I also wanted to recommend the ALA store (American Library Association) website today. I ended up there last fall because I needed some good bookmarks, and for some reason, the Brownsville Public Library rarely has good sized ones or any at all. If they have any bookmarks, they are long ones that will bend easily or really skinny ones that I hate.
You might say that I am funny about my bookmarks, and I suspect other readers might be (or maybe it's just me). I adore them-- well some of them. I like them just so, and I like them disposable because they always get bent-- at least mine do. So, there is no point in a very nice bookmark for me. I like shiny or smooth on one side and paper texture on the other-- or both sides shiny. I also prefer it if the bookmark has quotations by favorite authors or poets. I'm not a big fan of the ones your granny laminated for you years ago that are fraying on the edges. In fact, the peeling on the edges drives me nuts. Oh, and I always like my books to have bookmarks in them-- not dog eared pages as markers. When I don't have a bookmark, the reading experienced is diminished for me. I remember being this way even as a young child.
Yes, I am crazy, and it's official now. So, we've gotten that out of the way.
Anyhow, I bought a set of 100 bookmarks on the ALA store website, and I'm still using them. I have at least 70 of them left. I reuse them until they get bent up more than I can stand (usually three or more books) and then I give them to my daughter if she wants them or I trash them. I got this set, and I love them:
http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=2447
And the whole glorious lot of bookmarks is here:
http://www.alastore.ala.org/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=161
How about you, dear readers? Do you make your own bookmarks, take free ones at your library, or do without? Do you love the paperbacks section in the library and/or do you need your bookmarks just so, or does this whole post make you roll your eyes or go, "meh"?
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4 comments:
This is a great post - no eye rolling from me!
Regarding bookmarks, I can't say I have an obsession for them (I reserve that for shower curtains - don't ask). I've been using the same bookmark for over 7 years now. It was made by my daughter in 2nd or 3rd grade out of index cards, and it looks like a moose (or some kind of weird animal with horns). I love it, and even though it's bent and one horn is now missing, I will use it until it disintegrates :)
I'm using a Beloit Fiction Journal bookmark right now. It has a picture of the cover of Spring 2009, Volume 22 on it. That's one of the great things about publishers' fairs--free bookmarks! And usually they have the submission guidelines on them so you'll know how to send in stories, poetry, etc., for publication.
Oh, that's a perfectly wonderful bookmark for reading Gothic stuff! I bet Angel (from _Angel_ and _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_) had a bookmark just like that one, minus the tiny cross, LOL.
I'm a collector, of books and comic books (not for the "money" but just the obsession--sigh, get me to a therapist...), and I find that I've developed a nice collection of 100+ bookmarks (often finding them in books I buy); I've got bookmarks from around the world, literally, and from bookstores that are no longer in existence. My favorite might be the Fisher Body (the company built bodies for cars in the early 20th century) that is some kind of pleather or the blue bookmark, given to me by my parents about 30 years ago, that has this written on it: "Imagination is more important than knowledge." Einstein
Granted, a $20 bill works nicely too, but I haven't seen one of those in month of Sundays.
Shaindel, the free bookmarks sound heavenly. I need to find one of those fairs. LOL.
D, it always gives me a thrill to find bookmarks in books from the library or that I buy secondhand. :)
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