Princess Leia reads books. Darth Vader reads books. Yoda reads books. Maybe not on screen (at least I don’t remember ever seeing any of them with a book), but they do in this set of magnetic bookmarks.
Book: The Great Movies by Roger Ebert
bookmarks
Bookmarked! #107: Bookstores No More XV: Highway Book Shop
The Highway Book Shop (a.k.a “Northern Ontario’s Unexpected Treasure”) was located on a stretch of Highway 11 (at 1,800 km the second-longest highway in Ontario) just outside of the town of Cobalt. At one time the fourth-highest producer of silver in the world, Cobalt now has a population under 1,000. And if you’re ever planning on visiting, it’s really, really out there.
The Highway Book Shop was a husband-and-wife operation that began life as a print shop in 1957. I don’t know how much foot traffic they ever had, despite being a local tourist attraction, but they did have a presence online. They closed doors in 2011.
Book: Galore by Michael Crummey
Bookmarked! #106: Bookstores No More XIV: Nicholas Hoare
This bookmark is from the Montreal Nicholas Hoare bookstore, which opened in 1971 and closed in 2012 due to the usual reasons (per the CBC: “high rent and pressure from online and big box retailers”). Plus the owner was looking to retire. The Ottawa store closed at the same time. The Toronto Nicholas Hoare stayed open for another year.
Book: Noise by Russell Smith
Bookmarked! #105: Shark Week
That looks like more than a shiver of sharks! Some friends picked this up for me when they visited North Captiva Island about ten years ago.
Book: Big Pacific by Rebecca Tansley
Bookmarked! #104: The Canadian Encyclopedia
The Canadian Encyclopedia was the brainchild of publisher Mel Hurtig, and the first edition came out in 1985. The bookmark on the left is a promotion for it, and pictured is the original 1985 edition, which came in three handsome volumes. My father was one of the original subscribers so that’s how we came to have a copy. It sold out its initial run right away, and a second edition was published in 1988. The bookmark on the right is for a single-volume 2000 edition.
I thought it was an excellent resource and I’m glad I’ve held on to it over the years. I don’t think it’s published as a print edition anymore, having moved online.
Book: The Canadian Encyclopedia
Bookmarked! #103: Osprey
An osprey in action, grabbing a fish. In French their name is balbuzard pêcheur, but they are not buzzards.
This brass bookmark comes from Cornovia Designs in Helston, Cornwall. Which is a place I’ve never been so I’m not sure where I got it.
Book: Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
Bookmarked! #102: Shiny Eyes
Bookmarked! #101: Hello, Frank Lloyd Wright
I don’t know if I’ve ever been in a Frank Lloyd Wright building. The only possibility is the Guggenheim Museum in New York. I know I walked past that one, but I can’t remember if I went inside.
Anyway, this is the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio building in Oak Park, Illinois. I have a friend who’s an architect who visited it and he picked me up a bookmark. Which, as you know, is the next best thing to being there.
Book: Modern Architecture by Alan Colquhoun
Bookmarked! #100: Kylie Too!
I figured I had to celebrate my one-hundredth bookmark post with something special. So a couple of weeks ago some friends of mine came back from a trip to Newfoundland. Knowing that my last dog was a Newf named Kylie (here she is in a snowstorm), in addition to picking me up a bookmark they also brought this little cutie back. So say hello to Kylie Too!
Bookmarked! #99: Alnwick Castle
My one and only trip to the UK occurred in 1976. We visited a lot of castles, which is something you do a lot over there if you’re a tourist. That and go for walks in the countryside. Anything to escape the cities. I don’t know what things are like now, but back then urban Britain was almost unimaginably bleak.
But I digress. I was just starting to collect bookmarks back then and in most of the castles we visited you could get these leather bookmarks with pictures on them. I doubt they still sell them in the gift shops. I’m told that most places don’t sell bookmarks anymore, but that’s a story for another post.
Anyway, on that trip I picked up a lot of bookmarks like this that I’ll be showcasing here. This one is from Alnwick Castle in Northumberland. It’s one of the nicer (and more intact) castles and they film a lot of movies there. Fifty years later I honestly can’t remember much about it, but I still have the bookmark.
Book: King John and the Road to Magna Carta by Stephen Church
