Strange things you found on used books

[Anonymous No.9232792]

What weird things have you found inside used books?
Also if anyone knows whatever language this is care to translate? I found it on a spanish version if The Odyssey

[Anonymous No.9232807]

It's a rail ticket from Brussels airport to city. How fucking retarded do you have to be to need a translation to get that?

[Anonymous No.9232817]

>>9232792

Where are you from? Where did you buy this?

[Anonymous No.9232844]

>>9232817
Second hand bookstore. Im from Spain.
Thanks for the info other anon. What the fuck is a Brussels rail ticket doing in a Spanish Odyssey?

[Anonymous No.9232855]

>>9232844

That's fascinating. How a train ticket from up here ended up in a used bookstore. Love when this happens.

And it's not even to the airport, but from the airport to Brussels city.

Anyways, relating to the topic. I went to the library to read a book on the history of King Arthur. After reading the book 10 years ago, I discovered a note I had left in the book. Now I wonder if no one checked out this book for a decade or just left it in there. Nonetheless, was a fun rediscovery.

[Anonymous No.9232859]

i bought a book about stalin and it had a chinese guys phone bill in it REALLY EXCITING SHIT this thread is rad

[Anonymous No.9232871]

I found a flattened candy wrapper here boys. Am i part of the club?

[Anonymous No.9232876]

>buying used books

[Anonymous No.9232881]

>>9232855
Maybe a lit qt went erasmus hoping from dick to dick and used the ticket as bookmark and died of syphilis and her ashmaed mother donated it to some bookstore

[Anonymous No.9232902]

i found a dried and flattened bug. am i in?

[Anonymous No.9232940]

>>9232792

I once found an envelope with hairs inside. It made me feel so uncomfortable that I threw the envelope out the window. It landed on a neighbour's balcony though.

[Anonymous No.9232971]

>>9232940
aw come on, man! that was someone's only chance to ever clone their ex's daughter...

[Anonymous No.9233014]

>>9232792
My fave is when they have little messages written at the front.
'To Anita
This book made me think of you.
Lots of love
Jim
17 November 1971'

[Anonymous No.9233018]

>>9233014
>writing in books

[Anonymous No.9233031]

>>9232792
im redpilled

[Anonymous No.9233044]

>>9232876
>$20-$50 for 200~ page novels.
Not today, merchant.

[Anonymous No.9233056]

>>9233031

[Anonymous No.9233062]

>>9232792
Suspiciously curly hairs in a copy of Beowulf.

[Anonymous No.9233079]

I love when I buy difficult to read books and they have notes and highlighting in the first 20 pages that then disappear. It shows that I managed to finish a book some brainlet gave up on

[Anonymous No.9233150]

I have a second hand copy of the vocal score for "Carmina burana", bought about 10 years ago. In the back are two pages of manuscript lyrics for a song about Cleveland, mentioning Mayor Ralph Perk (served 1972-77).

[Anonymous No.9233152]

my English paperback copy of Being and Nothingness has a huge "Happy 40th birthday!! Enjoy the philosophy!" written on inside front cover and it's marked as 1990.

I also have a copy of Henry Miller's Tropic of Capricorn with some long message in German written from 1974.

I've also found a train ticket from Wales from the 90's in a book, i forget what book it was.

These were all bought in Canada btw

[Anonymous No.9233168]

>>9232792
on the last page of a book on alternative sciences.
A dried 4-leaf cloverleaf, an old ticket to a dancing lesson and a picture of some palace.

[Anonymous No.9233215]

>>9233150
Forgot to mention that I bought the book in Virginia.

[Anonymous No.9233229]

Airline ticket stub

[Anonymous No.9233236]

I own a pretty old copy of Gitanjali and on the inside of the front cover is a message that says "From the Library of [forgot his name and I'm not at home to go look for my book atm]." It wouldn't be that strange except that the message is a stamp instead of handwritten, so some dude out there had a stamp made so he could put this on all of his books. I think it's kind of neat, anyways.

[Anonymous No.9233252]

I found a Christmas letter inside a book.
From a Sara to a Russell, lovingly referred to as "My Russell muscle."
The letter is from 1996.
The last sentence:
"I'm just sitting in Couiha? right now in a silk white body stocking, my hair in buns w/ribbons, and angel wings on my back - with no place to go".

Don't you wish you were here. HA HA -<3 Sara

[Anonymous No.9233256]

This madman right here gave a 15 year old girl a copy of The Painted Bird

[Anonymous No.9233457]

I like this thread.

