Book ‘marks’?

I came across an amusing article about bookmarks, or shall we say: different ways of marking the spot you’ve been reading in a book. Isn’t that the same thing, you may ask.

The article is called Bookmarks: the definitive ranking, and although I had a lot of fun reading it, frankly I couldn’t believe what some people come up with for marking their passage. I’ll mention a few of them, with my personal viewpoint.

Apparently tearing out each page as you read through a book is actually a thing! Yikes!! Or tearing off part of a page to the spot you want to return to. I had never heard of this wanton destruction of the guts of a book, I guess until you’re left with nothing but the cover. So horrible I wanted to do the mental version of ‘la-la-la-la-la’ as I was reading the article.Laying a book face down with its pages spread to where you were >> See the quote by Anne Fadiman above. I think we’ve all done this at some point. It might not be the best for the book physically, but in a pinch it does the job – though not always. I’ve had books with springier binding jump back into their original position (more or less), or a book has fallen off the arm of a chair, e.g. and I’ve lost my place that way. So frustrating!Folding the book >> I’ve seen people do this with a paperback book while they’re reading it. I don’t know how they keep the book in that position to mark a page – do they put something heavy on top to keep it from unfolding itself, or put an elastic band around it? To me, if you’re going to all that trouble, you might as well just put in a bookmark.Tucking the dust jacket cover in between the relevant pages >> I’ve done that, although not for a long time because I rarely buy a book that comes with a dust jacket any more. I suspect such books are a bit of a dying breed, as the jacket invariably slides out of place and most people remove it as a nuisance.Dog-earing a page >> done that too, although never with a high-quality book.Using any object to hand >> Yup: pens, loose scrap of paper, my sleep mask…A book ribbon. These built-in book-markers are delightfully old-fashioned. I have collector’s editions of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, both of which include book ribbons. An elegant addition to a beautiful keepsake.

Proper, i.e. made for that function, bookmarks have a long place in history. The earliest existing bookmark was found near Sakkara, Egypt and dates from the 6th century AD, made of ornamented leather with vellum on the back and attached via a leather strap to the cover of a codex (an early form of a book; this one is called Codex A, MS 813 and is in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, Ireland). However, there is some evidence that bookmarks go back five centuries before that.

Bookmarks were used throughout the medieval era and usually consisted of a small parchment strip or a cord, attached to the edge of the book.

The first detached book-markers began to appear in the 1850s. In modern times these accessories were abbreviated to ‘bookmark’. Apparently historical bookmarks are quite valuable and are collected by antiquarians, along with other printed paper accessories, like ticket stubs, postcards, greeting cards, menus, newspapers, posters, sheet music and so on. For example, Titanic memorabilia has a massive collectible market, as you might imagine.

Perhaps one day my custom-designed bookmarks for my trilogy of urban fantasy novels will become collectibles

Some people take their bookmarks very seriously. There’s even an organization dedicated to them, the International Friends of Bookmarks. They state that “Membership is free of charge and qualifies for a subscription to our newsletters. It also enables you to write blog entries, articles and to display your artwork relating to bookmarks on our website.” If you’re interested in such matters, this would be the place to join like-minded individuals from around the world.

In the meantime, fess up about how you’ve marked your books to be able to return to the same spot. Inquiring minds want to know!

The post Book ‘marks’? first appeared on Erica Jurus, author.