More to Love About Used Books Than Just the Price
I love getting books where other people have left notes and random things between the pages. A few weeks ago, I ordered a used book of wonderful Indian stories for my storyteller friend and Spain, and one previous owner had tucked several magazine pictures of Australian animals between the pages. The featured animals had nothing to do with the stories so far as I could tell, but it was very amusing to flip through the pages.
I visited the library today and didn't get any further than the used bookstore. My purpose there was to find a suitable hardcover book for Pretty M., who is visiting this weekend, to turn into an art journal. Gluing, ripping up, and painting in books taps a whole other buried, childhood desire, but I got stuck at the 50-cent shelf of teen fantasy books. On my way to the volunteer desk-and-cash-box, I snagged an old book of Cathy cartoons, A mouthful of breath mints and no one to kiss."
I've always been fascinated by detail and by "collections" of things, even collections of drawn perfume bottles or purses in the latest style, and while I sometimes get tired of the repetitive complaints of women's beauty and fashion in Cathy, I feel a special fondness too. My delight was doubled when I opened the cover and found the following note:
To my contemporary and soulmate---
this is us! (check out page 26)
I want us to read it together while I come visit. We can laugh and cry! Happy Birthday!
Nunetta
(Christmas 1983)*
*that will really confuse historians!
I turned to page 26, and there are three cartoons. In the top one, Irving complains that girlfriends--Cathy--do not cheerfully leap around--though mothers may, which leads Cathy to stomp into her mother's kitchen. In the middle one, Cathy is so busy, she doesn't have time to eat, not even a doughnut, even while she chows down chocolate-frosted doughnuts without tasting them. And in the final cartoon, Cathy obsesses over the consequences of wearing her best outfit on a first date and decides to stay home.
I speculate the note refers to the top cartoon since that is the only one that features both a boyfriend and girlfriend, though I can only vaguely guess how it parallels the mysterious Nunette's life. She must be a boisterous, leaping kind of person.
The fun thing is I was born in 1983. This book was given as a carefully chosen gift around the same time I was born.
It makes a little sad, though, to wonder what may have happened with Nunette and her contemporary (and what a strange word to choose to call one's boyfriend! I wonder if it was the mot du jour then) that this book wound up the in the library bookstore. More than likely, it was discarded with little thought, just one more piece of clutter mercifully disposed of. I have no idea how old Nunette was so it seems unlikely she died, but divorce and break-ups are common enough.
I did see one other book in the used library bookstore with an insert, though I didn't get it. It was a book of excerpts of letters from mothers, and a lady had stuck a photo of her mom and herself in their family living room in the middle.
From time to time, I have stuck something whimsical between the pages of my books for future readers to discover, sometimes myself. Unfortunately, I've usually been too meticulous with my books and forgetful of this mischievous scheme to carry it out with any continuity except perhaps with crumbs or smears of Hershey chocolate bars. However, there is one instance in which a visitor could expect a surprise. I used to collect every pretty leaf and flower that caught my eye and press them between the pages of heavy books, particularly the big, family, unabridged Webster's. That old dictionary probably has a small leaf pile in it. I also amassed quite a collection of four-leaved clovers while waiting for the school bus in the mornings in high school, and my chosen book at the time was usually the handiest thing to preserve the quick-wilting charms. There will be some surprised and lucky readers someday who read my high school favorites.
J. tells a fun story where his two trouble-making buddies came over to his house one day and pestered him to go to some movie or other. J. replied that he didn't have any money. The buddy who'd had the idea--who had all the ideas, if you know what I mean---picked up a book and a twenty fluttered out. From then on, whenever J. complained that he didn't have any money, his buddy retorted, "Open a book and let's go!"
I do recall that I have stuck a relevant article inside the front cover of a book a few times. I think I did that for a fiction novel about foot binding in China, and there are a couple more.
Probably my favorite surprise in a book is a Bible with a note from a man in prison and how studying the Bible changed his life. The flyleaves are covered in notes about Bible verses, and there's also a letter he wrote to a relative. I don't have the Bible here, or I'd copy it too.
It's because of these surprises that I like to write notes in books I give as presents and to receive notes in books I'm given in return. Sometimes I've even demanded a note be written and handed the book back to the exasperated yet flattered giver. No one has refused to write a note in a book to me yet.
While I'm ripping up magazines for articles and pictures and recipes, I'll have to keep an eye for amusing pictures to tuck in the pages of a few of my books. Just for fun.