[Anonymous No.9233468]

I found on a used copy of Neruda's 20 Love Poems and a Song of Despair a message of departure from a professor to his girl student. I wonder how and why it ended there

[Anonymous No.9233495]

>>9233468
Did they bang

[Anonymous No.9233496]

>>9233079
or they realized that taking all those notes was a waste of energy

[Anonymous No.9233794]

I found a similar ticket (between Brussels and Town called Namur) in a copy of the Discours de la Méthode I bought in a secondhand bookstore in brussels. The Ticket had page and line numbers scribbled all over it, as well as small citations from the book. There was also a post-it note with an ugly schematic of the "pinneal gland" which made me top kek.

[Anonymous No.9233945]

>>9232792
a receipt for a human kidney i knew i shouldn't have bought used books

[Anonymous No.9234059]

I've got a book somewhere with a message from some Asian guy who is profusely thanking some Dutch guy for reconciling him with Jesus.
It ends with him saying the cancer has fully spread and he won't have long to live.

[Anonymous No.9234284]

>>9234059
god damn

[Anonymous No.9234771]

>>9233044
Where the fuck are you buying books you dumb cuckold?

[Anonymous No.9235452]

>>9232881
this

[Anonymous No.9235457]

>>9232792
An invoice in chinese for a container of sex toys

[Anonymous No.9235534]

>>9234059
*makes the sign of the Cross*

damn.....

[Anonymous No.9235567]

>>9233236
Like this at all? Just got a used copy of Sharon olds the gold cell and here this was

[Anonymous No.9235590]

>>9235567
>has to write his name on ex libris
>not having a personalised ex libris with your name
what a fucking pleb, burn that book

[Anonymous No.9235607]

A review copy slip telling you where to send in your book review
A dead bug
A receipt from the 1970s
A long strand of red hair
A stamp for the Marx Memorial Library International Brigade Archives
Girlish notes criticizing certain passages for sexism

[Anonymous No.9235621]

Got a spanish language edition of Albert Camus complete works from a thrift store. Someone wrote on the flyleaf in spanish about where she bought the book, and its 22 year journey to the hands of the original recipient.
>I'm also 22

It also had some dried flowers marking the section "la peste" (the plague) which is a very good book.

[Anonymous No.9235878]

I live in flyoverland so there aren't any secondhand bookstores.

[Anonymous No.9235900]

>>9232792
Found a flattened cockroach in a book once. The quitter had only made it halfway through.

[Anonymous No.9235907]

>>9232902
what kind of bug?

[Anonymous No.9235916]

A "program card"
It's like a punchcard but with no holes,only numbers.

[Anonymous No.9235930]

>>9235590
>>9235567
>>9233236
My intaglio professor told me he'd refuse ex-libris commissions all the time if the clients want their names on them

[Anonymous No.9235981]

I found an old receipt for curtains in a Maugham book once. I'll post a pic if I can find it.

[Anonymous No.9236094]

>>9235981
So about 70 years ago someone bought 4 curtains for $1.44 each, and shoved the receipt into a copy of The Razor's Edge published by Blakiston Company, Philadelphia. The cashier was apparently someone by the name of Pelnar.

[Anonymous No.9237365]

>>9233014
I like this too. It always makes me wonder if these people are still alive and what they're up to now.

[Anonymous No.9237995]

>not writing love notes to your waifu in books before you exchange them for others at the used book store
>not endlessly filling their stock with books that contain love notes to your waifu
I've already gone through a quarter of their little classics section.

[Anonymous No.9238134]

I've got a copy of War and Peace that's from a dude's girl friend hoping the book keeps him busy while he's out of the country(It was more romantic than that but I didnt wanna copy paste it out)
And another from The Assassination of Fred Hampton about how a grandmother bought the book and got it signed to give to her grand children, judging from the card it came with, I'd say this was from New York in 2009
It's interesting to see books that have some history behind them

[Anonymous No.9238137]

>>9232807
jej

[Anonymous No.9238160]

I found a bomb ass recipe for blueberry corn muffins in a library book. The muffins came out perfect. Exciting, I know.

[Anonymous No.9238181]

>>9238160
Fuck that sounds like a gem

[Anonymous No.9238285]

Found someone underscoring certain phrases in Anthem. I guess they took Ayn Rand quite seriously. Thank god it was in pencil cause I would've been triggered if it was in pen.

[Anonymous No.9238514]

I found some pubes and snot.

[Anonymous No.9238530]

>>9232792
I've found airline boarding passes for random people before. It's weird because it's happened more than once. I guess they were using them as bookmarks.

One of them was for an international flight between Australia and England or something, I can't remember. It was just places I've not been.

I then used them as bookmarks also.

[Anonymous No.9238682]

Never found anything, except some scribbling on the margins.
And stains. Coffee. Maybe tea?

[Anonymous No.9239070]

I found this photo of a child in a copy of Kitchen Confidential
Now its up on my fridge
When people ask I say its of a friend who looks similar

[Anonymous No.9239226]

It's quite a coincidence to see this thread today. I just went to the library and checked out a copy of Goethe's "Young Werther". Inside of it there was this envelope.

