How Do You Bookmark?

Unless you’re a rabid bookworm with spare time sitting in bottles on your bookshelves who reads all books in one sitting . . . you are probably like me and have to use bookmarks. So I want to know . . . how do you bookmark? (Tweet this!)

There are many ways to accomplish the deed. Many bookventurers have their own bookmarking style. Let’s examine them, shall we?

The “Random Item” Bookmarker

Toothpicks, cell phone, hair ties, butter knives, receipts. You name it, it’s a bookmark. Sometimes I think I should start an Etsy shop to sell my spare receipts as bookmarks. (Actually, I never think that.) I used to do this all the time until I became an author. Now I have giant stacks of A Time to Die bookmarks sitting around with font too small for anyone to read (because I had no idea what I was doing when I first made them.)

But at one time, I’d use money. Usually because I had crumpled little dollars in my purse and I knew that I’d never misplace the book, therefore the dollar was safe. I used a $20 bill once in a book I DNFed and then found it eons later. Best. Surprise. Ever.

The “Dog-ear” Bookmarker

bookmark-dogear
There is this thing that villainous monsters do to books called . . . dog-earing. There are even some people who will dog ear a book solely for the sake of taking a picture for her blog. *shifty eyes.* Aaaaanyway.

As a kid, I’d dog-ear all my favorite scenes and sometimes even double-dog-ear. (No, not double dog dare, double dog ear. When you dog-ear one side and then have to dog-ear the other. It’s an art.) Anyway, I don’t dog-ear anymore because I find out that a fairy dies every time a child dog-ears a book. (Us adults, however, are safe. But to bring awareness to the fairy cause, I’m abstaining from such a practice of dog-earing.)

The Non-Bookmarker

These are the people who bookmark with their brains. (Gross, right?) They just magically remember everything about the story and can simply find their place when they need to. (Um . . . what? Can I have that superpower, please?) Or, on an even more super-bookworm level . . . they read the book in one sitting. I’ve experienced that only a handful of times and I was a gravel-eating zombie for the days that followed. Bad idea. BAD IDEA.

The “Book-Abuse” Bookmarker

Some people are above bookmarks. They just plop the book, spine up, anywhere they please and expect the poor thing to retain its shape later. *am guilty of this* This bookmarking technique is especially useful if you realize you left the oven on, or if you have to rush to answer the door (FOR BOOKMAIL!!) or if you suddenly need to eat an Oreo. (Let’s face it, we always suddenly have to eat Oreos.)

bookmark-spine-up

The “Normal Bookmarks” Bookmarker

Okay, someone out there decided that a long rectangular piece of paper would be the official “bookmark” of the world. And then all the creatives out there were like, “Let’s decorate them!” And thus, the amazing bookmark art was made. I like bookmarks, but I lose bookmarks. So if I have real cutesy ones I won’t dare to use them in a book, which totally defeats the purpose.

BUT . . . bookmarks are glorious things. And I’ve found a solution. Let me put on my author hat for a second: You probably saw in my newsletter that there are now adorable little bookmark characters for my Out of Time Series! They were made my Happy Hello on Etsy and today the entire set has been revealed!

Happy Hello Bookmarks-Out-of-Time-Series

From left to right: Parvin, Reid, Solomon, Jude, Skelley Chase, Willow, Elm

Glorious things about these bookmarks:

  • They’re so cute you could eat them. (But they wouldn’t taste good unless your tastebuds are dialed in to cardstock)
  • They’re magnetic so they don’t fall out of your book! (Aka: harder to lose.)
  • They can remind you what characters look like. If you’re like me, you totally forget every character’s description (unless it’s Harry Potter, or unless they have a cool scar.)
  • You can talk to them about the book. Because, as we know, no one else understands. (Except other bookworms . . . and they talk to their character bookmarks, too.)
  • They’re, like, $2 each. YOU’RE BUYING A FRIEND FOR TWO DOLLARS. ? Can’t beat that, my friends.

In case you want to own this little Out of Time family, just pop on by Happy Hello’s Etsy shop and buy the set! Or, if you just want individual characters, you can shoot the shop maker a direct message. 🙂

parvin-blackwater-happy-hello-bookmark

These are only here for a limited time! Once she runs out, they go out of stock. *don’t panic* (Just kidding…totally panic.)

