This morning as I lay in bed reading, fumbling around for the scrap of paper the library prints out with your due date so that I could use it as a bookmark, I realized that while I own lots of official bookmarks, I rarely use them. I have metal engraved one, and cardboard ones with pictures of cats, and long stringy beaded ones and the throw-away cardstock ones the library gives out as reminders for upcoming events, and even some counted cross stitch ones. But I never use them more than once. If I own the book, I generally turn down the corner of the page. If it’s a library book, I use whatever is handy…the due-date slip, a scrap torn off a paper napkin, an ad insert from a magazine, a length of yarn, or I just lay the book down facedown, open to the pages I’m reading. Or I just flip back through until I find my place.
So why don’t I use the “real” bookmarks? Who else out there can’t keep track of a real bookmark, but will hang on to a thin sliver of waste paper through an entire 500-page novel? And if you use a real bookmark religiously, how do you do it? Do you tuck it deeper into the book as you read, or lay it down somewhere while you read?
I had a nice little bookmark I bought. It was plastic with a little bead tassle. I wore it out. Sooooo, now I use a post it note usually, and put it deeper into the book whilst reading. No dog-earring as most books I read belong to the “liberrie.”
I am definitely a bookmark person – at least since I bought a laminator and started making my own. I have a dozen or so scattered around the house, plus (I’m sure) another dozen tucked into books I started but haven’t finished. Prior to the laminator, I used either the date card if it were a library book (our library only switched to the receipt-tape printout system a few months ago) or, usually, a mail-return card from a handy magazine for my own books. (I like something with a bit of substance.)
I stick it elsewhere in the book (whichever part has more pages) while I’m reading.
I am just like the OP. My bookmarks are all for decoration and then getting lost. I also dog-ear the pages if it’s my book, well, it’s MY book and I can. Someone else’s book I use whatever I can find.
I still have my the very first freebie bookmark I got with my very first Amazon purchase. It is fairly tattered and may have to be retired soon, but it’s currently holding my place in my carrying-around book.
I recently got a very pretty Vermeer bookmark in a junk mailing from an organization that informed me that they knew I was proud of my Dutch heritage :dubious: and desired to express that pride by sending them money. If you’re reading this, Dutch heritage pride foundation people, I’m not Dutch, so you can take me off your list, but thanks for the bookmark.
I love getting free bookmarks. Sometimes I get them as gifts. If so, first thing, the tassel must go. Who thought that was a good idea? “Hmmm . . . Bookmarks are intended to stay between the pages of a book. Hey, I know, I’ll put a big thing hanging off the end so it can get caught on stuff and pull the bookmark out off the book! Now that’s value-added!” The dumbass things always fall apart into a pile of strings, anyhow.
I just can’t throw a bookmark away. I have a big pile on my bookshelf at home, and stashes in my desk drawers at work. But they all get regular workouts. I always have at least two “for fun” books going, and at least two textbooks where I want to keep track of where we are in the course. And all the books I’m using for reseach need the important parts marked.
Dogearing pages? Man, that’s just wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. What did that poor book ever do to you?
All my books are dogeared and beat up. To me, that’s the sign of a well-loved and oft-read book.
Any borrowed books, I bring out the fancy-shmancy pieces of cardboard to stick between the pages.
I usually have two books going at once, and in those books, I have a postcard from the Union Oyster House (a memento from our honeymoon in Boston) and a promotional postcard from Aimee Mann’s 2002 “Lost in Space” tour when she played here. Both are pleasant reminders of great times each time I open the book, and they’ve also been with me for some great books.
I am not anti-bookmark. In fact, when I am lucky enough to find one, I’m very happy about it.
The trick is finding one. When I’m done reading I’m usually heading to do something else, and none of the 3,423,890 bookmarks I own is ever handy. So scraps of paper, kleenex, whatever is handy gets used.
I have a bunch of bookmarks, but I always use the same one. There’s nothing special about it, it’s just a freebie thing printed on cardstock that came with a book many years ago, but it’s become tradition.
Being a total bookstore junkie, I have many of those cardstock freebies they give out with a purchase. I always use them. I would never, ever even consider turning down the corner of the page. Sometimes my mom will buy me a “fancy” one with some artwork or something, but they inevitably get lost since I often just leave bookmarks in books after I’m done with them (because I have so many). I’m sure they’re in my bookcases somewhere, I just don’t know where. I hate bookmarks that are thicker than cardstock. I hate those clippy things that seem to always have kittens or faeries or some cutesy shite on them.
As far as what I do with them while I’m reading, I’ll either tuck them into the back pages of the book or set them down next to me. Occasionally I’ll use a receipt or plane ticket or something, but very rarely. I prefer regular bookmarks.
I don’t use bookmarks, I just make note of the page number and then pick up where I left off. If I forget where I am I start where I am sure is before I am and basically fast forward through the book reading the first few words on each page to see if I remember it.
I never used to use any sort of bookmark at all; I’d just find my place easily enough. In recent years (and especially in recent months) I’ve started using scraps of paper.
My bookmarks, much to the consternation of those around me, are playing cards. I don’t even know how many times I’ve been yelled at because someone found a fifty-one card deck.
A bookstore we go to a lot always includes their own advertising bookmark with a purchase, so I have a lot of those. I have a bad habit if just leaving the book open and upside down, but I’m trying to set a better example for the kids. Somehow, though, there’s never a bookmark at hand, even though I know there are a million of them around the house somewhere.
I am very much a bookmark person; I am also a perfume person. I get those scented strips at the perfume counters and use those as bookmarks. When the smell runs out I just spray on something from my collection.
Mucho fun, especially if I’m in a whimsical mood and try my hand at perfume/book matchmaking.
Jeeze, what do you use if you’re reading a book about the plague or a witch-burning?
I tend to use whatever’s at hand for my bookmarks. In a pinch, the metal tab from a soda can or a piece of styrofoam ripped from a cup will do. I really like bits of styrofoam, because not only does it keep the place obvious, but there’s little chance of slippage, and if I switch books in midstream, I don’t have to worry that the bookmark might stain the pages.
I would never, ever, ever,* ever *dogear a page. I once snatched a book from Hubby’s hands and bopped him on top of the head with it when I saw him doing it. “Bad Hubby! Bad!”
The first (and only) spanking I ever got from my mother was when I defaced a book. I guess it sunk in too well.
This doesn’t work as well when you are reading multiple books at once, however. Currently I am working on the third book of the Farseer trilogy, and the Demon Princes all at the same time. I just put aside the Stainless Steel Rat; before, it was all three.
And count me in as another who thinks worn and dogeared books are signs of love and enjoyment. You could easily pick which books I don’t like out of my shelves; they’re all in mint condition.
I like the perfume idea, but I’d have to keep track of my bookmarks before I could handle that!
Only recently did I start to use real bookmarks. I started picking them up on my travels around the world. Now I have a bunch and I use them. Usually I just put them in another place in the book while I read and then put them back to marking when I fall asleep at night.
I never dogear books, I know too many librarians. I just use a scrap of paper, I keep one next to my bed at all times.
I just got done reading a book (Confession of an Economic Hit Man) and I found a dog-eared page in the preface! Seriously, it was like on page three! WTF?
