The Bacon Bookmark
It started with a discussion of odd things found in library books and like all chats, it ended in bacon.
You can buy this bacon bookmark at robertpasternak.net
This bibliobuffet.com post seems to have started the bacon bookmark chat and she dismisses it as an Urban Legend.
Here’s another blog that discusses the bacon bookmark and offers a free one.
Shown is a Bacon of Hate bookmark made by Alice of Futuregirl. Image craftzine.com. Alas, I think those strings make it look like an equally un-halal tampon.
Librarian, There’s Some Bacon in My Book
By Jennifer Schuessler | January 8, 2009 | papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/
A few weeks ago in the Book Review, Henry Alford wrote about strange things found stashed (and smashed) inside books, from money and photographs to baby’s teeth, insect corpses and pieces of superannuated bacon.
Bacon. Really?
Out in the blogosphere, there seems to be a lot of skepticism about the bacon bookmark meme — or “urban legend,” if you prefer. The most detailed discussion I could find, a 2006 essay on the aptly named site Bibliobuffet, mentions numerous sightings of errant breakfast meat in libraries from Florida to Nebraska (the earliest known bacon-in-books sighting was in an Omaha library) to Washington State and beyond, but no first-hand accounts from librarians, let alone testable lab samples of “book jerky.”
“I have never heard directly from a librarian who has found bacon” in a book, Farley — who claims to have a collection of more than 5,000 bookmarks — said in an email message. The closest she came, apparently, was an interview with the creators of the library comic strip Unshelved, in which they talked about hearing first-hand from librarians who had found bacon. (Alas, the interview no longer seems to be available online.)
So, readers, where’s the pork? Have you ever found (or put) any meat products in your books?
(P.S. If you lust for a bacon bookmark but don’t want to leave a grease stain, or kill a pig, you can always knit your own.)