Last week when I stopped at the library, I noticed a basket on the little table inside the door, filled with bookmarks. A sign on the basket said “A Year’s Worth of Bookmakrs. Please take one.” Turns out it was a collection of all the bookmarks found in returned books over the last year. Apparently they do this every year; I must have just missed it before.
There were a good 40 bookmarks in the basket and I was tempted to look through them all to see if any of them were mine. I expect with the number of library books I borrow that one or two bookmarks might have found their way to the library!
I have a cannister on my dresser that is filled with my bookmarks. I will always pick up a bookmark if one is being offered. (Ask Chris, I have several of his!) One of my latest favorites is a cutout of Smokey the Bear that I got at the state fair last year.
You’d think that with at least 25 bookmarks in my cannister that I wouldn’t need to take another one from the library basket. Well, you’d be wrong, I flipped through them all and picked out a striking one from a publisher with brightly colored book spines on it!
Do you have bookmarks? Do you have a place to keep your bookmarks?
Trail Baboon 
Good morning! I don’t have many fancy ones. The few I do have were gifts. I have several books with just pieces of scrap paper marking the page. Or I used to use those inserts in magazines (like postcards, but where you fill it out to receive a subscription or such). Whatever is handy and flat can be one a bookmark for me LOL
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Yes… those magazine inserts make terrific bookmarks!
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The library checkout slip works for me. It’s also a reminder to return the item promptly. Not much fancy. Remembering the page number also works.
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Yes, I do that too sometimes.
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(and I don’t mean remembering the page number…)
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Yeah, I laughed a little to myself when he mentioned remembering page numbers. In fact, if I have a book that has to go back to the library because it’s due before I’m finished with it, I put it on my spreadsheet and put the page number on it.
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Just about every book I order online comes with a bookmark from that store and books I buy in person also have bookmarks tucked inside at point of sale. So why do I have trouble finding a proper bookmark when I need one? Likely they are distributed throughout the books I have read and returned to the shelf.
We used to have a dish for available bookmarks. That has been emptied. Robin is also a consumer of bookmarks and if she uses them on library books, they may end up in the basket at the library.
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There are many online lists of things librarians have found in books, things likely used as bookmarks in many cases. Here’s one:
https://www.demilked.com/things-found-in-books/
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What a wonderful collection! Some are similar to things I found in books during our book sale…
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Oh, that was fascinating.
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What an interesting assortment of “bookmarks.” While most of the finds were probably left there unintentionally, some weren’t. Gives me the idea to leave a little “something” in the next books I put in a little free library.
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I’ve mentioned this once before on the Trail but two of the most interesting things I’ve found in books have been:
1. The program from the dedication of a Unitarian Church in Massachusetts at which Edward Everett was the keynote speaker. The program was in an 1850s volume of poetry by Nathaniel Parker Willis and, because it was in the book, was in pristine condition. The church is still in existence and I was able to contact the church historian and send them the program.
2. In a book about Abraham Lincoln I found a copy of The Sylvan Cabin by Edward Smythe Jones. Jones was an African-American poet and the poem was centenary ode commemorating Lincoln’s birth. The copy I found was a special edition produced for the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.
I was able to locate a woman putting together an archive of the Exposition. She didn’t have a copy so I sent her mine.
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Nice!
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Rise and Shine, Baboons,
I have bookmarks, several of them are bookmarks VS made and distributed. I like those. VS’ bookmarks are large enough to hang on to, and they have lovely images and words on them. The bookmarks are scattered throughout the house, but most are in the drawer of my bedside table because I read in bed. I never considered gathering them up and keeping them somewhere. My favorite bookmark and the one I have not lost or left in a book is Michelangelo’s David which I bought in the gift shop of the Accademia Gallery in Florence, Italy. It makes me feel like a worldly, adventurous traveler when I use it.
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Ugh, the sunrise was a smoky red this morning, which means the Canadian Wildfire haze is back. I usually have a very positive opinion of Canada, but really, they can keep this smoke. And their geese.
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Oh yes, I have a little box of bookmarks beside the couch where I often read. And a little pile beside my bed… My favorites are from well-known bookstores, like Birchbark in Mpls.
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I have lots of bookmarks scattered about the house. Somehow there’s rarely one handy when I need one, so other things get pressed into service.
A Danish friend from my former book club, travels a lot. She finds interesting bookmarks from various places she visits, and gives them as gifts to the rest of us when we meet, usually for lunch.
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Husband has a crocheted bookmark.
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I have quite a few bookmarks. Some were gifts and have artwork on handmade paper. I have some unique antique bookmarks that are in excellent condition. I have lots of bookmarks that are included in books when you buy them new, including three of Chris’s. I have some that are mailed to me as a “gift” in requests for donations to nonprofit organizations like Audubon. I have one that I treasure that came from a Northfield book store named, “Monkey See, Monkey Read” and is now history. Some I choose due to the size of the book, others just because I like them. I’ve used cash as bookmarks and for that reason, I always leaf through the book thoroughly before returning it to the library. I’ve also used the little receipts that you get when you use the self check-out because it includes the due date. I keep several in my handy and necessary cubby that is immediately to the right of my chair. (Which would make a good blog post… hmmm. Maybe I’ll write one.)
Crocheted book marks are beautiful if the yarn used to crochet it is very fine and the craftsperson was skilled.)
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I’d love to see that blog, Krista; hope you write it.
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I’ve got a couple of counted crosstitch bookmarks.
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I ended up purchasing two books last year for my other book club. Both were wretched. Before I put them into someone’s little library, I wrote Post-it notes, stuck them on the inside cover that said “this book is terrible. Only read it if you’re desperate.”
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Your career as a saleswoman is over.
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Snort!
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Going to bring you up to speed on two health issues of mine. One is my colon. I have had pre-cancerous polyps for the last three colonoscopies. But now I am having major issues, Have been fighting a 5 month battle to get Manakto clinic to address this. Finally they have given me an appt. next week. Right now I do not even want to eat. You do not want to hear the symtoms but they match everybody’s list.
Now today my specialist up in the Cities called about my MRI last week of the benign cyst on my pancreas but near the duct. It has grown. He has fit in an appt. for Wed. morning to “discuss options.”
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So sorry Clyde, this sounds like it just sucks.
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What she said. : (
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Sorry to hear all this Clyde.
I hope you have some good options.
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