Bookmarks are great for those times you need to put a book aside for a while to do other things. There are even quite a few designs available for these, from simple cards to decorative fixtures or even multi-functional night lamps. But when you want to keep your book open just to reach for a drink or a snack, however, bookmarks can’t do squat. Especially if you actually want to keep on reading the open book. Fortunately, the solution doesn’t require sophisticated designs or complicated mechanics. All you need is some outside-the-box thinking and put a book on a book, just like this rather unconventional acrylic bookmark that, oddly enough, also looks like a book.
Designer: TENT
There are admittedly a few bookmarks made from clear acrylic, but those run in the more common design of rectangular pieces meant to be inserted in between pages. There are some that are pretty much paperweights to hold a page down, but their design doesn’t really make that convenient or elegant. You might as well just put weights on every corner of the book to keep it open.
The moment you take a look at Book on Book, you know it’s not your average bookmark. It looks like more than just a regular book but an open book at that, a true page-turner if there ever was one. Sure, it won’t lay nicely flat on a desk if you place it there unused, but that’s definitely not what it was designed for anyway. This bookish bookmark is supposed to sit on your book and keep it open so that you can have your tea (or preferred drink) and keep on reading calmly.
The acrylic bookmark’s unique shape ensures that the book not only stays open but also in its natural curved form. It has enough weight at 220g to make that happen, but it doesn’t force the book to lie flat and damage its binding in the process. It’s the perfect way to keep the book open while you use both your hands for other things, like snacking, sewing, or cooking.
Of course, the “bookception’s” transparent body makes it possible to read the text underneath. Its size is perfect for covering a pocketbook from end to end, but it can be used for larger books as well. If it can cover the entire page, it can also protect the page from, say, oil smudges or crumbs. Now you have the perfect way to keep that cookbook open while you toil in the kitchen over a recipe.
There’s no denying that this open bookmark, despite its simple shape, is also a thing of beauty, like a mystical crystal tome that almost deserves to be enthroned on a shelf like any other book. You can definitely do that, but that would deny it its true purpose, a purpose that encourages you never to stop reading, even when your hands are busy with something else.
