Bookmarks

One of the things that I like buying are bookmarks. I especially like pretty, unusual bookmarks, even though this sort usually means that the book will be taking a beating along the spine (and thus don’t get used too much). I have the ordinary sort, such as this one shown here, given by Caroline. They come in interesting designs and are great also for quickly marking where you are to get a bite to eat or something–I stick the bookmark just below the line I’m leaving, with the length perpendicular to the page, so that I can easily get back to reading after a few minutes.

The downside is that they’re usually made of thick paper or board, and sticking it into the spine isn’t usually going to be very good for the books in the long run. Of course, I have even thicker variety, such as this one of a poor pig becoming roadkill (how morbidly cute is that), given by my sister (click on the photo for a bigger image). I use it for my planner, as in the photo. It does eat into the space a bit, but people who see it while I’m using my planner as usually have a few words to say about it.

Another example is the portable ribbon sort, such as this one, which I bought myself (click on the photos to view bigger images). The bookmark itself is an elastic cord looped around itself, with a kind of tail for the “ribbon”. The book goes inside, as in the photo. This is even more saddening for the book, but for prayer planners like this one it’s good–it’s easy to find the right page in the morning when you’re still groggy ;)

On the up side, I don’t use bookmarks all that often — I can use random paper lying about (the most usual culprit are receipts), and more often I just remember the page number (or thereabouts), and I’m good to go. I usually read a few paragraphs to a page back to get my bearing again when picking up on reading anyway.

I wonder if bookmark usage is something I take for granted–that everyone else uses bookmarks the same way I do, or maybe there’s some technique in bookmark-fu that I haven’t yet found out. How do you use bookmarks?