Booktags
Since the age of about thirteen I have been keeping the price/size/brand tags that are attached to any clothes I buy. The reason I keep these tags is because I find they make fantastic bookmarks. I’ve never seen this habit as odd, and why I started collecting clothing tags is not know even to myself, I guess I just needed a bookmark one day and thought ‘Hey look, a clothing tag’.
The clothing tag/bookmark (maybe I should mix both things and call it a ‘booktag’ instead) in question is always associated with the book afterwards, like they have some kind of strange bond only books and clothing tags can have. Whenever I see a Cooper St. clothing tag, I think of ‘Dancing Barefoot‘, while a pretty Blockout top always gives me fond memories of reading ‘Tuesdays with Morrie‘. I also give priority to my most loved books, any aussie designer label tag must always go with the cool books, because that is where they belong, all the coolness together.
Until a few weeks ago, I thought that keeping clothing tags for bookmarks was something everyone did, I mean, what else do people use as bookmarks? My good friend Sergio (who uses business cards as bookmarks) set me straight, and now I realise just how fucking weird it is.
I’d like to point out I only keep the fun tags, any un-fun Target ones go in the bin, I’m not that insane.
Nikita is a 30-something year old geeky girl that resides in Perth, Western Australia studies event management, works at events and runs EnjoyPerth. She is a self confessed high heel worshipper that suffers from multipletabitis. Kitta spends her spare time blogging sporadically, volunteering, gaming and likes taking photos of the contents of the universe.
Kitta.net 
Hey…I also use my business cards…might as well get some use out of them!
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I use old movie ticket stubs…
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I use tickets I win at amusement centers like Timezone. I don’t exchange them for the stuff toys and other thingies.
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It’s madness I tell you! Madness!!!
The business card thing can have nasty after effects, though. Like when you discover that your accountant was embezzling money and didn’t file your taxes properly, and that tarnishes the memory of Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
Or even worse! Like when you finish reading an Anne Rice book, and feel dirty, and by chance you happened to use the business card of a good friend as bookmark for it. You’ll never look at that person the same way again. The resentment is just too much.
Glad to see you’re recognizing the weirdness of your ways, Kitta =)
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Danish train tickets, money and advertisement leaflets.
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That’s just insane. I admit I kept some of these tags (brand tags), but now I’d hate myself when I do that—it’s a bit showing off, y’ know…
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I use anything that comes to hand, usually receipts and envelopes, but I seem to have bought enough books to have accumulated quite a collection of bookmarks, so I try and find one of those…
On the linking things with books front, I tend to listen to the same peice of music/album/whatever over and over while reading a book, so often, songs stir subconcious memories of the book I was reading at the time. Sometimes cool, generally annoying.
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I use money, then reward myself with an appropriate snack at the conclusion of the book. For good books, I get ice cream; for bad, I get mouthwash.
Ok, no I don’t, but I think I’ll start doing so.
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Personally, I bookmark with the two of hearts from an old deck of cards.
But my mate chobes… He keep the tags IN ALL HIS CLOTHES… sorry about the caps but they are needed… That’s right, he buys clothes, and keeps the big old cardboard tags in his clothes and wears them…
So… Yeah, the wierdness is worldwide I think… 🙂
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I use pages from my celly bill. you know where it lists everyone you called your sms’ed. I also bought a bookmark cause it had this cool tasel thing on it with japanesse characters. I like the idea of booktags cause I like having those type of associations. On a side note have you ever turned the radio on and it was the very begining of a song? I did that yesterday. Sweet child of mine by guns and roses. It felt like I was in a movie for second.
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Hey thats a great idea!
I used $1 bills as book marks while I was college. It was to remind myself why I was taking all those classes! Well, it worked I graduated and still to this day, when I’m reading a good book, I hunt for a crisp $1 bill to mark my stop! =)
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YOU ARE STRANGE GIRL!!! I think you should seek professional help right away. hehehehhehe I always use the ones that the book store gives out.
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i use fliers that i get from school or just paper i find. Then i normaly draw the word bookmar on them.
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Call me vandal, but it’s dogears for me. Bookmarks invariably fall onto the floor whilst I’m reading, standing, on a crowded Melbourne train. Not a good look trying to pick them up. Call me a voyeur, but I find it interesting to read someone else’s novel and see just how many pages they’ve managed to read before each dogear (the assumption being the more dogears, the slower and less intellectually capable the reader). Speaking of which, I thought that bloody Bill Bryson book was never going to leave Kitta’s Reading List….
