Faye’s Thoughts on… Bookmarks and Dog-Earing
For this weeks Thoughtful Friday, I have decided to do something a little fun and a lot less serious than my last few Fridays. So today I am debating between using bookmarks and dog-earing the pages. It’d be great to get your opinions in the comments too!
Dog-Earing
First of all, I have to admit that I used to dog-ear my books and had no cares about doing this at all. Dog-earing, for those not in the know, is when you fold down the corner of the page you’re reading to save your place, instead of using a bookmark to do it. Of course, there are pros and cons to this method.
The Pros
– It’s easy
– No hassle
– No time-wasting
– No losing your bookmark or place
– It is free
The Cons
– It ruins the book
– You can get confused if you forget to un-dog-ear before continuing to read
– It doesn’t look pretty
– It ruins the book…
Bookmarks
Nowadays I use bookmarks to keep my place in a book. A bookmark is usually a rectangular piece of cardboard or fabric used for keeping your place in a book. It can also come in many other cool and fun designs too! But, as before, there are also both pros and cons to using a bookmark.
The Pros
– It doesn’t damage the book
– They can come in many pretty designs and styles
– They’re fun to collect
– Essentially you can use any old bit of paper as a bookmark – even your train tickets
– They’re easy to use
The Cons
– They’re easy to lost
– They may slip out of the book and make you lose your place
– They can cost money
– It can sometimes take a bit of time trying to find where you put the one you were using
– You always have to put it somewhere when you read
The Outcome
Personally, I prefer using bookmarks because I like having lots of different designs for them, I find them much easier to use and I like that they don’t ruin my books which I have become very obssesed about recently. I currently use some cool little bookmarks that you clip gently to the page – like a paperclip – that come in different colours so I make sure that the colours match the book cover in some way.
I know that some people prefer to dog-ear their books and that’s fine but I just hope that they do use bookmarks when borrowing books from a friend or from the library!
What do you prefer?
10 Comments
Sally
I always use bookmarks! I can’t stand seeing corners of pages bent in any book, I think I’d prefer to risk losing my bookmark over dog-earing pages!
When I was a child I tried keeping a mental note of the page number I was on to keep track of my reading progress because I didn’t have any bookmarks. I still do that even today if I lose my bookmark or incase it slips out of my book! :D
Great post Faye! x
Faye
That is cool! I read too many books at once to ever do that! And totally agree about losing the bookmarks.
Thanks for commenting Sally!
Laura
When ever I see someone dog-ear a book I die a little inside :( I don’t use anything to keep my place, I always just seem to be able to magically find the page I was on :P
Faye
Oooh! That’s cool! I could never do that so I’m a little jealous!
Also, yes, I agree. I also find library books being returned that have been dog-eared and it makes me so sad!
Alyssa Susanna (The Eater of Books!)
This post is awesome! Interesting to see what others do to keep their place. I do the same for both physical books and ebooks – I just memorize the page number/location. I have a very sharp memory so it works for me. With ebooks it’s obviously easy because the book will stay in the place you left off, so I generally don’t need to actively remember the location.
But with print novels, I just memorize the page number. It’s not hard, there are (usually) only three digits :D No damage done, do need to dig around for a piece of paper or makeshift bookmark of some sort. I actually hate using bookmarks because the bookmarks I have, I usually only get one of them. I’m insanely particular, and I will only use a bookmark if I have a duplicate (and even still, I generally just memorize). And I hate dog-ears! I die a little more every time I crack open a library book or something and see pages bent -_- So I like memorizing. Of course, if someone is prone to forgetting, then my way probably isn’t the most helpful!
Great post, Faye! I hope you have a lovely weekend :)
Alyssa @ The Eater of Books!
Melinda Salisbury.
I dog ear. A book is just the vessel that carries the story. The story is the important bit. I don’t mind how a book looks, whether it’s crinkled or creased or stained, because for me it’s all about the story. I don’t love books, i love stories.
Sophie
I tend to use bookmarks or goodreads updates to remember what page I was on. I never dog-ear a book cause I don’t want my pretty books to be ruined. I’ve even shouted at my mam for doing it to her own books because it hurts me to see it. Great post!
Lorna
I have no idea why but I tend to do both. Although, that said, I only tend to dog ear non-fic. I used to find dog-earring abhorrent, but over the years, the sleepier I have become, and the more I tend to lose whatever scrap/bookmark I have been using, the more likely I am to dog ear. I just can’t frequently bring myself to do it with fiction, however, unless I am desperate and/or on the verge of falling asleep.
It’s not that I hold non-fic is less regard, but perhaps I often see them as more reference, so I would (depending on the book) even consider underlining something here and there, so perhaps in the face of that, a dog ear isn’t so bad.
I need to invest in more than one bookmark, I think.
Anya
Bookmarks all the way! Although I used to dog ear my books, can’t remember how I got out of that habit but now I have a drawer of bookmarks at the ready
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