Books on the Nightstand discussion
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BOTN #67 - Book Marks
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I'm a Post-It person myself! I use Post-Its as books-marks, as notes, as sectional markers (Before reading a book, I always go through to see how it's divided up and mark out sections. It's a way of making sure I read a book by a deadline if I'm reading it for a group.)I love having different sizes and colors of Post-Its!
I will also sometimes use something relevant to the book as a bookmark. For instance, our library system printed out postcards featuring Three Cups of Tea. On the reverse of the cards, there are announcements of special appearances related to the book. I use that post card as a book mark for the book and will keep it with the book even after I'm finished.
For Master and Commander, I had a diagram of a ship with all the parts labeled and, for one of the Austen novels, I kept a family tree on an index card!
I will also sometimes use something relevant to the book as a bookmark. For instance, our library system printed out postcards featuring Three Cups of Tea. On the reverse of the cards, there are announcements of special appearances related to the book. I use that post card as a book mark for the book and will keep it with the book even after I'm finished.
For Master and Commander, I had a diagram of a ship with all the parts labeled and, for one of the Austen novels, I kept a family tree on an index card!
I also love finding things in books. I get alot of books from local library book sales and I find lots of interesting stuff.
I always use bookmarks! I'm really meticulous about how my books look and so to have pages that are dog eared kills me. I also never crease the spine of my books even though I only read paperback. However saying this, if I borrow a book from a library it is totally acceptable to dog ear the pages as the books are already beaten up.
Any scrap of paper serves me as a bookmark apart from when I get books from www.bookdepository.co.uk as they send out funky bookmarks with most book purchases.
I wonder if the people pondering how to mark pages in a book are familiar with Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris - a collection of essays about books. It includes one called "Never Do That to a Book" in which she talks about the two kinds of book love - courtly and carnal. If you aren't familiar with this book, I highly recommend it. And I lean strongly toward the carnal.
Mod
I use scraps of paper or sometimes the bookmarks the library sticks into books. I do have a few pretty ones that I got from a bookmark swap. (crafty readers make them and then everybody gets a bunch of pretty bookmarks) I don't use them much because I lose my bookmark frequently so scraps work better. My husband for some reason uses dollar bills so I sometimes pick up a book and find money in the pages.
Mod
I don't mark in books - not even my name - but will use post it notes - especially for book discussion points.
Last year my library made a display of objects found in books - from Q-tips (not necessarily clean) to photos which will never see their families again.
A few years ago, I bought a book at Goodwill in which someone left a credit card receipt. The receipt gave me ALL the information I needed to abuse her account. Fortunately, the amount of ino on credit card receipts now is not as encompassing.
Linda
I have a love-hate relationship with marking in books. As my life and reading habits have changed dramatically with the opening of Paragraphs, I have had to change the way I treat books. Growing up, I learned to cherish my books and would never have even considered writing in or marking up a book. Most of my childhood books are still shelved in floor to ceiling bookcases at my mother's house and are in pristine condition. But, a number of years ago I discovered the Great Books Foundation and read a book by Mortimer Adler titled How to Read a Book. He equates the reading of a book to having a conversation with the author and encourages making a book your own by asking questions in the margins, highlighting passages, and annotating your reading. As I began some serious reading of the classics, which I had missed earlier in my life, I found his advice made these works come alive. It is easier to read Plato and Aristotle with pencil in hand!But now that I live in a bookstore everything is for sale and my erudite comments end up reducing the resale value of any book that eventually makes it to the sale floor.
So my conclusion is there are no hard and fast rules. Some favorite books I will keep by my bedside or near at hand with my box of reading aids -- glasses, post-it's, highlighter, colored pens, and reading journal. Others I will read with clean hands and keep in their original and pristine condition.
I do get quite a few books dropped off that are missing the dust jacket. This doesn't make sense to me. The dj is meant to protect the boards of a book and I always wonder what happens to them. Many of these are new titles so I don't think the jackets have had time to become tattered or soiled. Any ideas where these dust jackets go?
Joni wrote: "I have a love-hate relationship with marking in books. As my life and reading habits have changed dramatically with the opening of Paragraphs, I have had to change the way I treat books. Growing up..."I have one idea where a dust jacket may go. My husband is a fanatic when it comes to a book ( no writing in it, no bending pages, no reading in the bathroom, even putting a book down too hard is offensive.) He also believes that the jacket should stay pristine so he takes them off while reading the book. Sometimes,however he will misplace the cover before the book is done. I find many jackets without books, and books without jackets. He has so many that it takes a long time to find a match.
