This is why I love reading used books and library books best. Here, look...a purple question mark, left behind, tucked in the folds. I've been given so many gifts over the years, underlined sentences, wrinkled bookmarks, old ticket stubs.
I love knowing that a book has passed through different lives, that it has lived its own life too.
That's awesome. What a colorful little slice of life you stumbled upon. Even better that it's a question mark—a reminder to be ever-inquisitive about the stories that surround you. :)
ReplyDeleteFinding a good book in a used store is its own little victory. I found a page from someone's homework once in a YA book, haha!
ReplyDeleteIt really IS fun finding tidbits like that. I like the library receipts that tell me what else the person was reading. :)
ReplyDeleteI love used books, too! Of course the bookmark that most stands out is when I bought a book for $3 and found a $5 bill as the bookmark. :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I was kid, I loved OLD old books at the library--they still used to stamp the date on the cards, and one book I took out hadn't been taken out in over 20 years! So I started taking it out just to give it some fresh air. :)
Agreed...a marked up, dog-eared, wrinkled book has so much life in it. It has its own history and story and leaves you wondering about the people who have loved and enjoyed it before you!
ReplyDeleteI once found a high school student's schedule (this was just a few years ago). I knew a teen who went to the same school and I thought about asking if he knew her - it would have been the whole six degrees of separation. Mostly I just find bookmarks, though.
ReplyDeleteIs that "The White Darkness?" I couldn't resist doing a little research :)
Wow. You're good.
DeleteBack in the fall, I pieced up a used copy of my favorite book when I was 13--Summer to Die by Lois Lowry (a house fire had claimed my original). The best bit? A post it inside the front cover that said "This was my favorite book when I was a kid. I read it 16 times. You can, too. Love, Stacy."
ReplyDeleteI love ya back, Stacy, wherever you are. I surely do. :-)
Gifts, one and all...
ReplyDeleteyes- you're question mark is cool-
ReplyDeletebut i cannot stand it when people underline or highlight passages. it is such a distraction and if it doesnt' speak to me i wonder, did i miss something b/c that passage is no big deal for me?!?!
also, often times the smell of smoke gets to me.
but, i'm a book lover for sure. i have an ipad mini and a kindle, but only use those on vacation. for me, i love the feel of turning the pages, and of knowing REALLY KNOWING, how far along i am in the book.
Couldn't agree more. I found an old postcard tucked into the pages of a novel that started its life as a library book -- dated just four years ago, addressed from a son on travel to his mother. It was a relatively innocuous message, but there seemed to be more happening between the words than we'd suggest. I felt like he was on an adventure, a quest, and wasn't sure when he'd be back . . . there are so many stories between the stories in our used books.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with this sentiment! It's a great visual representation of the way books and stories don't belong to just one of us but to all of us.
ReplyDeleteI love buying and selling used books. It's amazing to think who read it before you, where it came from, what they thought from the notes in the margin, etc. And its always nice to find surprises, such as your questions mark, in the pages.
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