Tricks for writing: book darts

For years I was a notorious corner folder. I’d mark corners of passages I needed for research with a fold, making bibliophiles cringe and scream. I do hate prestine books and book preservers: these things are made to be used and I love nothing more than to see good books marked up, post-it noted and coffee stained, signs the book has lived and not sat for eternity on a shelf.

But then, I love books and it’s really not nice to mark up books that aren’t yours (friends, libraries, etc). If I had a better way I’d use it, I just didn’t know of one. So when I showed my brother-in-law a particular good book (with my folds on every other page) his eyes lit up. That Christmas I was gifted a set of book darts.

Book darts are small arrow shaped strips of metal that you can place on pages to mark a passage. They are easy to use, easy to remove, and do zero damage to books. It’s a great paper clip-esque design: minimal and clever.

I use these things so much in my research that I own several hundred of them (I’m faster at marking pages than I am at reviewing the marks later).

They’re sold in various quantities at bookdarts.com and some bookstores sell them too. If you are student or writer and spend your days making notes in books, I highly recommend them.

Posted Tuesday, July 18th, 2006 at 12:18 pm

in On writing | 19 Comments » |

Ritz - July 18, 2006 at 1:01 pm

I do the same thing with those little sticky tabs:
http://www.3m.com/us/office/postit/products/prod_notes_pn.html

Wherever there is something I want to keep track of I slap one right next to the relevant text. They’re really easy to take off when no longer needed, and I haven’t noticed any leftover stickyness.

Plus you can get a few hundred for a couple bucks.

Scott (admin) - July 18, 2006 at 1:14 pm

I tried those, but they had two downsides:

1) They’re hard to reuse. Maybe 2 or 3 uses before they lose stickyness.
2) It’s noisy to pull them out, especially at night with my wife sleeping a few feet away (I often read in bed).

Twan van Elk - July 18, 2006 at 4:28 pm

Book darts…

Voor wie precies wil bijhouden waar hij was gebleven met lezen, maar geen ezelsoren e.d. wil maken zijn book darts misschien wel aardig:
Book darts are small arrow shaped strips of metal that you can place on pages to mark a passage. They are easy to u…

Jeremy Vernon - July 20, 2006 at 8:01 am

I too used book marks extensively all through university and find them extremely useful for technical reading as well (since I often have three or four books I’m swapping between).

In a fit of organizational anal-retentiveness I took the time to demark numbers on all of my book darts about 00 – 248 or so.

I could then easily associate this bizarre and non-sequitur note in my folio with the passage in the text by number. This was especially useful when I would be hopping from text to text and my memory would remember the passage but not which book it was in etc.

The Sony Portable Reader sounds like the device to solve bibliophile woes.

Jersey Exile - January 8, 2007 at 11:02 am

Nifty! Even the best “removable” adhesive will leave some kind of residue on your books which will eventually react chemically with the paper, so a product like this is definitely a godsend from a library preservation point of view. I work in a Reading Room of a large academic library, and sometimes researchers will put hundreds of Post-Its in a book — not just newer books that probably won’t last much longer than the cut-rate glue in their Permabindings but books that are 100-200 years old! I want to tell them that sticky notes make the baby Melville Dewey cry. Maybe now that I’m in charge of supplies here I’ll requisition a box or two and see if I can’t convert some of our patrons.

Thanks for the post!

Gall Ink » book darts - January 8, 2007 at 11:08 am

[...] Ran across this via: Lifehacker, via: O’Reilly, via the original @ Berkun blog Book darts are small arrow shaped strips of metal that you can place on pages to mark a passage. They are easy to use, easy to remove, and do zero damage to books. ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a great paper clip-esque design: minimal and clever. [...]

bob williams - January 22, 2007 at 9:35 pm

Readers of the Berkun Blog, may, if they wish to, buy our Book Darts for the wholesale costs. Order on the reseller side of our site or alert us in the comments box when you order, and we’ll make the adjustment.
http://www.bookdarts.com
In developing this archival quality menas of marking and re-finding reading discoveries, we hoped to encourage readers to share what they find.
(Our friend, Brother Blue, a Cambridge storyteller, said, “We never know which two people might become critical mass and transform the future.”)

Berkun blog » Blog Archive » Special offer from the book dart folks - January 24, 2007 at 7:29 pm

[...] My post about book darts was picked up by O’Reilly radar and lifehacker, and wouldn’t you know it: word got round to the makers of these great little things. [...]

Just Another Literary Lizard » Blog Archive » book darts - January 24, 2007 at 8:27 pm

[...] I’ve been drooling over the book darts in Levenger’s catalog for years, but I held strong and didn’t order. Recently Scott Berkun mentioned book darts on his blog, only he went straight to the source — the company that produces them. Then a really cool thing happened. A few other blogs picked up on the Scott’s entry, and eventually the company’s owner posted a comment on the article. He even went one step further and offered readers of Berken’s blog the product at wholesale prices. [...]

Danny - January 25, 2007 at 8:36 am

Bob, unfortunately I couldn’t even find out where to order your wonderful book darts. I went to bookdars.com, clicked every link, and skimed every page, but just couldn’t find anything remotely related to order form. Yes, there was link “your personal cart”, but you know what? When I clicked on that, I saw only a page saying that my cart was empty. I guess we could imagine how many prospecitive customers were lost. Please please, even if you don’t have resource to polish the design of your site, at least add a big shinning “Order Here!” link in your navigation frame!

Don Brocha - January 26, 2007 at 3:01 pm

These book darts are great, especially for someone like me who does not, will not, can not, mark in or (shudder) dog ear pages in books. That doesn’t mean I don’t use my books, for me its a matter of respect for the printed page.

When I was first married I had to train my wife to not dog-ear corners. I must have been persuasive, shes now more adamant about it than I am.

Scott (admin) - January 26, 2007 at 3:26 pm

i go both ways on this: I hate the idea of worshiping books as pristine things locked up in cabinets, kept safe from stains and marks, and, well, life.

As an author I get jazzed when I see a copy of my book that has lived: that has traveled, been in people’s briefcases, kitchens, coffeeshops, marked up with comments, dog-ears, tabs of tape to mark sections, or pizza stains from late night whateve-ring. That’s how I know I wrote something good: that the book has lived with person who bought it. There’s nothing sadder to this writer than a mint condition book on a shelf.

But on the other side I do think of books as sacred – the making of them and what they can mean to people – especially other people’s books. So I do treat library books with great care and protect them.

Anyway, I do use darts all the time, unless it’s my copy of a book and I don’t have any with me.

Frozen Truth » Jakalope and Other Oddities - May 30, 2007 at 6:47 pm

[...] darts lauded by a new friend of mine, I immediately ordered a package. They should be great for noting important passages I wish to return to. Something must bridge the gap until my entire library can [...]

Jane - March 17, 2008 at 4:41 pm

Post-its and sticky tabs: if you leave them in a book long enough they develop enough of a grip on th e paper to tear it when they are finally removed (especially if it’s an old book).

The long-term effect of the adhesive on paper hasn’t been discovered yet, but it certainly leaves marks on leather bindings.

Trust me, I’m a rare-books librarian ;) (struggling novelist in my other life)

100 Awesome Bookhacks for Students & Bibilophiles | Online Classes.org: Find the Right Online Class Match - September 21, 2009 at 8:06 pm

[...] Use book darts: Instead of folding down pages, use little page markers called book darts. [...]