Marking a place

     Time to take a breath after the contentious issues of the last two days and look at a less controversial subject, that of bookmarks. Being the obsessive person that I am, I'm quite particular when it comes to what I use to mark my place in a book. I've acquired a collection of bookmarks of different types but come back again and again to a few favourites. The teddy bear above has my initial embroidered on his jumper but that's just coincidence as he represents not me but the marvellous Perthshire hotel Kinnaird at which I've stayed. There's a bear in every room and they are used as 'do not disturb' signs. You can buy your own, too, but as they come at a price I made do with the card. Kinnaird Bear is currently sitting happily in the middle of The Right Attitude to Rain -  something one does well to have when visiting Perthshire!

     Two well-used and nicely softened leather bookmarks: the Isle of Man (my homeland) and Gun Dogs (not quite visible is the corner which was chewed, appropriately enough, by our spaniel puppy Hector). The dogs one is feeling at home in the pages of Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford where it has been for quite a long time, but not due to any boredom on my part, it's simply ongoing reading interspersed with lots of other things.

     All things bright and beautiful above are my Persephone bookmarks. These are the ones which come with the 'Quarterly' (or 'Biannually' as it is now), those which accompany the books themselves are carefully stowed inside each volume.

     Still going strong after daily use in my school hymn book, but a touch worn given its age and now minus its red silk tassel is this card marker which bears the words "I expect to pass this way but once, any good thing that I can do let me do it now for I shall not pass this way again".

     A sub-category of bookmarks would be those to be used in only one book or for one writer's work, and Mark Boxer's picture of Templer and Stringham is reserved for the "Dance"novels of Anthony Powell and for the companion volume Invitation to the Dance: A Handbook to Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time, given to me (as was the card) by a kind friend.

     I have said I am choosy, but others are not. An avid reader not unrelated to me (guess who), uses bus tickets to mark his place. I am aghast at this introduction of the lowly and the inevitably scruffy into the pages of good literature. He defends his appalling lack of taste by telling me that they are tickets from what is, according to Alexander McCall Smith, Edinburgh's superior bus, the No. 23.

     But what is the Cornflower readership's attitude to bookmarks? Ought they to be special, decorative, appropriate in some way, or are they purely functional and their form doesn't matter?

   

Comments

[Alice]

Unfortunately, Mummy has more than one degenerate bookmark-user in her immediate family: I will use anything that fits between the pages, for instance pens, random scraps of paper, bits of homework and receipts. They aren't even posh receipts, mostly being from Tesco. Sorry!

[Donna]

I too have some nice bookmarks, however they never seem to be at hand when I need them. So into the breech come scraps of paper, used envelopes,
strips of fabric and once a flattened toilet paper roll. I have even used one of those small plastic daggers that they stick in a piece of fruit that accompany a fancy drink. I guess you can tell, I am not that choosy about how my place is marked, but now I have seen your collection, I shall have to improve my page marking habits.

[Margaret Powling]

I love bookmarks but mine have to match not only the mood and content of the book, but also the colour of the binding and/or the dustwrap. Two favourite bookmarks are postcards of painting by the artist Patrick Adam (1854-1930). One is called Interior, Gribdae and the other is called The Green Tablecloth. They are, as their titles suggest, paintings of interiors of rooms, the kinds of rooms I just love to be in.
I also love Persephone bookmarks and I also use attractive greetings cards, either ones I've bought and cannot bear to part with or those I have been sent by friends and family.
I usually look for an appropriate marker even before I start to read a book so that I don't have to search for it when I want to mark my place.

[Simon]

Definitely with you on this one. I blogged about it in June - my name should link to it...
Now always use a Virginia Woolf postcard for Woolf books, and various others are in circulation. It can actually have quite an effect on how I view the book...

[Etsugawa]

I love bookmarks! I have some that I love, such as the Persephone bookmarks and some fabric swatches, but I do use plane ticket stubs, movie tickets and playbills as they appear, which may be a bit mundane but when I re-read those books later, I love to find this ephemera in my books that remind me of what I was doing then.

