Sunday, June 3, 2012

Lost & Found



Working at the library, you find a lot of things forgotten in books - bills, tissues (hopefully unused), Post-It flags, personal photos, scraps of paper ranging from shopping lists to date due slips to children's essays, clothing tags, a thermometer, & an array of bookmarks. The pictures in this post are just some place-holders that have been found by staff of local library branches.



We at abcreads were excited to find a new book in the system by Michael Popek called Forgotten Bookmarks: A Bookseller's Collection of Odd Things Lost Between the Pages.  Popek is a used & rare bookseller. The items catalogued in the book are "the personal, funny, heartbreaking, & weird things" he finds in the books he buys. He also runs a blog of the same name which shows you some of his findings - & "the stuff" ranges from business cards to maps to tickets - & the books in which they were found.  Particular favorites of mine include the square dance instructions for a song called "Honolulu Baby", which was found in a book called Stylists on Style & the "video" found in The Adventures of the U-202 by Baron Spiegel von und Peckelsheim.

If you enjoy sifting through the detritus of humanity without dirtying your hands, you might also consider checking out the two books in the ABC Libraries' catalog by Davy Rothbart, founder of Found Magazine: Found: The Best Lost, Tossed, and Forgotten Items from Around the World & Requiem for a Paper Bag: Celebrities and Civilians Tell Stories of the Best Lost, Tossed, and Found Items from Around the World.  Found Magazine also has a website & they take their show on the road with an annual tour - the "My Heart is an Idiot" tour is scheduled to stop in Albuquerque on October 23rd!

What's something "personal, funny, heartbreaking, & weird" you've found recently?

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