That’s all I’ve got on the topic of bookmarks for today. I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot of different bookmarking techniques, so it’s your job to remind me in the comments. As long as we’re reading books and not losing our places, the world may continue to go around. (And if it ever stops, I’ll try to write an apocalyptic novel before I die.)


So tell me…how do you bookmark?

 

 



About Nadine Brandes

NADINE BRANDES once spent four days as a sea cook in the name of book research. She is the author of the award-winning ROMANOV, FAWKES, and the Out of Time Series. Her inner fangirl perks up at the mention of soul-talk, Quidditch, bookstagram, and Oreos. When she's not busy writing novels about bold living, she's adventuring through Middle Earth or taste-testing a new chai. She and her Auror husband are building a Tiny House on wheels with their Halfling children. Current mission: paint the world in shalom.
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20 Comments

  1. ACK I LOVE THEM THEY’RE SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!
    I actually loooove real bookmarks and rarely use anything else. If I can’t find a bookmark, I’ll just grab an index card and use it instead. 😀

  2. How I bookmark is I remember the page number. *laughs evilly about my superpower* And you ALWAYS need an Oreo! Except, my mom is against anything non-healthy or non-organic. *groans*

    OHMYGOODNESSTHEY’RESOCUTE!!!!!!!!!

    • Your mom is wise. Your mom is healthy. Listen to your mom. I should listen to your mom, too.
      *runs to store to buy Oreos*
      Well…guess I’m hopeless. 😛
      So glad you like my little reading buddies!!!!

  3. I am a dedicated dog-earer. Yes, yes, I know. But I like to mark pages that had a quote or a scene I really like on it…and there’s way too many of those in most of my favorite books for normal bookmarks!

    That being said, I am occasionally a random-item bookmarker. And I do use a normal bookmark for the place I actually stopped reading (gotta differentiate from all those dog-ears quickly, you know!).

    Currently my favorite bookmarks are paint color strips I, uh, may or may not have snagged from Walmart. 😛

  4. I’ve used every method you mentioned here and the factor seems to be two-part.

    For most books, I grab whatever’s handy. The envelope the last electric bill came in. A scrap of paper. A photograph (I’m also an artist, so there are sometimes photographs lying around.) If the book is a library book, I usually use the due date receipt for the bookmark. That way if a book takes a long time to read, I can check the bookmark and see how much time I have left.

    For more important books–like my Bible–I fold a small Post-It Note in half and use that. They’re small and fit into even the smallest books.

    And they’re colorful. That artist thing again!

  5. Nadine, you’re a hoot! (And that is a good thing, if you weren’t sure.) 🙂

    To be honest, I don’t read too many actual books anymore because I have a kindle, and I am usually too cheap to buy real books. When I do, however, I am a combination of the normal bookmarker, the random item bookmarker, and the non-bookmarker, usually in progression. So I like to start out with pretty bookmarks, but they are usually lost by the second pick-up of the book. (The problem is: what do you do with the bookmark while you’re reading the book? You can’t hold it in your hand the whole time, and if you set it down, you inevitably lose it.) Then after I’ve lost the pretty one, I resort to random items, favorites being napkins or Kleenex. Eventually, those get lost as well, and then I use my brain to keep track of where I’m at, which admittedly sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t, depending on the length of the interval between readings and perhaps on my brain functionality on any given day. 🙂

  6. *shudders* My little brother is a book-abusing type… He plops it spine-up on the floor and slides it under the nearest piece of furniture.

    I’m the “random items” kinda person… Sorta. There’s always some kind of paper lying around, so I pick up random pieces of paper to use as bookmarks.
    Except. I actually really like having real bookmarks. *hugs A Time to Die bookmarks*

    Oooooh. Those bookmarks are awesome. ^-^ *wants them*

  7. These are super cute. I’m mostly a scrap paper bookmarker. /hangs head/

  8. Those bookmarks are AMAZING!!!! Now we just need the movies!!!!!!!! I bookmark either with no bookmark or this really obnoxious covers that go on the outside of hard covers. Anyway, it’s great to hear from you as always

  9. LOL! Next step, movies. No big deal. 😉 😉

  10. Ahhh I love the little guys. i need to buy them. And I can remember the chapter and pages 😛

I love hearing from you!