It’s always fun to open a favorite book and find something unusual that I used as a bookmark the last time I read it (granted, not always fun if it’s a borrowed book and the bookmark is more “bizarre” than simply “unusual”!). I’m talking about benign items that bring back a memory – a phone number, shopping list, boarding pass, sometimes an article from the newspaper about the book or author.
Leave a comment here with the most unusual bookmark you’ve discovered in the pages of a book, then click over to AbeBooks and read their great article about found objects – some offbeat, some historically or intrinsically valuable.
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I love this article about items found in books. I was going through the stack of books next to my husband’s side of the bed a while ago and a little report card from one of our children’s first ski lessons fell out. “Knows how to do his french fries. Needs work on his pizza!” Of course, I quickly put it in their baby book; it’s way too valuable for a bookmark.
Ok. This will be a long story. But it is awesome, I swear.
Daniel’s mother is a pychologist and one of her patients is a man who has permisson to walk around naked in Frankfurt. He came to our house one day and wanted me to take a picture of him and Daniel to prove that he had been there. So I did.
Around the same time, we were planning a trip to the Baltic states, but we decided not to go, so we returned the lonely planet guide to the store.
Six months later, we decided we would in fact go to the Baltic states, and so I was flipping through the guide book in the bookstore and can you guess what I found?
That’s right – the picture of Daniel and the naked guy, which I had apparently used as a bookmark, had been hanging out in this book in this bookstore for months!
Karen – what a great memory to find! I just hope that in years to come you can remember what the “french fries” and “pizza” skills are, or you’ll really be scratching your head!
Lenore – wow! I’m glad no one else found that particular bookmark (especially if coincidentally the finder knows Daniel). I hope you enjoyed your trip to the Baltic states (and used a different bookmark while you toured!)
I recently started using magnetic bookmarks. Generally that is what I find. However I think one time I used a dark chocolate candy bar as the bookmarks. tasty way to start a read.
My story isn’t as intersting, but I’ll mention it anyway! I once found a sticker I’d used as a bookmark that said, ‘Jimmy Buffet for President!’
I use whatever ends up on my bedside table, but for a while it’s been a ticket stub from a Red Sox game and, when I have more than one book going at once, a ticket stub from seeing Cloverfield back in February.
You said on my blog (thanks for stopping by, BTW!) that you’ve signed up for the weekly emails from Brookline Booksmith, and you’ll notice in there that they do a “UBC find of the week” featuring something found in a book in the Used Book Cellar (http://www.brooklinebooksmith.com/events/findarchive.htm) I always look forward to that part of the weekly email.
I got a beautiful handmade birthday card from my friend Michele today – a new bookmark! Maybe I’ll “plant” it in one of my current reads and discover it down the road (or lend the book out and let a friend find it)
Lisa, politics on my blog … I promised there wouldn’t be politics here!!
I’m smiling at the thought of Margaritaville in the Oval Office.
I love this post. I am a big fan of using old post cards as bookmarks. I have a bunch saved in a box from my college travel years, and I take one out for each book I read and mark my page–then every once in a while, I look it over and there’s a memory. Lovely!
Melissa – great way to recycle postcards! I mark my spot in magazines by using those cardstock subscription inserts. Postcards are much more appealing.
[...] books, even if that bookmark is an empty envelope, store receipt, or corner of the newspaper. See this post for more on my musings about unusual [...]
[...] ran a post about unusual bookmarks a little over a year ago. At that time, Pam suggested that I take a look at Brookline [...]