Good Books Deserve Good Bookmarks

This whole house on the market thing sometimes brings upheaval that almost does me in.

I can live with my furniture all in strange places. I can live, for the moment, with artwork I hate on my walls. I lived for 8 months with Big Red stored in the garage.

I can (barely) live with my books being packed in boxes.

But I just couldn’t live any longer without my bookmarks.

Bookmarks Deb?

Bookmarks?

Yes, bookmarks.

If you are going to read a book you need to have a bookmark. Yes, you can turn down the pages but why would you do that? What has the poor book ever done to you? Turning down book pages always seemed to me like bending the poor little books fingers back.

Oh that book will remember your place alright, all the while nursing it’s poor little bent pages.

Anthropomorphizing the books much Deb?

But I digress.

I have a collection of bookmarks. I know, I know…what a surprise, she has a collection of something. Yes, I do. But the thing is….I couldn’t find them. And I was really worried about it. Stupid thing to be worried about but there it is. In the flurry of packing up things and moving furniture when putting Chez Knit on the market I packed up the drawer where I kept all my “reading paraphernalia”. My pencils that I use for marginalia. My page flags. My bookmarks.

But since I am now staging a house staging revolt I wanted my bookmarks back. I needed them to be whole in my reading. Big Red is back where he belongs and I needed my bookmarks to complete my reading happiness. But I couldn’t find them.

I looked in the boxes that were marked “Deb’s Office”.

Nada.

I looked in drawers.

Nada.

And I had almost given up and figured that they would just turn up when we finally moved and unpacked…..and then I found them. In a box that was unmarked and not in the place where all the other “Deb’s Office” boxes were located. A momentary brain fart on my part. Sorry, I said the word fart.

And because this blog post is running on and on and on and on and…..and you all just live for the minutiae of my life, I thought I would show you some of them…………

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I have a bunch of glossy bookmarks from different national parks that we have visited.

  Ummmmmmmmm, Aragorn. Of course I use this one with my yearly reading of LOTR. It is only right and good that I do so.

My sister of the heart, Dottie, gave me this one. It is silver and feathery and I love it.

This one came from India. It was made by a woman who is a participant in a microfinance group. I bought a bunch.

This one also came from India. Indian Air nicely gave it to me when they let me fly from Delhi to Coimbatore. And then I thought they had lost my luggage because my suitcase was the last one to be taken off the plane and brought around to the luggage carosel with a bullock drawn cart. Fun times.

I don’t remember who gave me this one but I love it because it never slips out of the book.

This one came from Turkey. My momma brought it back for me. I love it.

My momma brought these back for me from China. They are so cool, made out of bamboo with little drawings on them.

And then there are these. These are all leather bookmarks. You used to be able to get these where ever you traveled. But I rarely see them anymore. When I do see them I buy one.

But this one….this one is the first. The beginning. The genesis of the collection. And it is still my favorite. It is worn and supple and we will never be parted again. At one time I thought I had lost him for good. I couldn’t find him anywhere and I was bereft. And then one day I opened a book and there he was. Just waiting to be found.

What I love most about him is his smell. He smells like….leather.

Most of the time when I am reading and I have this bookmark with me this is how you will find me, with the book mark folded over inside out and up to my nose so that I can smell it as I read.

And did you notice….

Did you see…..

Big Read is back in my office. Life is good.

I thought about photoshopping out the wrinkles but I am all about realism here at Chez Knit so you will just have to deal with them…and the fact that I forgot to pluck my eyebrows.

And that I have no make up on. Which means that I went to bible study this morning this way. Thank goodness they like me

Please overlook the fashionly challenged person that I am.