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Just adding… SEE kitta, I told you the frou frou album was good! 🙂
Imogen Heap, what a voice…
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Biz Stone blogged about this entry, in it he said “Maybe she’s onto something that publishers should take note of? Some kind of product placement type of deal where the tags actually match some product mentioned in the book? Quick Nikita, to the patent office.”
Maybe I am onto something, and if the publishers don’t like the idea there’s always a cult to be started, a cult where followers must never throw away their tags and send their leader (me) large amounts of coke.
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Also, I find it so odd that some of you use money. What if you needed to use it? You’d totally lose your place in your book, and then the world will rotate too fast and turn into cookie dough and you will be the one to blame…
But then I can’t talk because I save bloody clothing tags.
By the way, I took some of the shoe forgetting medication before, so anything I write is not to be taken seriously until it wears off.
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It’s not like I put all my money in books, and normally I don’t use money I need. I tend to use foreign currency, which I don’t have to use (in means of its main/intended purpose) very often. Fresh bills are the best. They’re nice and sturdy.
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The new hair cut is hot Kitta. I like it alot. It’s very modern. So I thought I would tell you that. Anyways later Kitta.
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I use either (a) hospital bracelets as bookmarks (if I am reading the book while at work, since those tend to be handy) or (b) a square of toilet paper, folded diagonally.
So, I’m weird too. BTW Jennifer Government was a great book.
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hey kitta, i got a new URL. I use whatever paper I can find around me as a bookmark…for example, gum wrappers, train tickets, ripped pieces of paper…
anything will do.
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I thought I was the only one who used clothing tags as bookmarks. I also use brochures that my bank sends me along with an invoice.
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practice your parallel parking! http://annuaire.pepere.free.fr/aventures/voiture2.swf
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I “ruin” the book by bending the edges.
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hey, I use clothing tags too 😀 I did think no-one else did it, but what the hey 🙂
clothing tags and dogears, all the way. though I did get “real” bookmarks for my birthday (my friends know me too well)
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Nice highlights! Its a different look for you…more mature looking…you look like my ex unfortunately lol T.T
ty 4 the gmail thingy…I didn’t know it exsisted lol
I am now the proud owner of 1G mailbox…now what to do with it XD
How do you get more invites….I mean will I get invites in my gmail account now? =]
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very nice blog. for a 19 yrs old girl 😉
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I admit it, I’m a dog ears fan. I agree with Bobbiiiii, the bookmark always invairably ends up trampled, lost or burnt…..but dogears, they give the book the feel that it’s actually been read. It adds some character to it. Same goes for strawberry jams stains around breakfast time…
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Ok the food stains thing is a bit nasty, but I agree with the people who dog ear the pages. It’s a basically fail proof way to go. If it’s a hardcover book with a dust cover, I tend to use the loose cover instead though, it’s a great feeling to hit the middle of the book and know that you can’t use the front half of the cover anymore!
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I bought a pack of 100 card sleeves awhile ago, opened them, and found out the were the wrong size, so I have been using those, they make a wonderful bookmark because they are plastic, they won’t get all bend up from hanging out of the book, and they are really cheap.
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Any Tommy Hilfiger tags? I know its not all that popular now, but it used to be at one point!
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Food dropping on books qualify as bookmarks?
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I’m a dog ear fan myself… Fun, to say your wierd, would be all wrong. That’s quite inventive. See, our tags in the US aren’t normally big enough to use as bookmarks…
So, hey, quick, hit the patent office, and patent this thing, you could make millions, recycling tags as bookmarks!!!! Chrap, the bookstore charges like $1.50 (US) for them, you could make MILLIONS!!! 🙂
Steve
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Oops, I wrote on your other link about Tyler. He is having fun knowing people are still talking to him. He is a big spirit 6′ 1 and 220#! Your entry on his blog made all of Ty’s family happy. We live in Fort Collins, CO. Tyler would be 20 on Sept 4 this year. Every fullmoon is a reminder that another month went by. He loved monkeys. hugs joyce
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I also keep clothing tags and use them as bookmarks. Sometimes I use business cards too 😀 ♥
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Not fuckin’ weird, just resourceful…good for you!
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I use the panties that the chicks in my one night stands leave behind as book marks.
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I use a photograph of my boyfriend. 🙂 he lives in another state, so that way I can still see him everyday, since my nose is always buried in a book.
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