BANGOR – Frank Perenick started reading more after his retirement from the publishing business, but traditional bookmarks just weren’t cutting it. So Perenick, 75, of Bangor took it upon himself to design a superior, place-marking alternative, “The Most Accurate Magnetic Bookmark Ever and Ever,” or MAMBEE.

Constructed of heavy laminated paper stock and two magnets, the bookmark can be fastened directly onto a page and includes an indicator of the last line read.

“It’s a very strong magnet, so you’ll always know your place,” he said. “And it’s made out of a strong material, so it will last.”

Perenick began designing the bookmark five years ago, and after some less successful models, his wife, daughter and grandchildren began requesting them, he said.

“I made it for my own use to begin with. But now they’ve been through three generations,” he said.

Perenick assembles the bookmarks at his home on Silver Road, attaching the magnets he receives from Bangor printer Furbush-Roberts. The company prints two quotes Perenick selected on each side of the bookmarks, one of them inspired by an old issue of Reader’s Digest, Perenick said.

“It says, ‘If it is to be, it is up to me,'” he said. “I’ve had that saying on my desk since 1987. And I decided it was up to me to make this bookmark.”

The opposite side reads, “Knowledge is power. The more I learn, the easier my life,” which Perenick said is fitting for high school and college students alike.

The bookmark’s message also may be customized to individual requests, Perenick said, such as for a fund-raiser or gift.

Perenick’s wife, Dolores, customized her husband’s product to secure unruly book pages on a windy day,.

“You can really use it for a lot of things,” she said.

But this isn’t the first time her husband’s entrepreneurial spirit has made her daily life a little easier, she said. A device made of two children’s snow shovels and a plastic joint that Perenick developed 25 years ago, dubbed the “Pick n’ Packer,” still makes clearing leaves from their yard much easier, Perenick said.

Perenick never marketed the Pick n’ Packer, but said he hopes to see his new product reach the consumer market.

“After Maine, then there’s New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts,” he said.

To order MAMBEE, write to the Accurate Bookmark Co., 69 Silver Road, Bangor, ME. The price is $4.95 plus tax, and 50 cents postage.