My good friends at Amazon are so nice. They email me every day. Sometimes they email me more than once; in the wee hours of the morning, on the weekend, during a holiday. By-gosh-by-golly, there are so many emails from them I couldn’t want for more, AND they call me by name. Hi, Penny! We have just the books you are looking for – and they do. They seem to know all my tastes in literature and music and even some things I didn’t know I was interested in.
As I was sipping a steamy cup of tea this morning, there were my A-friends with a whole slew of books they knew I would love. Books, whether on actual or virtual shelves, always get my attention, so, I scrolled through the book jacketed recommendations. The title of “Forgotten Bookmarks: A Bookseller’s Collection of Odd Things Lost Between the Pages” made me pause. One click and there I was, instantly intrigued by this book about things left in books.
The author of “Forgotten Bookmarks”, Michael Popek, has compiled this collection of things he has found between the pages of books at his family’s used and rare bookstore in New York. From bookmarks to letters, bandages to pictures, ticket stubs to razor blades, anything and everything seem to be hidden among the pages of books.
Mr. Popek even has a blog all about things he finds in books, which I believe became the catalyst for the book (correct me if I am wrong) and can be found at www.forgottenbookmarks.com. It is a fun site to visit and there is even a children’s book giveaway there today.
I love bookmarks, though my page in a book is often left with a receipt for the coffee I was drinking, a napkin, or a newspaper clipping. I’ve been known to snip the corner off of an envelope to hug the corner of the last page I read, but I never, ever dog ear a page, even though I have a very pretty box that is filled with bookmarks I’ve picked up here or there, found in amongst family things, or been given by friends. Don’t get me wrong, I use them too, it’s just that odd things do find their way in between the covers of a good read, don’t they?
Not too long ago, going through a box of my dad’s things, I found inside a very nice collector’s edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “House of the Seven Gables” and little note written in my father’s beautiful script:
Please use clean hands when handling this book.
Have you ever found anything interesting or unusual in a book? Do you use a bookmark? What other things do you use to mark your place?
The folks at Amazon also are ver kind to me and let me know all the things I need that I didn’t even know I wanted or needed. But sometimes they really do get it right. I love the sound of this one–I collect bookmarks, but I tend to want the real thing for my books–I even try and match the bookmark to the book–how dorky is that. Must check this one out–thanks for the heads up–why didn’t Amazon tell me about This one?!
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I’ll bet they tell you things tailor made for you, Danielle, seeing as they are so kind to you, too. Aren’t we special? I may just put this on my wish list. The author actually includes pictures of what he finds and the books he finds them in. It was fun to get this from Amazon today.
I don’t think it is dorky to match the bookmark to the book. When I actually use a real bookmark, I do the same thing.
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I always use the part of the Netflix envelope you would normally throw away as a bookmark! Also as a side note, I recently ordered a used copy of AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YOGI from Amazon, and it came signed with the author’s signature and note, which the description did not detail at all. What a great surprise, right?!
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What a fantastic bonus to your book purchase! A great surprise indeed. I’m a silly goose and would have screeching with delight to find that inside. Enjoy!
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I used anything to hand to mark my place. Usually, that means slips from the library but receipts, old to-do lists, and those awful subscription cards from magazines are all fair game too. As for what I’ve found, the things you come across in library books are extraordinary! Letters are always the best (especially really gossipy ones) but my most recent delight was a calling/visiting card from the 1910s in one of the A.A. Milne books I had out from the university.
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Haha. I’ve used those subscription cards as well, Claire.
What an extraordinary find in the that book. You’ve been reading so much of Milne that it seems fitting that you would be the one to find a calling card inside one. Knowing that makes me smile.
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Lots of other people’s library slips…sometimes I get good ideas that way (if they’ve read the book I’m reading they probably have similar tastes)….
Amazon loves me too (and knows me too well.. it’s almost scary!)
