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| Hearsay: |
Abebooks has a neat little piece on the kind of crap and ephemera (more expensive word for crap) found in used books. A old pal and I performed a “guerrilla” poetry stunt about 12 years ago where we slipped little poems into books in used and new bookstores, hoping people would get an unexpected poetry jolt when they opened their PD James or whatever. It was a neat idea at the time, given our general hubris, but now that I’ve read this, I think money would have been more effective at brightening a day.
Be careful what you use as a bookmark. Thousands of dollars, a Christmas card signed by Frank Baum, a Mickey Mantle rookie baseball card, a marriage certificate from 1879, a baby’s tooth, a diamond ring and a handwritten poem by Irish writer Katharine Tynan Hickson are just some of the stranger objects discovered inside books by AbeBooks.com booksellers.
I recently opened a secondhand book and an airline boarding pass from Liberia in west Africa to Fort Worth, Texas, fell to the floor. Was there a story behind this little slip of paper? Was someone fleeing from a country ravaged by two civil wars since 1989? I will never know, but used and rare booksellers discover countless objects – some mundane, some bizarre, some deeply personal – inside books as they sort and catalog books for resale.
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June 5th, 2008 at 8:59 am
ephemera is the best part of used objects. My favourites, so far, are a note i found, from the Reverend to Sister Joan, in a music book i bought. Asking her to cataloguee some items, and hoping that the wind wouldn’t take her off.
Another fave, my friend bought a small evening bag at an auction, and there was a ticket from a casino in Monaco. Meaning that her purse has had more adventure than she had.
June 5th, 2008 at 9:20 am
I like the poetry idea. Me, I’m a TTC transfer guy. Simple and always available.
I’ve found the odd note, even a postcard once. Nothing too special but it does add to the fun of buying a used book.
June 5th, 2008 at 9:31 am
a strip of bacon???? WTF???
June 5th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
The Liberia to Texas boarding pass brings to mind my paternal family’s journey to America and in particular my aunt’s book: The Great Escape: Background & Memoirs of the Liberian Civil War
The weirdest thing I’ve found is my own bookmark made when I was in Nursery. (Not Kindergarten -cos I’m British) But I agree with Remi, I love poetry!
June 5th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
1969 Tonka catalogue. Back when Tonkas were made of steel and had sharp edges. Now those were toys!
June 5th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
When I worked in a library, the most unusual thing I found stuck in a book was a Werther’s Original (still in its wrapping).