I'm a school librarian, so I always tell the kids to use a bookmark, even if it's a scrap of paper. I can't dog-ear pages EVER--it's just been ingrained in my brain as a big fat no-no.I will, however, write in books sometimes, especially if I want to remember a quote or a happening in the book (I was also an English major in college, so marking up books was par for the course). As far as book jackets go, sometimes my kids have a terrible time dealing with them and THEY take them off to read the book and 9 times out of 10, I will get the book jacket back.
I'm an English teacher so I am a big fan of writing in books. I make notes for discussion, mark quotes I want to talk about etc. If I really want to immerse myself in a book, I go pencil in hand. I actually require my students to make book notes. (we use post it notes because the books belong to the school) However, lighter reads, just for fun types, I never mark. Love it when I get a used book with notes in the margin. I am adding another person to the conversation with the author. Sometimes these notes points out things I would not have noticed or cared about.
Joni wrote: "I have a love-hate relationship with marking in books. As my life and reading habits have changed dramatically with the opening of Paragraphs, I have had to change the way I treat books. Growing up..."I always take the dust jackets off my books before I loan them to someone else. This way I know what books someone has not returned. Apparently these are my books you see without their dust jackets. :)
I've become rather obsessive about using bookmarks. I have a bunch of scrapbooking supplies, so I make my own bookmarks with colored cardstock. I cut the paper in half lengthwise (5-1/2"), then cut it into 1-1/2" strips. Any book I bring into the house, bought or borrowed, immediately gets one of these bookmarks on the first page of text. It's easy for me to tell which books are unread because of the bookmarks. I used to always dog-ear. I'm not sure why I switched to bookmarks.
I usually buy the ones that one can purchase at a store. I know its cheesy, but for me its a saying or a picture that attract me to the bookmark. I also use postcards, scraps of paper, lists as bookmarks. I have even used an old thing of Fisherman's Friend as a bookmark.I sometimes find old library receipts or other things that are stuck in books that I borrow. And yes, I do dog-ear my books from time to time. I think I need to learn how to make my own bookmarks.
I used to dog-ear books when I was younger, but for the longest time now, I've been using bookmarks. As a matter of fact, I have a large stack of bookmarks even though I only probably need three or so. I like collecting bookmarks and like Ann when I was a kid, I could always count on getting a bookmark when we (my mom and I) went to the bookstore.I don't like the metal ones so much as they tend to fall out and thus lose my place. Kind of makes them pointless, but still pretty.
Greetings fellow readers.Bookmarks.. hummm they always seem to be on the gift list to give me..but I don't like those beaded things that hang around..flopping around. I don't dog ear pages, my mom would slap me! Even tho she's gone and I am soon to be 61! Use anything scrap of paper, 3 x 5 cards, mail in cards..
I make bookmarks out of the cards I get..Christmas, birthday..ect. Just trim them out of the folding part and there you are.
I also loved this podcast, there are so many different opinions on the subject. I have always cherished my books, handled with care if you will. I love them dearly and therefore refuse to hurt them in anyway. I won't dog-ear or write in them, ever! I feel like stopping to write something makes the reading more disjointed for me. I teach 8th grade Language Arts and I try to teach my children to care for the books the same way I would. They think I'm a fanatic but these books have to last me years. Everyone feels differently though and as long as you're not destroying someone else's book it's all good. :)
I've made my own bookmarks out of ribbon and beads. They look fantastic. I got the idea when I saw some at Borders, however, at Borders, they are priced ridiculously and it cost less to make my own and I've sold some to friends. But usually I find a random piece of paper, a receipt or usually Post-Its. I try to keep my books as if they have never been read... which is sad in a way, but I hate creases and dog ears.
I always have to have a bookmark. It is sacriligious to me to "ruin" or "deface" a book. I majored in English and one of my professors used to pick on me because I wouldn't even highlight in my textbooks. I wrote everything out in nice neat notes on notebook paper and referenced back to page numbers. Granted, often times the bookmark may be nothing more than a receipt or straw paper but I refuse to fold down a page. When I finish reading a book, it still looks brand new.
