I’m generally very old-fashioned when it comes to my reading preferences. By this, I mean the way I read, not the content. I love the sensory experience of reading a traditional book. The ease on your eyes compared to a screen. The feel of it in your hand. The rustling of turning the page. The smell of ink on paper. Ebooks and audiobooks can’t compete. With those traditional books comes an extra accessory: bookmarks.
I have a mug in my kitchen filled with bookmarks, another in my bookroom, and various bookmarks on various surfaces in the house where I happened to be when I finished a book. While others find change in their couches, I find bookmarks. I have a mix of pretty, inspirational, humorous and promotional bookmarks. Still, as often as not, receipts and sticky notes are marking my place.
Bookmarks do have thier drawbacks. They can fall out of books. You have to remember where you put them down (part of my nightly routine is patting down the covers to find the bookmark before I turn out the lights).
Magnetic bookmarks have revolutionalized my life. They never fall out; you don’t even have to take them out when you resume reading. You leave them in place and move them when you’re done. It adds an extra sense of accomplishment when you see how far you’ve read in a sitting. Also, if life somehow pulls you away at an inopportune time (don’t get me started on not being able to end on an even chapter or page break), you can move the magnetic bookmark to the side of the page to mark the sentence where you stopped. Of course, my love of magnetic bookmarks doesn’t change my habit of scattering bookmarks throughout the house, so you’ll still see an occasional receipt marking my place.