bookmarks--what do you use?

What do you most commonly use to mark your place in a book?

I had a cross-stitched bookmark I made that I used for years, but then I started misplacing it. In my desk are several bookmarks, but I often cut up an old greeting card or use an airline boarding pass (although I dropped my last one in the toilet the other day--so now you know where I read sometimes!)

Anything that I get my hands on. Library receipts, informational bookmarks that the library hands out, toilet paper (it must be a popular reading place), post it notes, memos, you name it!

I like actual bookmarks; there's a pile of them next to me on the desk. I do tend to leave them in books when I finish them, though. As I go through the library cataloging, I keep finding abandoned ones to rescue, so the little stack has grown.

If an "official" bookmark is not at hand, I'm most likely to use a receipt, either from the book purchase or from the library check-out. Beyond that, anything that's handy and flat. Cataloging my husband's books, I found a lot of receipts, plus a trove of Bay area bus transfers from the 1970s. The receipts are handy; I can record date acquired from them.

Post-it notes (which were originally conceptualized as bookmarks that wouldn't fall out, BTW) are reserved for marking passages, as I am squeamish about marginalia.

Business cards, ticket stubs.

DOG EAR

I use whatever scrap of paper is at hand, most often post-its.

I would like to start a collection of bookmarks so I always have a bunch of them available, but all the bookmarks I can find to buy are such crap and I haven't tried making any yet.

Old punch cards (yes, I still have a stack of those). Also very handy for taking notes on the book I'm reading, so it increases my review rate a lot.

I'm like quite a few people in that I use just about anything that's at hand, but post-it notes are my favorite because when I'm reading the book, I can slap it on the back of the book and not lose it.

Most reference books and especially dictionaries ,guide books and street directories/guide books have incorporated thin or flat cotton-fabric colored string or cotton or silk-fabric strip to use as a book mark.I will have a self-made bookmark with a length slightly longer than the book's length, and about an one-inch width made from any paper's material.Dog-earred book pages are very unsightly "appearance" of a book and not an advisable practice.

Let's see... From the three books in my rucksack; there is one proper card bookmark advertising a bookshop, a currency conversion chart for Pounds to Euros, and a receipt for groceries.

I was in a local craft shop recently and found a new source of bookmarks http://www.sheeppoopaper.com/shop.asp?cat=6

Sounds fun to me!

For some reason I end up using a lot of old movie tickets. I've had the stub from Slumdog Millionaire for months. I'm pretty sure I even have one from 1408 still floating around in a book somewhere....

I currently use an iTunes gift card. But I have used just about everything to mark the page. I just never dog ear, I get confused to easily when there are a lot of dog ears in a book.

I have a small obsession with the Barnes and Noble metal bookmarks with the quotes on 'em. If the quote seems relevant to the story I leave it in the book. They also have rose wood bookmarks that I like to use for books involving faeries.

just about anything, I lose bookmarks and yes Shamefully I do bend the page corners over

If you use $50 notes as bookmarks, you're less likely to lose them.

#17: if you use 50 $1 bills instead you are more likely to find one when you need it.

I had a friend who regularly parked money in books for safe keeping. Then she would "find" it just when she needed it!

>#19: good idea, but they withdrew $1 bills from circulation here a while back, we only have $1 coins. I can't fit more than 10 of them in a book at a time. On the positive side, it makes for a spectacular show when i open the book again. Particularly over a tiled floor. Ka-ching!

Another alternative is to use another (smaller) book as a bookmark. That way, if you lose interest in the book you're reading, you just start reading the bookmark instead. Unfortunately, it raises the vexing issue of what to use for a bookmark in your bookmark book.

Possibly a small pamphlet on Universal Suffrage?

And inside that...

I have sooo many bookmarks. I just keep adding them and I use them all at once. I have books marks advertising film and book releases, bookmarks with definitions on, waterstones bookmarks and some are just scraps of paper, receipts, concert tickets and movie stubs. I don't know how they get in there.

I was working in a middle school when the movie "The Lord of the Rings" came out. We received a shipment of bookmarks with characters on both side so I kept a set for myself. For another movie tie-in, I was given a metal "sorting hat" book mark but I can't find it anymore and I would kick myself if I gave a book away with it inside. I made some bookmarks with clouds of YA authors created by wordle.net, printed onto card stock and covered with scraps of Kapco covers. They are all different and the kids go through them to find one with their favorite author.

I have soooo many bookmarks. I get them everywhere and guess what marks my current two books? One is the insert I got with my new debit card (which I will never read.)The other is a receipt from grocery store. I'm lazy and the bookmarks are sooo far away from my recliner where I read. On the side, I used to call them bookmarkers until I found no one else did. Is that strange?

My favorite bookmarks were ticket stubs from Thalian Hall productions in Wilmington, NC. We usually went with another couple, and it was a memento of that evening and the performance. I had two stubs laminated back-to-back, and loved using them. Unfortunately, I believe I left most of them in library books, and I am down to two. The others are postcards that friends send from all over the world, and I like the BookMooch bookmarks.