Complementing my love of reading is my love of reading gadgets.
Most notably, bookmarks. I keep a ziploc baggie of them, and when I start a new book, sometimes it’s a real, time-consuming task to choose just the right bookmark to pair with it. Hey, people spend that kind of time on wine/cheese pairings. I think this is at least as legitimate.
Bookmarks are also my souvenir of choice when I travel. I couldn’t hunt up some of the more exotic ones, because they’re dutifully marking a page somewhere (since I’m reading so many books). But by my way of thinking, bookmarks are a) portable, b) memorable, and c) genuinely useful. Unlike a touristy keychain, baseball cap, or stuffed bear. These are from Maui, Gettysburg, and the Avenue of the Giants here in California.
Below are some of my favorites from Britain. L-R: the Bodleian Library, Oxford *swoon*; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Trinity College, Dublin (home of the Book of Kells).
I also have some bookmarks from other people’s travels. They’re presents that get used often but never worn out. They make me feel like I’ve traveled to Nicaragua, Honduras…and maybe even Middle-Earth.
Do you have a favorite bookmark? What does it look like? OR: locate the weirdest bookmark you can find on the Internet and link to it in the comments!
Wow! Can a person have enough bookmarks??? Books??Your article made me wonder what else people collect as souvenirs? I used to collect matchbooks when those were stamped with names of unusual places. Those have now gone the way of the dinosaur…So I started on miniatures, but those are not very useful, just adorable. Now I recall special memories with simpler things: a rock, a shell, a pressed flower…I’d like to hear about other people’s ideas! Thanks for getting this started!
I have lots of bookmarks too, but since I use them as a guide when reading, I prefer a certain size and feel. My collection isn’t as big as yours, but I have several stacked in a drawer. Also, while I used to like the tassel bookmarks, I have since gotten rid of them as the cats find them too tantalizing to resist.
I have a wonderful one which I will look for and let you know. I love the thoughts on it. Certainly don’t have as many as you but then I can only read maybe 2 books at a time. My brain at this point doesn’t stretch as it used to. ;-)You fave tia!!!
My favorite bookmark by far is my King Tut one 🙂 I got it when we saw the traveling King Tut exhibit in LA 5ish years ago. It’s one of the ones that clips on to the page, but this one only stick out over the page a tensy bit, so it’s perfect! Small, and doesn’t get knocked around or fall out 😀 It’s just a pretty little gold rectangle with a cut out of a Tut sarcophagus. I don’t use it for every book though, because I’m a bit afraid I’ll lose it!