Bookmarks: Marking the Spot

I lose bookmarks.

I read a lot. So I carry books with me wherever I go. I have one in the car. I carry one in my bag. More in my bedroom. A couple in the bathroom.

For whatever reason, for years, no matter which of these stashed books I pick up, my bookmark always disappears. I look around frantically.....could it have fallen on the floor? Anywhere nearby?  Never. Always just gone. Or if I do happen to find it, the poor thing is predictably dirty, torn, ruined. Dead. RIP dear bookmark. No time to grieve. I forge ahead, wasting precious time fumbling around trying to figure out where to start reading.

This fact of my life is why I stopped buying nice, shiny, tasseled, fandom bookmarks. I would find one I loved, only to have it disappear or commit suicide on the floorboard of my car. Oh nooooooo.....Harry Potter has gum stuck on his face! Sadness.....despair....angst....waste of $7.99.

So I abandoned my love for fancy, nice bookmarks, and started picking up the cute freebie paper ones at the library. The characters from Where the Sidewalk Ends urging everyone to read...Peanuts characters lauding the wonder of having a library card...dancing mice.....frogs reminding readers to return their library books on time....still cute, but expendable if they met the usual fate. And I could pick up a new one each time I visited the library. If my bookmark disappeared,  I just had to walk across the room to my stash and get another one.

But then, my hubby gave me a set of the most wonderful bookmarks! I have yet to lose one. It's a miracle!

These little things are Juli-Proof. Whoever invented magnetic bookmarks was a genius! :) Yes, I know these have been around for a long time, but I never thought to try them. My husband gave me a pack of 8 as a present.....and I was astonished. Suddenly, when I picked up one of my reading-in-progress books, it still had a bookmark in it! No more shuffling through pages trying to remember where I had stopped reading. No more reading a page or two only to remember I'd read that part before. No more squirreling away stacks of bookmarks to replace the darn things all the time.

Best. Present. Ever.

I bought another 2 sets of these so that everyone in the house can use them. My son uses them in all his school books now. Not just his reading books, but he uses them in his workbooks, too.

I still pick up a cute bookmark at the library sometimes, but these little magnets are now my favorite reading accessory!