Beyond Reality discussion

Do you use bookmarks? Tell us about them—where do you get them, what are they like, do you have a favorite? Which one are you using right now?

I'm trying to use them more to avoid folding the pages down. Mostly they're whatever I have gotten for free in the past (Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs are a big source for me).

I did buy a back of 50 from Amazon years ago. Pretty good and still around.

Most physical books that I read these days are either library books or second hand used books. So my bookmarks tend to the receipt from the library telling me when the book is due or the receipt from the used bookstore. Or in the case of a long read where I might need to go back to reread or flip to the back appendices, multiple post-it notes, like I'm doing with Anna Karenina. I sadly am one of those people who cannot keep track of nice, fancy bookmarks.

I have a desk drawers full of bookmarks—all kinds, from bookstore freebies to handmade markers to strings with beads on both ends to magnetic ones the “clip” onto the page. Right now I’m traveling, so I’m using a magnetic one form the American Cancer Society Relay for Life (I am less likely to lose a magnetic one since I can keep it attached to the book) & one that our cabin steward put by my books one day, advertising the cruise company.

I have a few favorites: three that were made with dried, pressed flowers from the casket sprays of my parents’ & sister’s funerals, a beaded one from a cancer survivors’ retreat, and one from Ireland.

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with bookmarks. They had display stands of them at the book store I used most often and I would beg to get a new one every time I got a new book.

They were all those rectangular cardboard ones with a tassel on the top. I always bought ones that were fantasy related. When i was really young, they almost always included unicorns, dragons, or similar fantasy elements. They also had whatever saying sparked my imagination. :)

By my later teens I had stopped buying them, mostly because I already had so many.

And then, through multiple moves, college, etc, I think I lost them all. Not sure what happened, but I don't remember if that bothered me or not. Also didn't buy any new ones because I was paying for college, I had no disposable income.

I started using any random piece of paper that was handy. Receipts were common, as were bus transfer stubs. A favorite of mine was a paper insert that had come in a box of mints. I liked using it because it smelled nice.

Over the years that became less and less necessary, as I moved to ebooks and audiobooks, which is pretty much where I am now. When I read physical print books, I still tend to fall back to using whatever scrap of paper is handy and the right size.

I never dogeared pages. Like my aversion to writing in books, I never liked damaging the books.

Random wrote: "They were all those rectangular cardboard ones with a tassel on the top. I always bought ones that were fantasy related. When i was really young, they almost always included unicorns, dragons, or similar fantasy elements. They also had whatever saying sparked my imagination. :)"

I bought oodles of those for my husband when we were dating—fantasy ones or cutesy friendship/love themes. I still use them but he rarely does.

I also used to buy lots of cool bookmarks when I was younger. I have a nice one that my mother-in-law bought me a bunch of years ago that's a thin metal version of a Mondrian painting, but I'm not sure where that ended up. I've got one or two magnetic ones hanging around somewhere... but these days I definitely lean towards the "random scrap of paper that was laying around" style of bookmark if I'm reading a physical book. I have too much else going on, I can't be bothered to go dig out a bookmark!

LaTrica wrote: "I'm trying to use them more to avoid folding the pages down. "
Oh My God
I go absolutely crazy when I see that. That and bending spines
Ha

I either try to remember my page or I have a small collection of bookmarks I pick up at the bookstore.
I have been slowly minimising my stuff in the apt and I found a huge cache of store bookmarks.

I always use bookmarks. I have a small basket by my chair that is filled with all the random bookmarks I have collected over the years.
Quite a few from Book Depository, or the local used book store. Also a few of those tasseled ones, though all of them have lost their tassels. I also have a whole collection of fancy metal ones that I bought as souvenirs. A few that I've gotten as gifts. I don't have any of the magnetic kind though, which seems to be a deficiency in my stash.
My Dad uses playing cards, he has a pack that lost a few so he just used them as book marks. A couple of those have ended up with me too.
I really like using airplane boarding passes when I'm traveling. Or any kind of transit ticket; trains, subway, bus...

I have so many bookmarks because they always end up in all the cookbooks I collect, marking all the recipes I want to make, but never actually get around to making, so they stay there for years.

Shout out to book darts! https://www.bookdarts.com

For years now I have used nothing else but a half-dozen of these on a rectangle of heavy paper. That way I can mark not only my page, but passages of note, without writing in the book or dog-earing.

My source of heavy paper is the set of thumbnail images from the back page of a calendar - pretty pictures.

If you live in the US I will gladly send you an example - I'm hooked and have bought them in bulk. Just PM me with your address.

Dawn wrote: "Also a few of those tasseled ones, though all of them have lost their tassels. ."

Those tassels were the bane of my existence. They always ended up falling off, then I would try to repair it, and then the tassels never looked right again, But, at the time, almost all bookmarks I had access to had them, so crooked tassels it was. :)

lol.

I had a few that were held together with elastics. But eventually those disintegrated and then I gave up.

Cheryl wrote: "Shout out to book darts! https://www.bookdarts.com

For years now I have used nothing else but a half-dozen of these on a rectangle of heavy paper. That way I can mark not only my page, but passage..."

I've seen these, but never tried them. I wonder if they might be a better option for my cookbooks. I should pick up some.

Cheryl wrote: "Shout out to book darts! https://www.bookdarts.com
"


In my period of studying languages, I used book darts a lot. Still have a couple of tins of them around. I like them aesthetically and they are good for marking places in books you need to return to over and over, so you don't have to move them, but I find them too fussy to remove and move for leisure reading.

The book darts remind me of the magnetic bookmarks I have. Might have to look into them.

I have bookmarks from Etsy, the most recent ones being Ragdoll (cat breed) designs. I also have embossed leather bookmarks with my initials from Etsy.

I oscillate between little magnetic ones (fir a ample purple with a black cat outline) and bookstore or library bookmarks

I just remembered, from years ago
I used to use Bus Transfers as bookmarks
These days it is all tap so transfers and not really a thing anymore

But that makes sense, Ken! Do you have any left, as a sort of souvenir? I've seen tickets, for concerts and for air travel, in books several times.

I have some of them I keep. In the last 10 years I have been pretty agressive in keeping stuff i have low.
I got rid of a lot of stuff, including duplicate bookmarks

Less clutter is good. Finding the balance is hard; I know because we've moved so many times we're always paring back.

I’ve never used bookmarks designed as bookmarks much. It’s usually a sticky note or a receipt. When I used to get my books from half price books, they would add their bookmark. I get most of my books now as library kindle books, amazon kindle books, or used amazon books (I’ll use the pick list for those.)

Cheryl wrote: "Less clutter is good. Finding the balance is hard; I know because we've moved so many times we're always paring back."
Always. Even when travelling it is a carry on back back only now.
My only vice for stuff is books and movies. And books are becoming more ebooks than physical. When I moved in to my Apt 25 years ago I almost died, yes I am using hyperbol, I had Monitor boxes full of books and had to lug them up 3 flights of stairs.

Ug. Glad you didn't die!