Things you find in second hand books

[BuddhaAtSea]

This morning a book I ordered arrived, this train ticket was in it. Made me wonder where they were going 10 years ago, travelling from East Midlands to St Pancras. The book was ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway’.

@TwitTwoodiniEscapeOwlogist I read that as “to Nurse E N Speller” (which may of course be completely wrong) but maybe the owner worked as a nurse in WWI

Not quite the same, but was decluttering and added Paul McKenna's I can make you rich to the charity shop pile (no idea how it made it onto the book shelf). Whilst moving the pile into a cardboard box, notes fell out, about £150! Talked to DH, neither of us know how the book got into the house or recall putting £ in it.

Years ago in "Into the wild" book, long before the film came out in the inside cover it said
"Eurostar to Copenhagen??? One way, December 1st" I've always wondered how their adventure went.
Another was a hand written note in a shamanic healing book, it simply said :
"Nichole Yes, Kate Yes, Jacob NO"
Really wanted to know if it was good or bad to be on the 'yes'

I saw this recently about things found in books…invitation to a hanging!
vm.tiktok.com/ZMF3LMj5r/

I once found a ‘mummy’ bookmark midway through a book I was reading, as in I went back to it and it was sticking out. I thought DS had made it in school and put it in to surprise me but it must have been left in the book. I felt so sad for that mummy.

This reminds me of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, the lead characters connect through a note in a second hand book.

I found an official invite to the opening of the Severn bridge in 1969. I’ve still got it, will try and remember to post a pic when I’m home again

That's too sad - I'd have to track down the author and offer it back to her, in case she hadn't meant it to be lost.

My mother bought a thriller from the local charity shop. Brought it home and opened it up to find her own plane ticket stub from the last time she had visited the UK.

So she had managed to donate her own book to the charity shop and buy it back again because she'd forgotten it was originally her book.

I have unfortunately found things that resemble bogies in books I’ve had from 2nd hand shops. Either that or crusty old food.

I did find a napkin once with a small shopping list written on it.

When I bought second hand book and found extremely sad is the lovely message written by relatives. That is heartbreaking, but happens often when you by some second hand children's books from charity shops.

My favourite is an unfinished letter from a child who had just started at boarding school telling her parents how fantastic it was and thanking them for choosing the school. It's beautifully enthusiastic and I hope she wrote another one so her parents knew how she felt. I often think of it when I see people deriding boarding schools on here and saying how dreadful they are for the children.

Not what I found in a book but a coincidence with a book.
I bought a children's book at uni which had a school library mark on the inside cover for a school nowhere near where I bought it.
After uni, me and dh moved into a different area, and my dc attended that secondary school (realised after dd1 had started so didn't effect our choice).

I found a cheque in a book once! Only 25 but....

I found an old Superdrug receipt from 1996 in a copy of Shirley Conran’s Lace 😂

DH found an old boarding pass in a book last week, undated but looked very 80s.

I found an obituary for andy Warhol, in a book about management styles.. always wondered about the ‘manager’ behind that.

I once found a book, dating from around the time of WW1, in a charity shop that had a love note written on a real, pressed leaf inside it. I didn’t buy the book because it felt strangely intrusive to have found and read such a personal, beautiful thing.

I love the book inscriptions. You could devote a whole thread to those alone.

I sometimes look up the address of the particularly old inscriptions, if included and if it's still standing, to find out where they lived then. If that's not strange., in order to know something of who owned the book before (though they're long since dead).

Great thread!! I used to work in a library and we regularly had books returned with one stocking used as a book mark. Another trend was unrolled condoms 🤮

I think they were shy and reserved at first, but conquered their fears and are now deeply in love ❤️

Happy New Year to you and them xx

I found a bank statement in a book once. A recent one too. I posted that back to them.

@Andsoforth Oh, thank you, you're totally right, I can see it says nurse now you've pointed it out.

I wondered if it said Nurse EK Speller? And that Kate went by her middle name as was common then.
Lovely thread.

I love this thread. I've never found anything other than names written in.

Love this thread, and I also love buying second hand books for this reason!

loving the bogeys, forgetful Mum and the naked DH photo 😂

I bought a couple of books off a stall at a car boot sale last year.
One of them contained a cheque for £5.
Which was dated 28 march 1978.
So Roy Stevenson, if you ever wondered where your £5 cheque went, I've found it 👍