Oh yeah, I have to go back to the library to pick out some audio books and regular books to check out since I didn't get that far today during my lunch hour. But that's no hard task.
I visited the library today and didn't get any further than the used bookstore. My purpose there was to find a suitable hardcover book for Pretty M., who is visiting this weekend, to turn into an art journal. Gluing, ripping up, and painting in books taps a whole other buried, childhood desire, but I got stuck at the 50-cent shelf of teen fantasy books. On my way to the volunteer desk-and-cash-box, I snagged an old book of Cathy cartoons, A mouthful of breath mints and no one to kiss."
I've always been fascinated by detail and by "collections" of things, even collections of drawn perfume bottles or purses in the latest style, and while I sometimes get tired of the repetitive complaints of women's beauty and fashion in Cathy, I feel a special fondness too. My delight was doubled when I opened the cover and found the following note:
To my contemporary and soulmate---
this is us! (check out page 26)
I want us to read it together while I come visit. We can laugh and cry! Happy Birthday!
Nunetta
(Christmas 1983)*
*that will really confuse historians!
I turned to page 26, and there are three cartoons. In the top one, Irving complains that girlfriends--Cathy--do not cheerfully leap around--though mothers may, which leads Cathy to stomp into her mother's kitchen. In the middle one, Cathy is so busy, she doesn't have time to eat, not even a doughnut, even while she chows down chocolate-frosted doughnuts without tasting them. And in the final cartoon, Cathy obsesses over the consequences of wearing her best outfit on a first date and decides to stay home.
I speculate the note refers to the top cartoon since that is the only one that features both a boyfriend and girlfriend, though I can only vaguely guess how it parallels the mysterious Nunette's life. She must be a boisterous, leaping kind of person.
The fun thing is I was born in 1983. This book was given as a carefully chosen gift around the same time I was born.
It makes a little sad, though, to wonder what may have happened with Nunette and her contemporary (and what a strange word to choose to call one's boyfriend! I wonder if it was the mot du jour then) that this book wound up the in the library bookstore. More than likely, it was discarded with little thought, just one more piece of clutter mercifully disposed of. I have no idea how old Nunette was so it seems unlikely she died, but divorce and break-ups are common enough.
I did see one other book in the used library bookstore with an insert, though I didn't get it. It was a book of excerpts of letters from mothers, and a lady had stuck a photo of her mom and herself in their family living room in the middle.
From time to time, I have stuck something whimsical between the pages of my books for future readers to discover, sometimes myself. Unfortunately, I've usually been too meticulous with my books and forgetful of this mischievous scheme to carry it out with any continuity except perhaps with crumbs or smears of Hershey chocolate bars. However, there is one instance in which a visitor could expect a surprise. I used to collect every pretty leaf and flower that caught my eye and press them between the pages of heavy books, particularly the big, family, unabridged Webster's. That old dictionary probably has a small leaf pile in it. I also amassed quite a collection of four-leaved clovers while waiting for the school bus in the mornings in high school, and my chosen book at the time was usually the handiest thing to preserve the quick-wilting charms. There will be some surprised and lucky readers someday who read my high school favorites.
J. tells a fun story where his two trouble-making buddies came over to his house one day and pestered him to go to some movie or other. J. replied that he didn't have any money. The buddy who'd had the idea--who had all the ideas, if you know what I mean---picked up a book and a twenty fluttered out. From then on, whenever J. complained that he didn't have any money, his buddy retorted, "Open a book and let's go!"
I do recall that I have stuck a relevant article inside the front cover of a book a few times. I think I did that for a fiction novel about foot binding in China, and there are a couple more.
Probably my favorite surprise in a book is a Bible with a note from a man in prison and how studying the Bible changed his life. The flyleaves are covered in notes about Bible verses, and there's also a letter he wrote to a relative. I don't have the Bible here, or I'd copy it too.
It's because of these surprises that I like to write notes in books I give as presents and to receive notes in books I'm given in return. Sometimes I've even demanded a note be written and handed the book back to the exasperated yet flattered giver. No one has refused to write a note in a book to me yet.
While I'm ripping up magazines for articles and pictures and recipes, I'll have to keep an eye for amusing pictures to tuck in the pages of a few of my books. Just for fun.
Oh yeah, I have to go back to the library to pick out some audio books and regular books to check out since I didn't get that far today during my lunch hour. But that's no hard task.