[Mr Cornflower]

Bus tickets are ugly but innocuous. My worst offence - only once - was using an oatcake on being called away from the kitchen table in a hurry.

[tara]

I love bookmarks! I used to have a collection - wonder where that is - lots of those cutesy bookmarks with tassels. The few I tend to rotate through include: a Japenese Geisha sent to me from a person I mooched a book from stationed on a Japanese base, a wire and beeded number I received as a gift, one that I 'stamped' at a stamping get-together, the Persephone ones - those have to go in just the right sort of book, and a few I picked up at Waterstone's at Piccadilly in 2001. I love the one with the bear above. I will say, I am not above using a scrap of paper or magazine-tear out if nothing is at hand...I've even used a ticket or airline boarding pass.

[Melissa!]

Lately I have been using bits of ribbon as bookmarkers. Last Christmas my girls & I made bookmarkers; ribbons w/ tassels & beads at either ends, wire w/ scrolls at the ends and embroidery thread w/ sweet beads at either ends. In secret, my girls made me a few for my stocking. Those I have been using since.
I am totally against dog-earring the corner to mark my place in the book but, if I own the book, will dog-ear the bottom to mark a line/quote/idea that I want to remember.
Regarding the rest of the family. my husband dog-ears while my daughters use either paint-chips or ribbons.

[Margaret Powling]

Just a PS to my earlier comment: whilst I would not dream of dog-earing a book, I'm not above making a comment in the margin, or underscoring a para, in pencil of course. If the next owner of the book doesn't like it, he or she can simply rub it out.

[Kathleen]

What a great post. I use my Persephone bookmarks mostly, they are always so charming.

[Claudia]

I tend not to bother, as I never know what to do with them when they are not doing their job, and they invariably get lost. I find that memorizing the number of my page works for me. Himself turns the corners down, which drives me utterly bananas, but then, there is nothing more depressing than an un-thumbed book, I suppose.

[Rebecca]

I think most of our bookmarks are made by the children and each one is a treasure. We get them to draw on appropriately sized pieces of paper and then laminate the artwork. I am working on getting them to stitch some too, using that sort of mesh type hessian stuff. It seems one can never have too many bookmarks, all to often I am forced to turn down a corner when I am a bookmark short.

[rosie]

Whilst I favour the carefully-chosen, much-cherished school of bookmarks my terrible habit of impulse buying new books at a rate of knots (coupled with being determined to start them now-this-instant) means that I use whatever is to hand. Thus the copy of Cranford I purchased this morning (inspired by a mention in that notorious volume of pinny-porn) has a ballband to mark my place.

[deeni]

tissues (clean, of course!)
this, in spite of the fact that I have dozens of persephone bookmarks, scenic view bookmarks from vacations, cute animal bookmarks, clever saying bookmarks...

[Nicola]

I'm afraid I turn the corner of the pages down. Even library books. Even books I've borrowed from friends. Funny, nobody seems to be lending me books lately ... I've just bought Decca, too, now it's out in paperback. Hoping to start it next week. Beautiful bookmarks, by the way!

[Nicola]

I'm afraid I turn the corner of the pages down. Even library books. Even books I've borrowed from friends. Funny, nobody seems to be lending me books lately ... I've just bought Decca, too, now it's out in paperback. Hoping to start it next week. Beautiful bookmarks, by the way!

[adele geras]

All the very best people are commenting on Cornflower! Nice to see Margaret Powling here...
But re. bookmarks, I collect them and the Persephone ones go in their books of course. Only when they are so to speak, at rest. When actually READING a Persephone book, I use another bookmark as I don't want the pretty one to get spoiled. Stupid or what? I also, like Margaret, use cards that I like the look of, and ones home made by libraries. One of my favourites, and it's laminated, has pictures of all my bookjackets on it and was made for me in fairly large numbers by a Year 6 girl called Katie in a school I visited. She and a computer knocked out dozens of these in the dinner hour! I was very grateful. I reckon nothing beats the old Bloomsbury ribbon attached to the book, though. All publishers ought to strive for that!

