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What’s the strangest thing you ever found in a book?

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Re: What’s the strangest thing you ever found in a book?

#51

Post by O__________O »

jonnycomputer wrote: post #24

I wrote about this once before, but I had a very similar situation, except with family photos instead of books. The story was that someone's apartment was cleared out after they were evicted. Well, after a few years of the stuff sitting in storage, I got around to looking through it, and with a bit of sleuthing, I tracked down the person who the family photos belonged to and gave them a call. The call did not go well…

True, though sometimes it works out.

Found a diary hidden in attic and after some research was able to track down the owner and return it; they were happy and enjoyed getting it back.

Re: What’s the strangest thing you ever found in a book?

#52

Post by garyrob »

The wonderful book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki contains a page which is blank except for a drawing of a fly in one corner. Nowhere else in the book is it mentioned or any explanation provided. Having practiced Zen for 10 years, I have an idea that might explain it. But on the surface, it is completely strange and inexplicable.

Re: What’s the strangest thing you ever found in a book?

#53

Post by bluGill »

jacobolus wrote: post #20
spywaregorilla wrote: post #14

> He looked around at the faces in the crowd and said, “I’m opening the bidding at one dollar.” I about shit myself. I bid the $1 immediately to get things rolling. Well, after I bid, he looked around and said, “Once, twice, sold that man there for $1.” I just laughed… and wondered how the Hell I was going to get this pallet home and what I was going to do with all those books. > When I asked the auctioneer afterward…

The books were worth tens of thousands of dollars (sold individually on the second-hand book market, after being carefully catalogued etc.), but nobody interested in buying books happened to be at the auction and the auctioneer set a $1 minimum bid because he didn’t know anything about books and was more interested in disposing of the books than making money from the sale. The auction house could surely get significa…

Good auctioneers make sure that there is a buyer for specific things like that. I'm surprised that there wasn't a used book buyer in the crowd. Though maybe his guy didn't show up.

Re: What’s the strangest thing you ever found in a book?

#54

Post by MerelyMortal »

jccalhoun wrote: post #37

In grad school, I checked a book out of the library and found an envelope for a congratulations card with something like $50 in it in various small bills. I felt bad because it seemed like it was a collection for a gift or something but there was no name on it. But I didn't feel so bad that I went to see if the library could tell me who checked the book out before me...

I doubt a librarian would tell you who checks out what books.

Re: What’s the strangest thing you ever found in a book?

#55

Post by ska »

rendleflag wrote: post #44

Back in 94/95 at Goodwill I was thumbing through some random book and there was a 8x10 photo of an orangutan sitting alone in a metal cage. It wasn't a part of a book and the book wasn't about apes or zoos or anything related, it was just a random photo someone had stuck in there. I asked how much for the photo, and they gave it to me. I still have it in a box in my office.

IME it's pretty common to find stuff like this (photos, receipts, napkins, etc.) used as impromptu bookmark and "swallowed" at some point so not obvious it's there.

Re: What’s the strangest thing you ever found in a book?

#56

Post by mindcrime »

jonnycomputer wrote: post #24

I wrote about this once before, but I had a very similar situation, except with family photos instead of books. The story was that someone's apartment was cleared out after they were evicted. Well, after a few years of the stuff sitting in storage, I got around to looking through it, and with a bit of sleuthing, I tracked down the person who the family photos belonged to and gave them a call. The call did not go well…

You really never know how people will respond to having their past thrust at them like this. Or how they'll respond to strange phone calls.

I've bought many books over the years that had prior owner's names marked inside somewhere. On a few occasions I've bothered to try and identify/find the person in question. Once or twice I was successful, but I never bothered contacting them just to say "Hey, I bought this book you used to own". Well, except for one time.

I was on an Inductive Logic Programming / Prolog kick, and bought several used books on the subject. Something like two or three had all been owned by the same previous owner. I looked him up and found out that he was an academic and appeared to still be working, so I thought "what the heck" and sent him a note just to say "Hey, funny story, I bought these books and ."

Not sure what I expected, if anything, in return, but the response I did get was quite chilly. It was something along the lines of "Oh, I donated those to a place that was supposed to be sending them to Africa" or something like that. There was definitely no sense that this individual was happy to hear from the new owner of his old books, or was interested in discussing the subject.

Which is fine. Like I said, I had no idea what to expect, and certainly would have had no right to expect any particular response. But it just goes to show... you are correct in saying

"You really never know how people will respond to having their past thrust at them like this. Or how they'll respond to strange phone calls." (or strange emails in this case)

Re: What’s the strangest thing you ever found in a book?

#58

Post by jnovek »

daviddaviddavid wrote: post #40

I realize it is not the same as finding a friend, but I recently found five crisp $20 bills in a used logic text book at an Amvets thrift store. I opened the book because it was written by Irving Copi, who wrote my undergrad logic text. I was paranoid it was counterfeit, but it was very much real money. To make things better, the first $20 I spent was to get a pizza and the employee said a mistake happened at the piz…

I want this story to continue, and for each of the five twenties that you spend, some increasingly elaborate and unlikely good thing happens.

Re: What’s the strangest thing you ever found in a book?

#59

Post by ska »

MerelyMortal wrote: post #54
jccalhoun wrote: post #37

In grad school, I checked a book out of the library and found an envelope for a congratulations card with something like $50 in it in various small bills. I felt bad because it seemed like it was a collection for a gift or something but there was no name on it. But I didn't feel so bad that I went to see if the library could tell me who checked the book out before me...

I doubt a librarian would tell you who checks out what books.

No but they might try and contact them for you (context dependent).

Re: What’s the strangest thing you ever found in a book?

#60

Post by Zancarius »

jonnycomputer wrote: post #24

I wrote about this once before, but I had a very similar situation, except with family photos instead of books. The story was that someone's apartment was cleared out after they were evicted. Well, after a few years of the stuff sitting in storage, I got around to looking through it, and with a bit of sleuthing, I tracked down the person who the family photos belonged to and gave them a call. The call did not go well…

You can beat yourself up over it, but the reality is that you're right: Some people handle the past differently from others.

You did the right thing by attempting to reunite them with their (presumably) priceless property. Most people likely wouldn't react this way. I know my parents lost a TON of personal items, including countless photos, when the moving company that was hired by the USAF to move them out of CA to another assignment went under. I'd imagine they'd both have been amazed, surprised, and incredibly grateful for someone to have gone through the trouble you did.

...but who knows? Perhaps there was a divorce or bad blood in that family. At least you can say for certain you have a clear conscience, though!

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