Bookmarks, marks in books, books by Marks, marks by books

There was a bookmarks tag going around the book-tubers on YouTube a little while ago.  I really enjoyed watching the responses, so I’m going to go ahead and do my own here on my blog!

1. What are you currently using as a bookmark?

Currently I am reading 2 books, one is on my Nook, so no bookmark there.  The other is a library book, so I’m using the little due-date receipt thingy they gave me as a bookmark.  I have a collection of bookmarks, but I never use them in library books because knowing me, I would leave it inside the book when I turn it in.

2. Best thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark?

My childhood best friend once made me a homemade bookmark because she knew how much I loved to read.  It was just an index card colored bright green with highlighter and my name written in pink highlighter.  Simple, but effective.

3. Weirdest thing?

Ummm…I don’t think I’ve used anything particularly weird.  I guess a piece of tissue (not used, of course).  I also like using paint sample cards.  Whenever I go to a hardware store (which isn’t often), I grab colors I like and am often entertained by the names of the colors as well.  They make lovely bookmarks.

4. Do you ever annotate/highlight/write in books? Why or why not?

Sometimes, but only if it’s for school and I’m not lazy (which doesn’t occur very often).  It’s definitely helpful to annotate as an English major, but I’m usually either too absorbed in what I’m reading to stop and take notes, or too disinterested.  As for pleasure reading, I never annotate.  I just never feel the need or desire to.  In general I don’t want to mark up my books because I don’t want to get distracted in later rereads by old notes.  Old notes tend to (1) disrupt my reading flow and (2) influence my thoughts on what I’m reading, which I don’t want.  Each rereading of a book should be a clean, new experience.  But this is all in regards to my own notes.  Other people’s notes I don’t mind as much because they can be very entertaining and give the book character and history.

5. Share something you’ve found written in a library book/used book/book that didn’t belong to you.

I sometimes borrowed my brother’s old novels for high school English classes because he went through the same courses 4 years ahead of me.  On the cover of his copy of The Grapes of Wrath, he had crossed off the title and written “The Fruit of the Loom.”  I found this endlessly amusing.  It even spurred the creation of more parodies by my friends, including “The Strawberries of Ire…”

6. What books are in your collection by someone named Mark?

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, The Adventures of Tom Sayer by Mark Twain (pen name, anyway), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court  by Mark Twain

7. What book has made the biggest mark on your life? (Figuratively)

That’s a tough one.  Probably Walden by Henry David Thoreau.  I read it my junior year of high school (well, we only really read the second chapter, “Where I Lived and What I Lived For”).  I remember getting very passionate about what Thoreau was saying and really believing in him.  (It wasn’t until sophomore year of college that I realized I am much more indebted to Emerson than to Thoreau, but I digress).  It was junior year of high school when I really solidified the fact that I wanted to be an English major and make literature the field of my future study.

8. Which book has made the biggest mark on your life? (Literally — do you have any literary-related tattoos? If not, and if you had to get one, what would you get?)

I don’t have any tattoos.  But if I did get one, it would have to be a cool elvish-looking design that incorporates the Tolkien quote, “Not all those who wander are lost.”

9. Which book(s) has/have had the biggest impact on your generation in your opinion?

I’m pretty sure every one in my generation wouldn’t hesitate before saying Harry Potter.  J. K. Rowling united my generation under a series of books in such a way that was unprecedented in literary history (of course the timing was right, what with the internet and the globalizing trade markets).   But the series literally grew up with us; we aged right alongside Harry.  No other generation is going to get to have that experience.  It consumed our lives (well, it did mine) and formed a whole new culture for me to be part of, and am still part of to this day.

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