[adele geras]

All the very best people are commenting on Cornflower! Nice to see Margaret Powling here...
But re. bookmarks, I collect them and the Persephone ones go in their books of course. Only when they are so to speak, at rest. When actually READING a Persephone book, I use another bookmark as I don't want the pretty one to get spoiled. Stupid or what? I also, like Margaret, use cards that I like the look of, and ones home made by libraries. One of my favourites, and it's laminated, has pictures of all my bookjackets on it and was made for me in fairly large numbers by a Year 6 girl called Katie in a school I visited. She and a computer knocked out dozens of these in the dinner hour! I was very grateful. I reckon nothing beats the old Bloomsbury ribbon attached to the book, though. All publishers ought to strive for that!

[Peter the flautist]

I usually just remember the page number! Occasionally I use bookmarks from the independent bookshop that we frequent in London NW3, and I have a few "James Thin" bookmarks from my Edinburgh youth. I never fold page corners and never annotate in any medium. Occasionally I hold cookery books open at the correct page, when in use, with a 500g brass mass that I salvaged from UCLondon. Although clearly deficient in the bookmark collecting league, I do have a real Kinnaird Bear.

Literate Cat

[Suzanne]

I have to say I am one of the degenerates... any bit of paper that comes to hand is used to mark the pages - if it happens to be one of the many bookmarks I own (mainly Christmas gifts from m) then all the better. Generally though I keep one scrap of paper and use it for many books until it finally disintegrates and I get another one. A scrap of paper often fits much easier into a book and is less likly to fall out when the book is being transported to and from work.
I cannot fold the pages down though - just can't bring myself to do it. I also cannot write in books (except recipe books). Having to make notes in books at school so they could be taken into the exam pained me.

[Sheila]

Oh so delightfully British Isles lovely! A genteel discussions about bookmarks feels like antidote to i-this and e-that. Music to my ears. o mark my place, I go from the sweet (ribbons, lengths of yarn, art postcards) to the immediately practical (subscription cards that fall out of magazines, the odd receipt, a ticket fromm a skein of yarn. Can a chat about bookplates be far behind?

[Jill]

I have a diverse collection of bookmarks that I try to circulate regularly so that nothing gets more worn out than another. Some Persephone bookmarks, some bookmarks I made during a mad period of rubber stamps, one or two leather bookmarks that I actually don't care for much because of their bulk, and a brass one that has a Chinese happiness stone as a dangle. Only when I am rushed do I use the standard 3" x 5" card normally intended for note-taking...

[Nancy]

I also use postcard (those I just can't toss) and have a number of bookmarks from local bookstores. Once, I began a collection of bookmarks from bookstores in particular (always pick up 2 or 3, to share or trade - but haven't found any likely souls) - and add to it occasionally.

Actually, I have designed (on my computer) and printed out on card stock personal bookmarks - but haven't used them. I put them in books I loan out: "From the library of..." and decorated with a photo of me at age four (one I treasure). I have also done the same for friends - with images of interest to them.

I don't turn down corners - but do mark in books (certain things) - not all books, but certain ones.

[Margaret Powling]

Yet another PS from me! And nice to see Adele Geras here, too. All the best people, tee-hee, are fecthing up at Cornflower's site, are they not? By which I mean Persephone readers, of course.
Now - and Adele has pipped me to the post here - I was just about to say that I wondered what had happened to the silk ribbons which were always attached to bindings of new books years ago and which, apart from Bloomsbury, who do this, have disappeared. Of course, this would deny us the fun of finding an appropriate bookmark! Current reading is a biog. of H V Morton in which I have a lovely postcard (as bookmark) from my friend when she was recently on holiday in Brittany and it shows four photographs of hollyhocks which, she said, were everywhere in Brittany at that time; and a novel by Jane Elizabeth Varley in which is one of my precious Patrick Adam postcards.
Who would have thought that a topic such a bookmarks - not the books in which they go - could have brought in so many comments!

[Harriet]

I do like bookmarks but I'm not fussy and do use train tickets, tissues, receipts -- whatever comes to hand -- as well. At least no-one has come up with the ultimate degenerate solution reputedly used by Wordsworth -- he was seen using his piece of bread and jam as a bookmark!