What do you use as bookmarks?

In My Humble Opinion
81

I take some of the free bookmarks from the book store every time I buy books. As a result, I have a collection from various new & used bookstores from places I’ve travelled throughout Canada, the US, Indonesia and Germany.

I also save all my ticket stubs from every opera, play, concert, gallery, museum and sporting event I go to. As a result, I’ve got quite an interesting collection that reminds me of things I’ve seen.

First ten, leafing through it -

Hilario Duran and his Latin Jazz Band
The Wizard of Oz at the Grand Theatre in London, ON
Nixon in China, Vancouver Opera
Carmina Burana, Ballet Victoria
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Canadian Opera Company
Alegria, Cirque du soleil
Toronto Maple Leafs vs. St. Louis Blues, Nov. 5, 1996 (!) (Toronto won, 6 to 3)
5 O’Clock Bells, Berkeley Street Theatre
Sunday in the Park with George, Shaw Festival
Le Sacre du printemps, The Cleveland Orchestra

I love having these little souvenirs in my books.

The one thing I can’t abide is seeing kleenex or toilet paper used as a bookmark. I know, intellectually, that it’s not going to be a used piece, but still, it just kinda squicks me out… Sorry, just one of my foibles.

82

Same here. Last time we played poker, I grabbed the deck with the 2 or 3 missing cards and shoved it into the basket on my desk for bookmarks. Those laminated cards are almost indestructable so I figure I won’t need to tear off a scrap of newspaper or an envelope flap for at least 10 years.

Several years ago I got a bookmark as a gift. It is a sheer ribbon with heavy glass beads attached at both ends. Lovely. Since I can’t hold onto small stuff like that with any regularity, I perceived it as a disposable. Well, it seems like that bookmark wants to hold onto me–every time I think I’ve lost it, it returns to provide an oh-so-pretty marker. Best thing about it is how I can hold onto one end and swing it around my finger so the beads are really flying! Worst thing about it is that, in my swinging, I always envision the beads flying off and cracking the TV screen. Hasn’t happened yet, but it’s bound to, someday.

The 9 of diamonds would never do that to me.

83

Just a bit of scrap paper - even a bit of Kleenex. Be sure to use clean tissue, otherwise you have paper glue.

84

I have a large collection from the library where I work and some special ones made for me by friends; I make my own laminated bookmarks at the library, and I save mementos and souvenirs if they are shaped like bookmarks - concert tickets or boarding passes, that kind of thing. One area of a bookshelf is dedicated to bookmark storage.

85

I am a major tea drinker. You know those little paper things tea bags come in? (Well, some tea bags). I use those. A lot. One time someone starting talking to me about a book they borrowed from the library and asked how I liked it. I asked, how did you know I read the book? They said, I found one of your tea-bag things in it…

I’ve also been known to use small sticky notes.

However, when I’m on a loose-leaf tea kick, and I’m low on tea bag things and sticky notes, I’ll resort to other things. When I reserve a book at the library it comes with a slip with my name on it, and yes, I use those. Except my conure is a Mighty Wrestler With Paper Slips so occasionally one of those is appropriated and returned in a state of shredded-gauzy-lace. In which case it’s back to using the card in the back of the book with a due-date stamped on it.

Most of the books I own already have an improvised bookmark (or two, or three) still tucked in the pages, so re-reading is no problem.

86

I have dozens, perhaps hundreds, of bookmarks, and they are nearly all different. I pick them up from bookstores much of the time when I go there to buy books. Charities sometimes send them in solicitation letters. At science fiction conventions and other such places there are usually giveaway tables with a variety of bookmarks promoting new books. There are other places and events that occasionally have piles of giveaway bookmarks. All of them are more interesting looking than the supposedly classy expensive bookmarks that cost a lot of money.

I certainly need a few because I’m always in the middle of a bunch of books at once. They usually last long enough for me to get through several books. I still accumulate too many so I include a dozen or so in Christmas or birthday presents to nieces/nephews/etc. My presents to them consist of a box of small items, usually including books, so it’s not surprising that they might have some bookmarks along with them.

I try in general not to waste the small giveaway items that I accumulate. I put away the calendars that charities send me and give them to my family at Christmas. I keep any rubber bands that come along with some items purchased at supermarkets and such, and I give the accumulated ones once a year to a friend who teaches art and who uses them for student projects. I keep the address labels (and occasionally the “To” and “From” labels for presents) that charities send me and use them.

87

Dogear or whatever is handy.

88

I’ve had my bookmark for more than 20 years - an ex girlfriend bought it for me when she was at Disneyland. It’s a piece of plastic the size and shape of a credit card, with the words “universal charge card” on the front over a picture of Mickey Mouse from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.