I sussed out from a closer look that it was a bookmark included in a book as a useful guide to the characters in the story.  As you were reading the book you had a continuous easy reference to its characters, as long as you used the bookmark that is! But what book is it? I could see it was Russian but which Russian book?

So, off down the online research rabbit hole I went!

First of all I keyed in 'book' and the place names in my search box without any luck.  Then I keyed in the first listed character 'Tatyana Petrovna Vlasenkova', and bingo.  Lots of Russian language sites and some English.  I found out the book is 'Open Book'.  I had seen the words 'Open Book' on the bookmark but did not at all twig that this was the name of the book!  I thought that this was just a cute instruction to open the book!

Open Book was written by Veniamin Aleksandrovich Kaverin : "​In 1949, Kaverin published the first installment of his trilogy Otkrytaya Kniga ("Open Book"), the last installment of which appeared in 1954. It is the story, spanning 35 years, of a woman microbiologist ('Tatyana Petrovna Vlasenkova') who proposes a bold new theory. The theory is opposed by the entrenched obscurantists, but the biologist presses on, at great personal expense. During the time he was working on this novel, Kaverin had to fight off critics who complained that he focused too much on love and who pressured him to part with his "not fully valuable" heroes and start occupying himself with ones absolutely positive in all respects."

Open Book is considered to be one of the great classics of Soviet literature and has been translated into English by Brian Pearce, among others. The story was turned into a feature film in 1973 and later it was turned into a nine-part television mini-series.

I ended up learning a lot from researching this 'boring' yet useful bookmark!  One of the reasons I love collecting bookmarks.

I have always loved travel books, fiction and non-fiction, especially vintage ones.  As a bookmark collector, I also adore bookmarks about travel books, especially vintage ones!  This bookmark in my collection I love for many reasons — stunning 1950's design, a person reading a book is featured in a lounge chair on a flying carpet, a great quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson (he was an avid and frequent traveller and travel writer), and oodles of vintage travel books listed on the back of the bookmark.  These books were all published by Arthur Barker Ltd, London in the years between 1955-1957, hence my guess at the date of the bookmark.

The full Stevenson quotation, which comes from his book of essays Virginibus Puerisque, 1881, is:

"Little do ye know your own blessedness; for to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour."

'Discovered these glorious bookmarks and bookmark cards on the internet today, published by Blue Island Press here in Australia.  You can view them all 👉🏼 HERE.

Blue Island Press supports The Indigenous Literacy Foundation through the sale of the bookmark cards. They donate 5% of the sales each year to the foundation.

These are two of my favourite bookmark cards.  Must go to one of the stockists and buy them for my bookmark collection.

Such a lovely bookmark!  Great design, lovely illustrations, and informative about an interesting subject!  What's not to like!

The bookmark, on front and back, tells us what Snickelways are — and isn't that a cute and curious name! — and where to find them in York, England.  It also promotes the book "A Walk Around the Snickelways of York" by Mark. W. Jones, first published in 1983.  The book has since been republished many times and is now up to its 9th edition!  Goodreads says this about the book:

"An amusingly written walking guide to York's alleys, ginnels and snickets. Beautifully illustrated with pen and ink drawings and clear maps, this best-selling guidebook has sold almost 90,000 copies. Invaluable for anyone wishing to explore York's hidden secrets on foot."

It certainly would be lovely to meander in and around these Snickelways!  Meanwhile, we can enjoy the bookmark!

India Post has issued several themed bookmark sets featuring some of their stamp issues.  This is a great philatelic product, merging two collecting and collection interests — stamps and bookmarks.

Some time ago I received this wonderful set of 10 bookmarks on 'Temple & Temple Architecture, India' in an exchange with another bookmark collector.  The icing on the cake is that I am also very interested in the subject matter of temples and the country of India, having traveled there three times, including visiting many temples and other sacred sites whilst there.  So, I very much treasure this set being in my bookmark collection.

There is lots of information on the bookmarks themselves, so I will leave it to them to inform you.  

​NOTE: The back of each bookmark is blank.  All bookmarks are the same size, 8" x 2". Click or tap on each bookmark to enlarge it.

Babe was certainly an all round sportswoman!  Great to see her featured on this bookmark issued in the 'American Women A Celebration' series.  

This bookmark came into my collection as part of a bundle of bookmarks I purchased on eBay.  A gem I am happy to have

Delighted to receive these ten bookstore bookmarks from my bookmark friend Alice Lowe from San Diego, CA, USA. Thanks so much Alison!

