Having just discovered that some participants here still fold the corners of their pages to mark their place in a book, (shock,horror) I thought a little survey might be in order.
So, do you fold, have a book mark, just try to remember the page no. or what?
Answers on a post card please...

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I personally am a book marker, I have loads in a drawer (but not the cheesy leather kind depicting places of uninterest your parents dragged you to as a kid...shudder)

I'm a dreadful folder of pages. Sometimes I don't even do that, I just try and find where I was in the book - it can mean I read and reread the same chapters a few time!!

I already confessed to folding, but I will also confess to marking my place by leaving a book open on a chair arm or a table.

<stops, drops & rolls>

Does it mitigate the offense if it's a paperback?

For hardbacks, I have book covers with built-in bookmarks-
for paperbacks, there are these wonderful little clips called LastLine (The 'Smart' Bookmark)-
you can literally leave them pointing to the last line you were reading, fantastic if you get interrupted a lot...

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OH, for shame sir, as Austen would say.

Leaving a pb open and face dowm is a cardianl sin! that how spines get creased. If I told my other half that he would keel over. Actually both him and my son can read pb's and you really would not know they've been touched, Mine are always a little spine-creased no matter how careful I am.
And yes using the fly leaves as bookmarks in hb's is also one of my tricks. Do you switch to the back one when youre over half way through so as not th stretch the front?

I am a dreadful one for keeping my spines as crease free as possible, its terrible, I won't even lend people books unless they open a vein and sign their name promising the spine will not be touched and I provide book marks too! I generally use a book mark, or I remember the page number. Both my parents are page folders, don't know where I got my OCD genes from cos I haven't got them for anything else!!!

Well, most of the time I'm a folder since I am useful for organizing papers and things, but I'm also somewhat like a permanent marker since I come in neat colors and can't be washed out.

…oh, wait…you mean for books?

For @#$%& paperbacks I'll fold the corner down unless I've only read a few pages since the last folded corner. For hardcovers and paperbacks with thick or nice paper, I won't fold the corners down. Sometimes I'll use a bookmark, especially if it's a long book or one that I'll only pick up sporadically, but more often (for both paperbacks and hardcovers) I'll just try to remember the page number or position in the book. This is also good because sometimes I read a few pages as I'm falling asleep and don't really pay attention, so this forces me to reread the parts I don't remember.

As you may already know of my horror from my post yesterday,

I am a marker who occasionally lays book down open for a little (only if it is not very thick). I remember the page number, chapter or mark it with an old shopping docket of bus ticket.

I can't stand people who just carelessly damage books (even though I have so many, that I have towers of books on the floor as well as every other surface), I hate lending books to some people because the cover always gets totally bent at the corner (fully creased!).

Nettie! I do that switching the back flap when I get closer to the end too!

And don't worry Kitten, I'm not talking about you!

I think Muse might be my sister-in-law in disguise...

Used to be a folder, then switched to bookmarks, but due to general carelessness I tend to lose a lot of bookmarks, so many of my books have bus tokens or cashpoint statements shoved in them instead. And I do the switching to the back flap halfway through a hardcover, too.

Marker, with the "whatever strip fits in" approach (People buy bookmarks?). I am, however, not especially meticulous with care of books. I'm quite bad for shoving books in my bag and them getting a bit scrunched.

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Turn the silliness to eleven!

Well this is interesting folks. The whole bus ticket.shop receipt for bookmarks thing is new to me, but I guess it could provide snippets of history into your lives later ( like what was the price of cheese in 1987?)

I just love unusual bookmarks, have got quite a few now. I also laminate special postcards and use them. I have one form my best friend when she toured Africa years ago and one from a famous author I was in correspondence with too.

How's that for an anorak?

Oh god, I feel like a right vandal now...I don't treat my books that well. In fact talking of paperback 'spines', sometimes I deliberately 'break' them if the book is too unwieldy...

I was always a corner folder as a kid, but very definitely a marker these days. I know I have some proper nice bookmarks kicking around the place somewhere, but more often than not I end up using my business cards. Possibly the best use for them?!

Receipts and ticket, postcards, or rely on hunting to find the page that I finished on last. H/B the fly cover always comes off, unless permanently attached - I'm to clumsy!

MY other half always removes the fly ocver so he can keep it pristine but I'm not as angelic as that, mine get used as bookmarks and wipe clean surfaces are always useful for chocolatey fingers!
There's nothing like a bar of chocolate and a good book in bed!

lottery tickets, I often use lottery tickets. Wish one of them would win!

Sticking your lottery ticket in one of Jaspers books probably makes it more lucky!

I must admit to be one of the 'stuffers in' of suitable flat items as bookmarks, even though I have a store of bookmarks collected over the years. But they are never where I am reading the books.

I have a detestation of marking books except to write my name on page 13 by the spine to establish ownership in case of a dispute.

My mother also put things in to indicate where she was. In her case it was money and after she died and we packed up the books for shipment back to Adelaide we had enough to shout the families to a slap up dinner at the Fremantle wharf, which had been restored/tarted up/made more trendy (pick own option) for the Ameroica's Cup challenge.

that's the sort of bookmark I like.

Another important consideration for me is whether or not the book is sufficiently portable to read in the bath. My sister gave me a hardcover edition of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which was too bulky by far, and, as I received it days after becoming a first-time mum, kept nodding off in the bath and dropping it, ruining pages, dust cover, bookmarks...