Friday, October 29, 2010

Thanks to Presidente de La República Argentina, Juan Domingo Perón I learned three very important values of which I have held two close to me all my life. Perón urged us to save money. I have ignored that. He told us that in Argentine the only privileged ones were children. I soundly agree and make sure I never ever tell anybody that I love (and that is of a certain young age) that they should grow up. The last piece of advice (one the old general did not follow as her burned many before the fall of his regime) is that books were sacred and that they should be read, and taken care of. To damage a book was heresy. We were told never to write in them or to mark our places by folding corners. He stressed, “Books are sacred.”


Through the years I have used all kinds of bookmarks. They have been made of Argentine leather, Chilean copper, Mexican silver and even fake gold plated Chinese brass. Most have disappeared when they fell from a book or I gave the marker away.

I have a collection ( I never meant to collect them) of book markers from Duthie Books and from other bookstores I gave my patronage. Some of my bookmarks came from used books from such places as Dubuque, Iowa or Barcelona.



With books in jeopardy and bookstores in decline I now keep my bookmarks as valuable possessions in my middle desk drawer.

I have of late used my photo postcards as book marks. I have many of them so I can afford to lose them. And I mark passages that I want to remember using the little multi-colours plastic adhesive Post-its that were recommended to me years ago by my friend Mark Budgen.

It was last week when I visited Lee Valley with my eldest daughter Ale that I discovered this little cute metal tin that contains 12 little magnetic book markers. They open up like hinges and when you insert them into the top of a page, one side latches on to the other, through the page with magnetic suction. I love them. I think I only need a couple (and give some away) or perhaps I will start using these instead of the Post-its.



Somehow with them in my books I feel I am not offending El General!

This somewhat inocuous blog has been a distraction from my present worries. As I write this it is 3:35 PM and I am about to leave to pick up my Rosemary at the hospital. I hope all will be well.