"stuff" in books

[Nonny]

What have you found, good or bad, inside of books?

This poll prompted by a bunch of sand falling out of The Rosie Project last night. Into my bed. :?

Luckily I was reading with the book in a way that I could just brush it off onto the floor, but seriously, treat your library books a little better people!

I've found all manner of random things used as forgotten bookmarks while processing book donations for sales.  My favorite was a sweet, but terribly misspelled, little note from a groom-to-be to his fiancé inside of a wedding planning book. 

[snshne322]

Boogers. GROSS. The pages were stuck together.

[revjen]

I don't question things in books. I've occasionally come across some things that I don't want to know.

[Wallflower]

On the flip side, I did a reading of short stories (my own, it was a course requirement) when I was in high school. I designed and sent out invitations and used the last one as a bookmark, then forgot it and lost it forever.

[sassypants]

A medical bill was the most TMI one I got.

[aurora]

May 6, 2016 11:48:59 GMT -5 revjen said:

I don't question things in books. I've occasionally come across some things that I don't want to know.

This.

[aurora]

When I submitted the hard copy of my dissertation for my university's library, my fellow students recommended that I leave a $20 somewhere in the pages, then come back in a couple of years to see if anyone had actually ever checked it out. Apparently it's a thing.

I didn't do it, but I've always wondered how many dusty old dissertations on campus book shelves have money in them.

[snshne322]

May 6, 2016 12:57:55 GMT -5 c7 said:

May 6, 2016 11:32:48 GMT -5 snshne322 said:

Boogers. GROSS. The pages were stuck together.

[dragon's breath]

Not a library book, so probably less random, but my son enjoyed finding my "scholastic books" order form tucked into my copy of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. My parents never ordered the books, it was one I bought for myself in third grade (probably from money I earned as a "mom's helper" for a neighbor). It was filled out with the nick name I used to go by full time. He used it as a bookmark for that book and then left it in there when he was finished.

[charlatti]

Random bookmarks and to-do lists, mostly. I had a book recently that was full of crumbs, which was seriously annoying. I spent way too long shaking it over a trash can.

[tacokick]

I found a photo of one of the librarians in a silky/lacy negligee in one of the books I checked out.

[Nonny]

May 6, 2016 15:20:29 GMT -5 tacokick said:

I found a photo of one of the librarians in a silky/lacy negligee in one of the books I checked out.

OMG!  LMAO!!

[tacokick]

May 6, 2016 15:45:23 GMT -5 Nonny said:

May 6, 2016 15:20:29 GMT -5 tacokick said:

I found a photo of one of the librarians in a silky/lacy negligee in one of the books I checked out.

OMG!  LMAO!!

Even better, I felt weird throwing it out so I put it in an (sealed) envelope with her name on it and gave it to the info desk to give to her when she came in. I bet that was a surprise!

[AJL]

Family snapshots
Foreign money used as a bookmark

[dorothyinAus]

I don't really use library books, so it's limited to what I find. Both my mother and I have a bad habit of putting things in books while we're out and about -- grocery lists, to do lists, check stubs, cash received in change places. It's always fun to re-read books and find $5 or $20 tucked in between the pages.

I do have some older mysteries that have advertising postcards in the middle of them. The pop-out kind of postcards that were put in at the time of publishing. They're a pretty cool time capsule kind of thing, though they are a bit annoying because they are stiff and it makes it hard to hold the book open if you're reading close to them.

[bernsteincat]

I found a plane ticket stub that was 15+ years old. Kinda neat, I think the person had travelled to England.

[willyh19]

I've never found anything really cool.

I almost always find pet hair. Like, a lot of pet hair.

[juliabug]

I found a fake $20 bill once. It was a close forgery, so I took it to my bank to make sure it was fake before I tossed it.

[sassypants]

May 9, 2016 11:59:42 GMT -5 willyh19 said:

I've never found anything really cool.

I almost always find pet hair. Like, a lot of pet hair.

I know my three definitely contribute a fair amount of cat hair to library books.