In March, I worked on rearranging my home library. Last month, I followed up by taking stock of all my bookmarks. I’ve written about subsets of my bookmark collection before: ones I found in books, and ones from bookshops that have since closed. When I wrote the latter post, I estimated that I had 120–150 bookmarks. I always use a bookmark and take simple joy in finding the one that seems most appropriate to a book’s setting or subject matter when possible. Now I know, having categorized and counted them all, that my collection has grown to 228. This exercise was really for my own record and amusement, but perhaps you’ll recognize some familiar objects – or at least the hoarding impulse. Here’s a look at them all:
And here they are by category:
Bookseller-specific bookmarks. I’ve been to all of these establishments / used the online ones. Note the strong representation for Hay-on-Wye and Wigtown! (35)
Gifted. From left to right they are roughly from my mother, my aunt, my sister, my in-laws, and friends. Special mention must be made of certain ones: the puffin cross-stitch bookmark my mother made for me, and the daffodil she bought me from Sandham Memorial Chapel; the two blue-patterned ones my aunt wove on her loom (the bottom one is probably my single favourite bookmark in the whole collection and is so precious to me I once ran back to collect it from an out-of-service bus where I’d nodded off on the top deck); and a set of four paisley paper bookmarks given to me by one of my flatmates from my Master’s year at Leeds. A clever gift to bring over from India as they’re flat and extremely lightweight! (35)
Literary prizes – I generally get these from the library. It’s fun to look back at previous years’ shortlists. (25)
More bookshop and festival bookmarks, this time ones I’ve not frequented myself, which probably means I found the bookmark in a book or at a library. I’ve added five more, at bottom right, to my sad stack of bookmarks from defunct bookshops. I looked up what they’ve all become since.
- Bookends, Hay-on-Wye (two branches) is now the Oil & Oak gift shop (Castle Street) and The Pavement Palace hotel (The Pavement)
- Daunt Books, Fulham Road is now Sloane Street Auctions
- George’s is now the Bristol and Bath Rum Distillery
- Travel Books in Washington, DC is now a Mattress Warehouse
- Shoemakers, a Christian bookstore we used to have in Newbury, is now an antique shop, or vacant; I haven’t been down this alleyway in a while.
I was pleased to find that Alabaster Bookshop in New York City is still going, and the Dubray chain in Ireland is not only still around but has expanded. (22)
Other places I’ve been, events I’ve attended, or organizations I’m associated with (21)
Library-specific bookmarks, all from libraries I’ve visited and/or services I’ve used (16)
Found in secondhand or library books (15)
I collect leather bookmarks from places I’ve been. The four at bottom right I actually found abandoned in library books – although I have been to Buckfast and Westminster Abbeys! Cathy sent me the one from Seamus Heaney HomePlace and my mother bought me the one from Highclere Castle. (14)
Book-specific bookmarks that came with the book or that I picked up at Waterstones or at an event with the author. I’ve read all but the four at top right (at far right is one I found that originally came from The Persephone Book of Short Stories). (13)
Special ones: came with albums by The Bookshop Band and Anne-Marie Sanderson; I acquired for the in-your-face message (I found “Bonjour, Je veux mon livre” in the Little Free Library; it reads “Hello, I want my book” on the reverse side); are actually other objects – Target gift card, Paris botanical garden ticket, Hay Distillery business card – but I have always used as bookmarks; magnets and metal bookmarks. I’ve gotten rid of other wood/bamboo and metal bookmarks in the past as being so thick as to leave an imprint in the text block or slice page tops. (12)
Publisher-specific bookmarks; all are ones I’ve read from (10)
Do you have Opinions on bookmarks, too? Do you collect them? Where do you tend to get them from, and which are your favourites?
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
That’s quite a collection! I have fond memories of Georges where I remember listening to booksellers as a teenager and thinking I’d like to do that.
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When I was looking into its history in Bristol I found some Facebook groups for memories of the place — it’s clearly much missed still!
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That’s one big collection! Mine seem to disappear and get replaced without me even noticing. Weird … Thanks for sharing. 🙂
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Mine grows steadily. I culled a few duplicates as part of this project.
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I love this! Mine are scattered all around the house and my office but I love how organised your collection is!
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I do keep them all in one place. I guess that helps!
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Wow, that’s quite a collection! I have a box with quite a few in, some going back decades – they often act as reminders of lost bookshops…
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Sad that bookmarks might be all we have to remember some shops by.