This is odd..but I have a collection of bookmarks and when I pick a book to read I try to "match" it with the perfect bookmark, whether it's because the color matches the cover of the book or its style reminds me of the book. I never use a scrap of paper to mark my page..I guess it's all part of the reading experience for me. I once left a book in a rental car I was returning and I was more upset that I had lost the bookmark than the book, as I knew I could get another copy of the book, but I would never find that exact bookmark again!
Was I ever glad to read this post! Thought I was the only one who did this. I have about 35 bookmarks. Part of the fun of beginning a new book is to rummage through the bookmark collection and find the best match. I also put a post-it inside the front cover, esp if a library book, to jot down page numbers of passages I want to go back to.
Mod
I use the post-it especially for book discussion points and for words I want to look up.
(Linda)
And I use the post-it to mark the last line I read. What - I'm old and can't remember where I left off, especially if I've been reading in bed and nodding off!
If anyone is ever in the Portsmouth, NH area, there is a great little used bookstore called Second Run. In it, they have a couple of walls that are dedicated to the things found in books- there's always a small group of people gathered. Lots of airline tickets, receipts, and scraps of paper, but there are also newspaper cut-outs, letters, report cards, and other things. It's fascinating, actually.Myself, I was a chronic dog-earer up until very recently, when I started making a point of using bookmarks. I even bought myself a pretty metal one as incentive to use it... unfortunately, it really only works well in hardcovers, but I have my Annie's markers for the paperbacks.
Callie, walls dedicated to things found in books-- how interesting. I often get my books from the library and usually I find patrons' library checkout receipts and once I found a greeting card that some kids gave to their grandma.I collect bookmarks. There are such pretty ones available. I pick them up as souvenirs when I go on trips and I found some nice ones at thrift stores.With magazines, I often fold the page in half to mark my place. My brother gave me a purple leather bookmark with a quotation engraved on it for my b-day in 2003 and that's what I use now for books.
Shona, I know what you mean. I've returned library books with bookmarks in them and sometimes it's tricky to track the book down especially if it's a inter-library loan.About the book left in the rental car, did you ever contact the rental car company to see if they found the book or somebody turned it in?
Mod
Not that long ago, I bought a book at Goodwill which had a credit card receipt in it. This one was old enough to have ALL the information I needed, if I was dishonest, to loss up the women's credit - her name, phone number, card number, address, etc.
Each year when I run the library book sale, I found oodles of "bookmarks." I always am sad when I find photographs. This year the most often found marker was Kleenex (unused).
Linda, A USED Q-tip? Ewww! I use magazine subscription cards as bookmarks quite often. Sometimes I use those perfume scent strips from magazines. My 5-yr old loves those. She goes thru my magazines looking for them and when she finds one, it's "mama I found another smelly!" She'll smell it, close her eyes, and say "aaah" :)
I usually find myself using the receipt for the book for my bookmarks. For library books either my library receipt or a scrap of paper. I do always use bookmarks...I too don't "dog ear" my books. (Dog ears belong on my Edie not on my books :-)) The great thing of the e-readers is I don't have to worry about bookmarks.
Mod
That is a good idea about using post-it notes. I usually use business cards. They're free, you can find them almost everywhere, and sometimes they may even hold sentimental value of the place I got them--a vacation, etc. And some of them are just beautiful.I cannot, WILL not dog ear pages.
I have a bookmark my Dad got for me for Christmas. That's my favorite bookmark that I use for all of my books. It's currently misplaced (hoping it fell out in the car) so I'm using a bookmark one of my kids made for me. :)
I had a bad bookmark related happening yesterday- I was taking a vacation day to read my book in the sun... next thing I know, I wake up with my book open butterfly style on my lap... and the pages had started separating from the binding, first 50 pages or so are completely seperated. Poor book.
I use ticket stubs from theatre tickets. We have subscriptions to several local theatres so I have plenty laying around.
I prefer scraps and old-fashioned paper bookmarks to any of the fancy new ones available in stores. All the beads and string and metal, etc., honestly get on my nerves. They flap or stick out and don't make help with portability. I've never dog-eared a hardcover, but will bend the corners of trade paperbacks. Its not something I do consciously - I must be a hardcover snob at heart!
By the way, here's a great blog on strange stuff found between the pages of used books.
http://www.forgottenbookmarks.com