Thursday, November 10, 2016

Musings and Ponderings: Bookmarks

Welcome to a new instalment of posts! I'm calling these my Bookish Musings and Ponderings, where I pick a topic related to books and talk about them. I welcome any and all discussions, so please leave comments!





I love physical books. Given the choice between physical and electronic books, I will 100% always choose physical books. There's just something...more real about them, you know? Like the worlds inside them physically exist, because the book physically exists too.

Which leads me to today's discussion topic: bookmarks!

Just what is a bookmark? Well by definition:






A pretty accurate definition, no? But I want to focus on one part:

"A strip of leather, cardboard, or other material used to mark one's place in a book."

I personally don't use strips of leather or cardboard as bookmarks. I use other stuff. I know there are tons of people who use anything--and I mean anything--as a bookmark. I do that too when I can't find my bookmark. Like receipts, pens, bracelets, rubber bands, etc. But I have a set of bookmarks I prefer to use, which I will be sharing with you today!

First up, I have these metal ones. They're actually all gifts I acquired throughout a few years. They all have inspiration quotes on them (you might have to zoom in on the picture to read them). I love the strands tied at the top, especially how multicoloured they are. They make great colour accents since they hang out of the book! I use these bookmarks for my own personal books, and because of that, I have a tendency to pick the bookmark by how the colour of its strands matches the cover of the book. Sometimes I like them to match, other times I like them to contrast just to make a statement. ;)






Next up, I have these laminated bookmarks. Three of them were actually individual birthday gifts coordinated by some very dear friends of mine (thank you so much Queenie, Anushya and Joyce--I love you guys. You're the best of the best, and I couldn't have asked for better friends <3), drawn and laminated by them! I'm one of those people that stick bookmarks fully into books, rather than leaving the top sticking out (unless there's something at the top that's made for sticking out). I use these bookmarks for mainly for library books or school books, because if the pages are dirty, I can easily wipe/clean these bookmarks (so I'm slightly germophobic--sue me).








And then I have these bookmarks! You place these along the inside of the pages and they stick up at the top. Actually, the one with the moon and the star is supposed to wrap all around the book, but I found that the elastic wasn't long enough, and more often or not ended up straining the pages, so I just use it as one long bookmark. 






And lastly, I have my miscellaneous bookmarks. Actually, I only have one. It's a called a Zippermark, and is super cute! Basically, the very top of it sits on the pages, so when you hold the book sideways, it looks like there's something on the pages. I've seen other bookmarks online that resemble this one, but had the words "I'm Reading" or "To be Continued..." on them instead of the zipper pattern, but I have no idea where I could possibly get them!







So that's it for this bookmark post! What kind of bookmarks do you guys use? Do you collect bookmarks? Any bookmarks you like in particular? Do you ever try to colour-coordinate your bookmarks to the books, or is that just me? What do you think of having quotes on bookmarks? Let me know!





(P.S. If you guys have any suggestions for other book-related musing posts for me, please let me know in the comments! I'm trying to do more book musing posts, not just reviews and tags. Thanks!)



17 comments:

  1. Wow! Love this! I'm definitely going to buy some fun bookmarks in the future (:
    P.S. That Shugo Chara bookmark is SUGOI!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Tokki! I hope you'll get some fun bookmarks like mine soon :) Haha, yes, that Shugo Chara bookmark is quite unique and sugo, isn't it? ;D
      Thanks so much for dropping by my blog!

      Delete
  2. Ooh I really like the moon bookmark! I like to use cards from a deck as my bookmarks and people always look at me weirdly, haha :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha, I've done the same where I've actually used another book as a bookmark (it was a really thin book, and I just stuck it into the book I was reading while I looked for a better bookmark). I don't think using cards is weird! They're the perfect shape to be used as bookmarks :)

      Delete
  3. I like this post! I’ll make sure to look out for more like these in the future! :D

    ReplyDelete
  4. Considering I read on my Kindle 95% of the time, I'm one of those girls that will use whatever's around to mark my page the rare time I read a physical book, haha :P Although I do have this magnetic bookmark that says "Woo hoo, It's time to read!" with owls on it which I do admit is really damn adorable. Plus, do you ever order books off Book Depository? They always give out bookmarks created by shoppers and they're really nice too :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh my gosh, your bookmark sounds so cute! The quote on it plus the owls makes it adorable :)
      Book Depository gives out bookmarks? I didn't know that! I've never used it before, but not I'm even more tempted to start!

      Delete
  5. PS you could also do a post on hardback vs paperback, or physical books vs kindle!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ahhh, that's a great idea! Thank you so much for the suggestion, Sinead! :)

      Delete
  6. Oh my...
    WOW.
    :O
    Your bookmarks are so awesomly beautiful!
    They make me want to reach out into the screen and grab them.
    Some fine collection of bookmarks you got there, Erika. If you ever plan on selling\donating some... I'm in ;)

    I especially love the zipper one - SO COOL!
    Compared to that... the only meaningful bookmark I have is a magnetic one I bought at the book store '^^

    One day I'm goint to move to a country where I can buy actual physical english books.
    They say if you say something enough times... it will come true (:

    I love this new instalment of yours - keep it up! :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha, thank you so much, Zoey! This post is basically...well, it's to supplement my lack of reading right now. A way to keep my blog alive. "^^

      Delete
  7. I love your bookmarks! I also prefer physical books. I used to have a bookmark that shaped like flat gecko, so it looks like the gecko is stuck in your books. But I don't know where it is now xD Sometimes when I don't have any bookmarks I used receipt or tissue though :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I also really love printables bookmarks! They come with a lot of graphics and really easy to acquire :D

      Delete
    2. Ah, that gecko bookmark sounds so cute! I'm sorry to hear you lost it. Hopefully you'll find it again soon!

      Delete
  8. I love this post, it was so much fun reading it!! Those bookmarks you shared are just so pretty :3 I used to love getting bookmarks and collecting them when I was a child, nowadays I use whatever I have on hand :P I especially enjoy using the paper thingies that tea bags come in, they make my books smell great haha :D

    Lipstick and Mocha

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, I've never thought of using those tea bag wrappers (is that what they're called? I have no idea haha). You're right, they definitely would make the book smell great! Thanks so much for your kind words, Carla! :)

      Delete