I’ve been creating bookmarks for a long time. They’re long and flat and just tuck between the pages inside books to mark where you left off reading. Here’s a sample of one of my old ones—front and back:

Even with them, I still saw a lot of folded corners on the pages of books, so I thought we readers needed a a new kind of bookmark. One that didn’t mar the pages.

I created a fold-over card that you can slip over the edge of the page and not crease them or mark the book in any way. (I love these, by the way.)

Here’s the flat front and back:

But what about bookmarks for the eReader? Yes, eReaders pick up right where you left off reading. But it’s just there. There’s no tactile satisfaction of moving the bookmark as you progress through the book. No visual satisfaction of a pretty mark to view. No picking and choosing what your bookmark looks like. This has always been serious business to book lovers.

That said, with my eye issues, I can’t read much on paper. I have to use eReaders (and am grateful for them!). But I miss the lovely bookmarks and so I’m taking this opportunity to issue a challenge…

To the computer and gurus and geniuses: Kindly consider this an appeal to you to create some fantastic and gorgeous electronic bookmarks. We writers and readers love our bookmarks—and we’d like for them not to be obsolete on eReaders. Can you please design something that gives us the illusion of having a beautiful bookmark?

And while you’re at it, how about gorgeous bookmarks to insert at points in our works-in-progress. Oh, there are document bookmarks, I know. But they’re not gorgeous, emotion-evoking images. We like our visuals.

Mmm, I’m thinking traditional bookmarks might eventually go the way of the vinyl record. That makes me sad. I have friends who have photo album on album of prized bookmarks. And I’ve spent hours looking at ones collected at conferences. The idea that they could be relegated to relics…

Maybe we should all start collections.