Maybe you can start using them again with the add-in I recently wrote. Take a look here. Admittedly, it doesn't save bookmarks in the Workbook_BeforeSave event, but on user request.
skywriter, because I use bookmarks a lot, I always have the Edit toolbar visible, where there are 4 icons for navigating through bookmarks. The last two in the picture are the icons for my new add-in.
Artik
Bookmarks