore had a whole bunch of suede, single color bookmarks that are the backbone of my collection, if I can't find that multi-color match that thrills me so, I know I can find a suede one to match. :D

[Shannanigan]

Hmmm...I memorize page numbers when I can't find anything...but most books I buy from the local bookstore and they give you a handful of bookmarks when you buy just a few books...so I use those when I start reading a book right out of the shop.

When I was younger my dad got me in the habit of using the reciept he got for buying the book as a bookmark, lol...

If worse comes to worst, I'll use any paper nearby that can be expended...guess I'm just not very particular about my bookmarks

[subterranean]

My bookmarks range from supermarket bill (or othesr reciepts), yellow 'post it' sticky, ruler to candy wrapper. In short, anything available around me when I need to mark the page.

[Nick Rubashov]

I use a simple piece of paper from one of those tiny little notebooks some people carry around with them to write things down. On it is a list of ingredients needed to make an alcoholic drink called the baboon

[Schokokeks]

Very interesting to read what you other bibliophils use as bookmarks :nod:
I've taken to use the paper wrapping that tea bags are sold in. Cut open along one side, they give a lovely smell when the book is re-opened. As I'm a devoted tea-aholic, there are always plenty of different tea "flavours" around my house, which also allows me to match books with the fitting tea-bookmark. Jane Austen got strawberry and vanilla, Dracula a rather bitter green tea :D

[mtpspur]

I'm using a copy of my father's obituary. We were never close and it's an attempt on my part to feel closer to him. Been gone 5 years and it took me almost 2 years to finally cry--my family internalizes everything. As I posted elsewhere after awhile the good memories do kick in the the bad seem hardly worth the battles fought. The bookmark is used in my reading of Spurgeon's sermons and will be retired upon their completion approx Sep 08 God willing.

[THX-1138]

i have two , one which is written on it (shhhh i am trying to read) and the other one has (caution reading in progress)

[SummerSolstice]

Wow! Even with my great penchant for bookmarks, I really never guessed how personal and telling they could be! What a fascinating thread!

I've been collecting bookmarks for years and years and have over 200. I had two reasons for starting: 1)I read all the time, thus I have to mark books a lot, and I would do that with whatever was within reach--odd socks, scrunchies, even (like cuppajoe!) other books. Then 2) I have a packrat complex that made it necessary for me to collect something, ANYTHING, and bookmarks are small and stackable. (Even my monstrous current collection fits in a small shoebox!) Plus, they're cheap, of infinite variety, and are often very beautiful. IMHO, the perfect collectible! :D

I'll have to dig through my collection and share some of my favorites with you guys. Two that come to mind are a small, antiqued brass one stamped with an illustration from Alice in Wonderland with a green tassel, and a large, silky paper one with the Winnie the Pooh illustration (Milne, not Disney) of Christopher Robin & crew pulling Pooh out of Rabbit's front door, that says "When I met you, I knew an adventure was going to happen." Soo cute!! ^_^

[mtpspur]

On a less gloomy bookmark note (see my above posting for more soap opera)--I used a different Garfield the Cat bookmark for each separate volume of Matthrw Henry (6)--then taped them in when the volume was finished.

[grace86]

On a less gloomy bookmark note (see my above posting for more soap opera)--I used a different Garfield the Cat bookmark for each separate volume of Matthrw Henry (6)--then taped them in when the volume was finished.

Do you keep your bookmarks with the books when they are finished then?

[mtpspur]

No the Matthew Henry/Garfield bookmarks were special and finishing the Henry was a (at the time) major reading accomplishment for me but the jury is out on any spiritual growth that came of it. They are still taped in the back of each volume. I have never suceeded in geting the kids to read Henry however and a small sucess with Spurgeon.

Normally as a rule I usually remmeber where I leave off in a book--it's getting back to them that the problems lately. I bore easily.

[Arguendo]

I have a couple dozen magnetic bookmarks, which I use for books I carry around and which never slide out of the book. Somehow, though, I lose them all the time... They drop out of sight when I remove them from a finished book, and then they turn up at the oddest places.

For the books that stay at home, anything goes. At the moment I seem to favour membership cards. Receipts, postcards, photos, brochures, bills (oops), even the occasional proper bookmark.

My husband has a beautiful Belle and Sebastian leather bookmark. I covet that one.

I roll my own cigarettes, and used to tear off the cardboard flip on packs of cigarette paper to use as bookmarks. Then I discovered that those flips are also employed as filters in marihuana cigarettes, and that paper packs with torn-off flips are considered, ahem, suspicious. Stopped doing that.

[masterlibrarian]

I use the same bookmark from ten years, it's a xmas postcard of wwf with a picture of a robin on it. That piece of paper has been in contact with the pages of so many masterpieces that has became a masterpiece itself!!

[Helga]

I can't stand it when I see a book lying on the table by my stepfathers bed open were he stopped reading and just laying there cover up, I also hate it when I read a book and see that someone who has read it before me has folded the corner of the page. Books are beautiful and should be treated like the art they are! I used to have this thick metal thing that looked like it was gold until I realized it tears a bit of the pages. now I use a piece of paper most of the time so I can write down if I find a quote I like... also I often read like 7 books at a time so it is easy to use paper, anyway I don't even have a real bookmark, but I have always wanted one.

[literature bug]

I love looking at bookmarks in stores. I have one that's a bookworm, pink and kind of clips to the page. I had one that I lost last year, but now I have one in a different color: it was blue cloth and had Budapest cross- stitched on it, the one I have now is white and has Hungary on it. My aunt travels and had those.

[TEND]

I use Canadian Tire money :D .

[Wild Apple]

I use a "Found! Ivory Billed Woodpecker" bookmark. It is even more interesting since the alleged spotting is now in question.