Bookmarks versus dog ears: how you keep track of your reading – in pictures

From old gig tickets to toilet paper and £20 notes, almost anything can be co-opted as a bookmark, as as a recent callout for pictures revealed. How do you mark your place in books?

Crack it, crack it good! “I’m a terrible book owner! I crack spine, I dog-ear, I spill tea on them, I underline and write in the margins – in pen! But I love when they look really loved and like we’ve been through something together,” said Lou Belshaw.

Guardian readers and Marta Bausells

Thursday 24 September 2015 

The humble “dog ear” was widely condemned by readers responding to a callout to share their bookmarking tips. The practice of turning down corners of pages was as sacriligeous to many as cracking the spines of books by lying them facedown. “Still smarting from seeing my friend turn down the corner of a page of my copy of Madame Bovary that I had loaned her,” lamented denisecaroline. “Cracked spines are the devil’s handiwork,” growled LeoToadstool. “Corner turning should be a capital offence,” agreed Paul Ward, who impressively “just” remembers where he left off. Robyn Morgan proposed “bus tickets, receipts, loo paper – anything will do” if it serves the purpose of avoiding the folding. That is, of course, if you can manage to hold on to the damn slippery things: “I have lost every single bookmark I’ve ever been given, so I just remember the page number. Scraps of paper feels rude to me...” said Rachel Quirke on Twitter.

Here are some of our favourite examples of the objects you use to keep track of your reading