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Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Novel Ideas Bookmark

I've been toying with a new concept for a while now, and I thought I'd share with all of you and get your opinion.

I am an avid reader with an entire room devoted to my books (as well as stacks and stacks of them in every corner of the Idea Guy headquarters!) I do my best to retain the morsels of information inevitably contained within each book -- but with so many concepts and so many books, that can be a difficult task.

I took to sticking Post-It notes on the important pages of each book, but that became messy and kind of a pain since it required referring back to the physical book itself. I tried jotting down notes in a book journal, but that was a nightmare when trying to find which page of the journal referred to which book -- plus I was a juggling act to read the actual book, then put it aside and open the journal to record the notes.

A possible solution arose when I began using an index card for a bookmark. I could easily jot notes on the index card and retain my place in the book. Once finished, the notecard could be stored in a plastic file box -- but the space on the index card wasn't sufficient to capture all the ideas in most of the books I read.

I finally decided to add a litle oomph to the index card concept and created the Novel Ideas Bookmark. It's a bright yellow 8x6 card that folds to 4x6 for easy storage in one of those index card storage boxes I mentioned above.

Novel Ideas Bookmark


The front of the card is horizontal and contains spaces for book title and author's name to allow for easy filing. The card opens like a book and the inside is ruled to allow for journal-like entry of important points in the book. I list the page number and then the concept I wish to note. The back of the card includes additional ruled lines for final points. I also included a spot on the front of the card to list the most valuable lesson I learned from the book, as well as a favorite quote. The bottom/right corner of the card front allows for a "1 of X" indication in case I need more than a single Novel Ideas Bookmark to record details -- but I have yet for this to happen.

Once a book is read, I can replace it on my bookshelf and file the card/bookmark in my office for future referral. I can file books on subject, author, or title -- and information is always on-hand.

If you'd like a set of my Novel Ideas Bookmark, you can purchase a pack of five for only $5.50 (free shipping in US) by clicking the button below, or you can print your own by downloading the PDF printing template available in the IDEAS-4U Yahoo Group. It's free to join the group (just add your email address to the forma at the top of this page or click here) Once you join, you'll find the template in the Bonus Freebies folder in the FILES section.







Let me know what you think!

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2 Comments:

Blogger Geek Academic said...
That's a brilliant idea! Thanks for making it available to the general public. Those index cards get out of control very fast.

I printed it double sided and had to expand it by 125% so it fills up the entire page. Is that the idea, or are you supposed to use two separate sheets of paper?
7:27 PM  

Blogger Don The Idea Guy said...
Hi Marianne ~
The original intent of the design was to print the two pages back-to-back, trim along the crop marks, and fold down the center. This will give you a 4x6 folded card.

Enlarging the image to fill the page will certainly give you additional room to write -- you just won't be able to store them in a small plastic card filing box when you're finished.

Have fun with it and let me know what you think of the product.
~DON
7:31 AM  

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