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These are tremendous! I have a collection which lives on one of the shelves in our study; although I don’t search for the perfect bookmark for each physical book I read, I do swap the bookmark out each time I change books, so there’s a swap every two or three days and they avoid getting tatty quickly. I use paper bookmarks almost exclusively (they’re slimline and don’t interfere with the text block) – metal and magnet ones have never worked well for me, and leather ones often feel too thick. I also use a ton of technically non-bookmark objects; my favourites are a Prague metro ticket and a handwritten label for a jar of jelly that my dad made.
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I make an exception for the leather bookmarks (though I do only use those in hardbacks — and usually library copies at that). If I’ve had one in a set-aside book for a long time I do notice that the pages hold the shape of the bookmark after I’ve taken it out.
I used a Paris metro ticket as a bookmark for a long time. I wonder where that got to…
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The little metro tickets, and things of their ilk, often flutter out of a book, especially if they’ve been used for a while and lost some of their crispness. Love being able to remember trips that way, though!
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How do you not lose your bookmarks? I pick them up all the time, but rarely have more than about 6 to hand.
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They all live as a wodge in my bedside drawer (they take up half of it!).
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Theoretically, that’s my story too. But they still vanish…
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I do! I love choosing the right book mark for the right book, sometimes they’re postcards though!
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I have used postcards from time to time, but I collect those separately.
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I don’t have a collection per se. I just find them all over the house! I have a very few optical ones, where the picture seems to move when you move them. Those are the ones I use most.
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Not included are my Christmas ones, including one with a magnifying panel — I should keep it out year-round as that would be helpful with some of the small type I encounter!
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Oh, that’s a cool idea.
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I don’t have a collection but I do have a lot – I also use postcards and cards that people have sent me along with books which start off as the bookmark for that book then migrate onto the pile / into the box (I have an old Turkish Delight box that not all bookmarks fit into).
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That’s a nice idea to have a box for them all.
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What a great collection of bookmarks! My late father used a piece of torn-off toilet paper or a strip of newspaper as a bookmark. Although I usually choose a bookmark from a pile of precious birthday/Christmas/Mother’s Day cards, I do have a bookmark specifically for when people buy my book. I place it inside the front cover for them as a gift. What will happen to your collection? We have a social museum nearby, do you?
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At age 42 I’m not thinking about EOL and legacy stuff just yet 😉 This is a living and changing collection and most of the bookmarks I would happily part with as gifts or replace if I revisited particular bookstores. Others I don’t use often but just keep as a reminder of a place or event.
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Would you like me to send you a bookmark for The Missing Village, Rebecca? A beginning of a new pile called ‘writing competitions’, perhaps.
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I would never expect you to send anything from Australia! But thank you for thinking of it.
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Great idea! I should try to classify mine as well
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It was a fun project / procrastination device.
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Amazing! I have dozens in a big mug that I just pick and choose from as I need, though recently I was in a rush and grabbed the nearest thing I could use as a bookmark: it was a dental floss stick (unused!) 😆
I like how your bookmarks reflect your travels and the places/bookshops/libraries you’ve visited, all lovely things to be reminded of.
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The weirdest thing I ever found being used as a bookmark in an antiquarian book was a hatpin.
That’s true, I can trace my travels in limited areas, mostly southern England, Scotland and the Midatlantic USA.
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I don’t collect them, but I do have a bunch – maybe 20-30 or so. These are really nice ones.
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Thanks! Any collection starts somewhere 😉
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I have a long After Eights chocolate tin that is perfect for conventional long and thin ones, but I’m also fond of using several of my late mum’s wider opera tickets.
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Ah, a perfect receptacle!
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Such fun! And we have similar categories. And I think my favourite category (other than gifts or nostalgic favourites) is the literary prize one because, as you say, revisiting them feels like another layer to the time capsule of the bookmark itself. Mine fit into an metal coffee canister which sits on a shelf, for the weird shapes, and a little wooden drawer in an Ikea organiser, for the normal rectangular sort.
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I’m jealous of everyone’s special holders. Mine just clog up half my bedside drawer and make it difficult to access anything else!
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Sometimes it’s not until I hear how someone else has a different way of dong things, that I suddenly find a workable alternative myself… maybe ALL this is just a prelude to the perfect container for your collection. Aren’t there a bajillion bisuit tins over there? hee hee Perhaps you just need to buy more biscuits! (Or, insert other container. Chocolate boxes, etc….)
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