As my blog and website followers know by now I'm sure, bookstore bookmarks are my favourite collecting category, so these are all very welcome additions indeed!  

City Lights Bookstore (San Francisco) and Powell's Books (Portland, Oregon) are special treasures as I got to visit and buy books from both bookstores when I was in the US several years ago.  I had wanted to visit both these stores for a very long time and it was a delight to get to do that.

Alice Lowe is "a freelance writer, avid reader and Virginia Woolfophile in San Diego, California."  Her blog 👉🏼  Alice Lowe — still writing is great!  By the way, Alice tells me she is presently doing a piece about bookmarks.  Looking forward to reading that Alice.

I love the quote and image of Virginia Woolf on this bookmark. And the flecked paper.

This a beautiful large diecut bookmark of Sacajawea, issued in 1978 to promote the BOOK (historical fiction) written about her by Anna Lee Waldo and published in May of that year. Historians and other academics have criticized—even scorned—what they consider the inadequacies and superficialities of Waldo's book, yet the novel remains the most popular written about Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea. Waldo was also accused of plagiarism of other works about Sacajawea and a revised edition of the book was subsequently released in May 1984. So, a book with much controversy surrounding it!  Nice bookmark though!

This bookmark ticks a lot of bookmark boxes for me!  

• It's Australian... my home country and a country I love
• Its in my favourite bookmark collecting genre... bookshop bookmarks 
• It has a woman reading a book on it
• It has wonderful illustrations, front and back
• It has great quotes... I love quotes!

​What's not to love!

Drum roll please!

You can now keep up to date with the Mark My Place! website and blog on FaceBook. 

To like and follow....

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A recent addition to my favourite bookmark collecting category — bookstore bookmarks.

The Paperchain Bookstore, an independent bookstore, is in Manuka in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), and has been operating since 1982.

I have lived in the ACT twice and both times visited the Paperchain Bookstore many times and bought many books from there.  Alas, I never had one of their bookmarks until I received this one as part of a recent donation from a friend living in the ACT.  She is also a bookmark collector and when I was visiting her we went though her stash and she kindly gifted me many bookmarks!  Thanks friend!

I like the dedign of this bookmark and I adore the quote on the back from the Russian author and poet,  Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva.

I was so delighted to receive this bookmark in an exchange with another collector.  I have a passion for the history of women's suffrage around the world and one of my other collecting hobbies is the collecting of stamps and other philatelic material in relation to women's suffrage and women's rights in general. 
 
This bookmark promotes the Minnesota Historical Society exhibition of 2020:
She Voted: Her Fight Our Right.

​Women began campaigning for suffrage—the right to vote—in the United States in the mid-1800s through marches, rallies, speeches, and appeals to legislatures and the Congress. They were dismissed, ridiculed, derided, and often abused for their efforts. The first capacity in which women were able to vote in Minnesota came in 1875, when a constitutional amendment allowed women to vote in school board elections. Minnesota was a key player in the national fight for women's suffrage. 
 
In 1881 a group of women founded the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association (MWSA) in Hastings, Minnesota; its first president was Sarah Burger Stearns. The MWSA hosted the American Woman Suffrage Association's annual conference in October of 1885, which brought the MWSA and women's suffrage in Minnesota to the national stage. In 1893 the MWSA tried but failed to pass an amendment guaranteeing women's suffrage. For the rest of the 19th century and into the 20th the MWSA would try to pass legislature concerning women's suffrage, but would eventually fail.
 
In 1914 Clara Hampson Ueland organized a parade of over 2,000 woman suffrage supporters in Minneapolis, which brought renewed attention to the cause in Minnesota. Ueland eventually became the president of the MWSA, and in 1919 when the 19th amendment to the constitution of the United States was brought before the Minnesota legislature, it passed. On August 18, 1919 it was ratified by the United States congress. 

​The MWSA was founded in 1881 to coordinate statewide and local efforts to obtain universal equal suffrage for women.  The bookmark shown above is a section of this hostoical photograph.

This bookmark is a great companion for another ‘Votes for Women’ bookmark I have in my collection and which I previously featured in my blog.  You can read that post HERE.

The information attatched to the painting informed us that Olsen had borrowed the title from William Shakespeare's The Tempest (1610-1611)

Where the bee sucks, there suck I: 
In a cowslip’s bell I lie; 
There I couch when owls do cry. 
On the bat’s back I do fly 
After summer merrily.   
Merrily, merrily shall I live now 
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.