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Isn’t it a bit off-setting that they know our tastes and subject matter so well, Sallie? It’s sometimes funny, though, when I’ve been checking wish lists for gifts and they seem to think that I’m a philosopher or musician or a five year old. I’ve found some library slips as well as probably left a few myself.
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Good old Amazon. And they make it so easy to buy with their “one click”. My current library book has a piece of paper towel marking my place! My favorite bookmark is one my son and DIL brought me from Korea when they went with my son’s college class. I don’t really collect bookmarks but they seem to accumulate. I don’t dogear pages either. A penpal sent me an old poetry book and it had an OLD church bulletin though it was more bookmark size -one side. In the same book a pressed four leaf clover.
Forgotten Bookmarks looks like it would be interesting. Thanks for writing about it.
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That one click is dangerous, isn’t it Joyce?
Love it! Paper towels and napkins need to be recycled and using them as bookmarks is an excellent way. Your son and DIL’s bookmark is a special kind. I love it when bookmarks are brought back from far away places, and two book finds from one of your penpals is such a nice thing to get.
You are very welcome, Joyce. I imagine I’ll be looking at used books even more carefully now that I know about Forgotten Bookmarks.
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This sounds like a very interesting read. I just found a forgotten bookmark in the book that I just borrowed from the English Teacher. What a coincidence! It was a hall pass for a student that is probably finished with college by now and signed by two teachers that are now retired. Both of them are friends of mine.
When I was teaching I found a sheet of paper in one of my classroom library books that said, “Be quit, Mrs. D. is watching.” Ha ha I am sure it was supposed to be quiet, not quit. The note was probably written during silent reading time.
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I had to add one. I had to say to my son, more than once, your dirty sock is NOT a good choice for a bookmark ! My daughter was just the opposite. She always had a neat bookmark and usually put her book in a bag between reading times so it wouldn’t get dirty.
Nobody, but nobody, would dare to dog ear a page in front of this Mom.
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That is a coincidence, Janet. With all that high school literature, I’m sure you will find more books of you spend much more time there. I like to find old library books in the cheap bins. They are usually cleared of all such bookmarks, but, if the book is old enough the stamp sheet with the dates is still there. I like to see the dates, though feel sad when some of hold a last date checked out in the ’70s.
Ha! That Mrs. D, making those students be “quit” during silent reading.
I’m so glad you came back with your son’s “sockmark”. That made me giggle, and the book in the bag. Now, that is a respectful reader from the very beginning.
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And here I thought I was the one with the special relationship to the good people at Amazon! 🙂 I have a very large collection of bookmarks, and I sometimes use them, but I also end up using receipts and whatever else is handy at the time! I have a box of book marks that were my grandmother’s, and there aren’t any really special or remarkable ones, but I couldn’t throw them out. They just sit in a box and I can picture doing precisely as I do, simply collecting them because they’re pretty, but not necessarily using them. I will make a time to enjoy Mr. Popek’s blog. What an interesting topic for a book! And to add just a bit more, I never, ever dog ear a book, and I’ve learned I don’t like to loan them out…I’m a little pathetic here, but others don’t treat the books as well as I do, and I have a problem with that!
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They like to make each of us think we are special, but, we’re on to them now, Debra.
What a treasure you have with your grandmother’s bookmarks and your memories of her. I imagine someday those cute little grandgirls will do the same. It is so frustrating to get books back in frayed condition. Best to keep them safely at home. Enjoy your weekend.
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Such fun, Penny, and the book looks fascinating. As a former librarian I have memories of the oddest things being left in books returned to the library, from a banknote to an unopened pay-packet (very quickly claimed) and from a very personal letter to a slice of bacon (cooked, of course). The last-mentioned is cross-my-heart true. 🙂
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It was fun to discover and now to hear what each of you has found in books., Perpetua. I think the slice of bacon has to be the most unusual bookmark I’ve ever heard of. I can only imagine finding such a thing in the pages of a book. Thank you for sharing your bookish finds.
