I use whatever is around… a receipt, a square of TP, a cat’s whisker once. I have a bunch of bookmarks but they’re never around when I need them (and I always forget to grab one when I grab a book off the bookshelf).

I use the receipt I get from the library when I check the book out. No danger of forgetting due date.

Generally. Whatever piece of paper I have handy, even if that’s a piece of toilet paper.

However, if it’s what I call a “loaner” copy, I dogear. There’s some books that I (for whatever reason) end up loaning out more than most, so I keep a few cheap paperback copies around. Those are what I reach for, for bathroom reading as well. Since I know they’ll get loaned out and never returned, I just don’t care about losing corners here and there. But I don’t dogear big folds, just enough to mark the page. So if the section gets torn off, the text is still there.

I’ve had dozens of dedicated bookmarks over the years, and they disappear like bic pens and socks. So I gave up on them and just use whatever thin paper is handy.

Mostly receipts. I like their flexibility.

A sticker of cute dogs in space suits and the caption “we want fully automated intergalactic luxury gay space communism” because it reminds me of Ian M. Banks - also gets a laugh out of people 😁

I have a probably too large and pedantic collection of cardboard bookmarks, some bought in remote cities, some given to me as gifts, some that went included inside other books. I even have a real chinese Yuan/Rembimbi bill that I got from a friend, long dead.

Sometimes I even use napkins and buy receipts and pieces of torn newspaper.

Many years ago, I fell from the stairs due to a diabetic episode. I was kept in a coma for a few days. When I woke up I had this id bracelet on my arm. I still use it as a bookmark till this day.

I use a joker from a deck of cards.

I’m using an old plane ticket to Milan

Some cardboard advertisement card I got with a shirt I ordered online.

Book Darts! I’m typically reading for research and writing and the book darts are great for coming back to the right sentence when I’ve stopped off. I’ll leave them in long-term if I’m swapping between edited volumes—I’ve got a tin of 100, so it’s no problem if I leave a few within books here and there. I typically add one to the first page whenever a new book comes home. If I haven’t got one already placed or I start reading while out and about I dog-ear.

I don’t like honest bookmarks as well. A proper bookmark should be mean-spirited and lie to me, so that I’ll never find my place again!

I don’t. I just look at the page I’m on when I’m done reading and then open it to that page when I come back.

Whatever I happen to have around me when I stop reading. Generally some form of paper, but I’m flexible.

Small sticky notes. That allows me to bookmark at a specific sentence rather than just the page.