Marking Up a Book Without Ruining It

This is probably old news to anyone who has been doing bullet journaling, but I was 35 years old before I even considered that Washi tape could have uses outside the crafting room. This is a Japanese product that has been exponentially growing in popularity — just typing it into a search engine shows a plethora of shops and information! This is just a simple guide for how I use it, specifically, to my benefit.

Please note that some of the links may be affiliate links. At no cost to you, I may earn a few cents if you make a purchase using my links.

What is Washi Tape?

Washi is a traditional type of Japanese paper. It’s often called masking tape in online stores, but Washi is not really the same material, although some uses may overlap. For this page, I do not recommend using masking tape. In my experience, the adhesive and longevity of masking tape varies widely, and could cause damage. Washi tape, however, is used worldwide in libraries and museums due to its longevity, thinness, flexibility, and ease of removal (source: Wikipedia).

Washi tape also comes in a wide variety of colors, widths, and designs. Some are more or less opaque. Some, but not all, have a paper backing that helps you cut to a specific length before uncovering the adhesive.

How does this help with ADHD?

As always, I know my experience will vary. But when I sit down with every intention of doing a task, I can lose my focus so quickly. If my goal involves picking up a book for reference, that moment of flipping through the book and finding what I’m looking for becomes a major risk of losing my train of thought. When I flag a page with tape, I can find it almost immediately. If I’ve flagged several sections in the book, such as chapter summaries, reference tables, or Tarot spreads I want to try, when I pick up the book, I know what I want is going to be under one of those flags. I can check those specific pages quickly, rather than look for the Table of Contents or Index in the book or, worse, just flip blindly through it.

By using clear notes to underline specific sections, I can revisit the parts that stood out to me and reflect on their meaning. It helps me retain knowledge when I take my own notes or rewrite it, but that’s become untenable with most of my interests. Underlining this way is a good middle ground.

A combination of these tools has been of great use to me when reading books that discuss things I want to blog about, things I want to revisit later at a specific time, or useful tidbits of lore that can one day end up in a novel.

Using Washi tape in books

Because Washi tape won’t damage paper, I’ve been using it in reference books and journals to help create dividers or semi-permanent bookmarks (I mean, a traditional bookmark just falls out when you tilt the book, so by that comparison, Washi tape is permanent, but you can remove it).

When the book has multiple things I want to refer back to, I change it up between edges (shown above), corners, and short flags, both shown below.

Clear sticky notes

These are ingenious items that I found out about in a reading group. The adhesive, like most sticky notes, won’t damage the pages, and the notes are very thin, so they don’t add bulk to the book. By covering a paragraph with one of these, I can underline in pen or pencil, and I can remove the note if I change my mind. You can layer them with overlapping edges to cover a larger paragraph.

Where to buy

I’ve found many online shops with Washi tape in beautiful sets and colors that far surpass the availability of Amazon. Shopping Tip: The tape is sometimes sold in a relatively short spool, so you don’t realize why it is cheaper. That’s fine sometimes, but it can be an annoying surprise. Make sure to check the length, usually given in meters. I prefer to buy lengths over 5m, so I know they won’t run out too soon. The tape I’ve bought on Amazon has been shorter and harder to peel off the roll without tearing it. In this case, that fast shipping has never been worth it.

The sticky notes, however, I do buy on Amazon. Here’s a pack of many sizes, which is good when you want to mark up smaller books. If you prefer one size, I find the 3×2 notes fit many applications.

Before you dive into the stationery stores below, remember you may want to pick up a Washi tape organizer, too!

Disclaimer: Item quality may vary; I cannot vet everything personally. Most of what I have bought isn’t available due to rotating inventories.

• Etsy : You will find many small businesses and artists selling their own Washi tape. I encourage you to support small when possible! A single roll of tape that’s 5-7m will last you for quite a lot of bookmarking. Since I first went shopping for Washi tape, there are a plethora of new items on Etsy, and some of them are quite competitive to the overseas sellers listed below.
• Stationery Pal : My favorite due to low prices, wide variety, adorable packaging, and constant sales. They add new products all the time. Shipping may vary to your country; for me in the US it’s often a couple of weeks, but the quality of items is on par with what I expect. I appreciate that many items have a video showing what it is. They also have a reward point system and stackable coupon codes.
• Kuma Stationery : For whatever reason, shipping was much slower than I experienced with Stationery Pal. That said, I found some of my favorite tape here. I did not have such good luck with some of the stickers I bought. They were cut incorrectly, making most designs completely unusable. This link will give you a 10% discount and earn me $5, as of this writing. That’s discount code LXZ-KZMCXDW
• Notebook Therapy : This is not as cheap as the previous stores, but shipping is sometimes faster (but that isn’t guaranteed). They have seasonal, limited releases, and if you want a set of perfectly matched stationery with a beautiful aesthetic, you may appreciate that enough to pay a little more.