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Penny,
What a fun post to read and think about. Yes, Amazon also knows me too well but I don’t mind. I do read the Kirkus reviews many times before I buy a book.
The strangest, most unexpected thing I found in my books was over $250 in $20 dollar bills that I had stashed at random when I had some extra cash. It was my private bank away from home. It was fun looking for the money when I needed it!!!
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Aha. Another member of the club you are! It’s fun when these unexpected books show up there, isn’t it Marilyn?
Wow! That’s quite a stash – and a clever way to save. I have a few hiding places, but, never in a book, Marilyn. I may have to try that, though these days I’m afraid it will be with $1 bills. Thanks for sharing this.
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This is a concept after my own heart, Penny. What a totally absorbing idea, compiling bookmarks! I know you and I share a love of the baggage each book brings with it when it comes into our possession. I am reading Jules Verne’s Around the World In 80 Days: purchased by Alan Audsley in 1938. The other life that book has had: it is enchanting.
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We do share that baggage, indeed, Kate. What a treasure you have in that 1938 edition of Around the World in 80 Days, enjoying the read and maybe wondering about how Alan enjoyed it as well.
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I currently use the many wonderful cards bloggers have sent me from their part of the world.
I have found drawings, ancient cloth bookmarks, letters and cards in second hand books I’ve bought. It’s always such a thrill.
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Those cards are quite meaningful to hold you place in your books, Friko, and I’m sure they come from all sorts of interesting places and bloggers. That is yet another exciting by-product of this thing we do called blogging.
I agree. It is a thrill to find these things in a second hand book. Thanks for you comment.
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Dear Penny, no, I can’t think of anything I’ve found within the pages of a book. Well, perhaps someone’s library receipt sheet that shows what books that patron has checked out. For myself, I have a whole slew of bookmarks that I use to keep my place within a book.
Like you, I learned early in life that books are treasures and that we don’t dog-ear the pages or deface them. When I was young–in the late ’30s and the ’40s–books were comparatively expensive for blue collar workers and so I have only a few treasured books from my childhood. But very early on, Mom took me to the library and we both checked out books for the coming week. What a joy. Peace.
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Those library receipts are what I usually find as well, Dee. I miss the old stamp method where you could tell when a book was last checked out.
We didn’t have many books of our own, but did have some. My dad was quite a reader and I have his – a treasure, but it was the library, both the one in school and the public library that fed my reading appetite. Isn’t that a wonderful memory to have, as well as gift, you and your mom going to the library each week?
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I’m afraid I turn the corner of the page down to mark my place. Just can’t help it. I’ll get my coat ….!
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You’re forgiven, Nicola. I admire your honesty, so leave your coat right where it is.
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I LOVE this post, Penny. I’m going to go looking for this book, too.
The oddest thing I’ve ever found in a book was one of Bess of Hardwick. I checked it out from the library. A third of the way through, I found some scribbled notes on a scrap of paper. They were from a friend of mine.
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Wow. That would be certainly be an interesting discovery, Andra. Did you give them to your friend?
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No, but I called her and told her about it. We had a long discussion about the book. 🙂
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What a fun way to start a book discussion. Thanks for getting back, Andra.
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I love bookmarks and I’ve had some lovely ones over the years but, similar to you, I’m most likely to use a coffee shop napkin. It must have been a thrill to come across that handwritten note by your father and based upon what it said, it is obvious a love and respect for books runs in your family!
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It was a thrill to find, Janet, and for an instant I was a young girl again, handling the book with extra care. He set a good example for not only a love of literature, but, a respect for books as well.
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As always, I loved this post! I’ve had this book in my head for a while, and really want to read it. Thanks for the great writeup.
Amazon is on its way to ruling the world, methinks.
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I think you may be right, Nan. I merely goggled the book you wrote about on cornbread, and there it was on my nice little list the next day from Amazon as something I would like. I’m glad you liked the post.
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