catching up with modernity

For the last few years, I have slightly disapproved of the rise of the e-book.

I had a list of reasons for this:
i. Books are pretty. On a shelf, they add colour to a room.
ii. Books last. There's something nice about this. You can get an author to sign your book, you can sell first editions at ridiculously huge prices further down the line, you can write your own messages in the cover, you can buy secondhand books.
iii. There's something about the feeling of a book in your hand that I would be sad to lose.
iv. Books aren't hard on your eyes like screens can be.
v. I am secretly quite reactionary.

This week, however, I've been in the process of swapping rooms with one of my flatmates. I was at the west end of the house, now I am at the east. The process is still not over. And the process has shown me that I have a ridiculously huge bookshelf.


It's quite light for its size but, once turned on its side, it's extremely difficult to manoeuvre, and you start to notice how BIG it is. It is also full of books. They are currently cluttering up our lounge AND an empty bedroom, along with all the books I don't have room for in my bookcase so have stored in cardboard boxes. It wasn't until I had to physically carry them around with me that I realised how many books I do have.

Kindles, iPads, etc. - looking much more attractive right now!

merry Christmas to me

For Christmas, my flatmate gave me this little bookmark, which she bought at a craft fair. It's made of brightly-coloured, large beads, threaded (and held in place) on an elastic which hooks around the book holding your place.

At first I was a little doubtful because I don't use bookmarks usually. Instead, I just throw in an old receipt or something, because, when I lose it, it won't matter. But now I am sold! I love bookmarks! They're pretty! Especially bookmarks like this, which are practical and don't mess up the book or get squashed or lost easily, et cetera.

It actually looks pretty simple to make, and so I started wondering if there were equally pretty bookmark ideas out there? Internet search engine, here I come. Of course, I had to wade through a whole bunch of "easy bookmark for kids" websites, but here are a couple of pages that have some gorgeous ideas, some of which I plan to try:

This was the best of the webpages - it links to 38 different bookmark ideas, with photos, and they all look very pretty and very polished but also achievable:
http://tipnut.com/make-bookmarks/

If you can do tatting (I have no idea what it is but assume it's something like crochet, which I can't do!), this is quite a pretty bookmark:
http://www.craftown.com/tat/pat17.htm

And I quite liked this idea for a beaded bookmark. Don't be put off by the phrase "teen crafts":
http://parentingteens.about.com/od/schoolcrafts/ss/bookmark1.htm

The best of British luck to you! I will keep you posted on my own attempts at bookmark creation.