The website there is www.lacentral.com (a Spanish bookstore, apparently). The thing is the book is in Portuguese, edited by a Brazilian publisher (Martins Fontes), so I see no reason for it to be there. Also, the book has never been checked out before.

Next post I'll show the actual postcard.

[Anonymous No.9239856]

>>9232792
boogers and unidentified stains

[Anonymous No.9239865]

>>9233256
What's so bad about The Painted Bird?

[Anonymous No.9239874]

>>9239865
>teaching 15 year old girls that plagiarism is a good thing
He's corrupting the youth.

[Anonymous No.9239878]

>>9237995
top kek

[Anonymous No.9239883]

>>9238160
Care to share the recipe, anon?

[Anonymous No.9239887]

>>9239874
What's it plagiarized from?

[Anonymous No.9239894]

>>9237995
How dare you write letters to my waifu, you son of a bitch.

[Anonymous No.9239905]

>>9239883
I lost it. But due to the amount of butter it called for, I'm certain it was a Paula Deen recipe.

[Anonymous No.9239911]

>>9239865
massive rape depictions, including young girls
murder, zoophilia and lots of disturbing shit

>>9239874
kek.

[Anonymous No.9239914]

>>9239905
There should be books where recipes are listed. Like, a book about cooking.

[Anonymous No.9239940]

a MoMa ticket, a rolling paper and some bookmarks

[Anonymous No.9239951]

>>9239940
When was the MoMa ticket for?

[Anonymous No.9239969]

>Roberts Fisk's age of the warrior, signed by the author
>A receipt for a tin of tomato sauce
>Not a book but a model aircraft kit (Academy TBF avenger) I purchased unstarted but secondhand contained some research about RNZAF units that used it and what squadron codes they had. I was planing to finish it in an RNZAF scheme as a silent tribute.

[Anonymous No.9239976]

Suicide note that was stained but ripped up so apparently he didnt go through with it lol, found it in my diary

[Anonymous No.9240089]

food crumbs, a lot of them.
from a flaky pastry,
most likely a croissant.fucking plebs

[Anonymous No.9240129]

>>9239911
>massive rape depictions, including young girls
>murder, zoophilia and lots of disturbing shit
Sold.
I from sffg but added it to my list. I enjoyed Lolita, hogg and de sade, so this should be a piece of cake.

[Anonymous No.9240158]

>>9239969
>Not a book but a model aircraft kit (Academy TBF avenger) I purchased unstarted but secondhand contained some research about RNZAF units that used it and what squadron codes they had. I was planing to finish it in an RNZAF scheme as a silent tribute.
Why is nothing I write as touching as this?

I write crappy horror about my nightmares

[Anonymous No.9240176]

I found a note saying that the book was a birthday gift to someone. It wasn't dated, but the book was from the nineteenth century and the writing certainly looked from that period. Kinda neat.

[Anonymous No.9240199]

>bringing silver fish ridden books into your home on purpose to infect your other books

[Anonymous No.9240216]

>>9233152
>I also have a copy of Henry Miller's Tropic of Capricorn with some long message in German written from 1974.
post it my man

[Anonymous No.9240223]

>>9235607
>Girlish notes criticizing certain passages for sexism
this in every used philosophy book/classic i buy

[Anonymous No.9240227]

I've bought several used books with pretty long inscriptions in them. I remember one from a copy of The Master & Margherita that was written by this girl to her grandfather who was just getting over surgery/illness or something.

[Anonymous No.9240229]

This thread made me think
What would be good to put on a ex libris? i want people to wonder who was the previous owner when i die, even is just a passing moment of "what a pretentious faggot"

[Anonymous No.9240232]

>>9238134
>I've got a copy of War and Peace that's from a dude's girl friend hoping the book keeps him busy while he's out of the country(It was more romantic than that but I didnt wanna copy paste it out)
post it my man

[Anonymous No.9240238]

It's Dutch, you absolute turd.

[Anonymous No.9240264]

>>9240232
>Dear Julian,
>Thought this would keep you occupied during those long, cold, lonely nights overseas, for now.
>Stay safe and come back soon so I can be with you, love Shelly

Also the -y in Shelly is in cursive and curves into a heart
Wonder what made him sell the book

[Anonymous No.9240283]

I've got a copy of The Plague where every page is covered in notes and annotations. I almost bought a copy of On the Genealogy of Morality, though it also was covered in notes and annotations, instead of being insightful and academic, the person would just write shit like "yikes" or other passive aggressive shit to passages they disagreed with. It was a deal-breaker for me.

[Anonymous No.9240290]

>>9239914
Or there's this thing called Google.

[Anonymous No.9240316]

>>9240229
you should put the source to that image

[Anonymous No.9240319]

>>9234771
Barnes & Noble

[Anonymous No.9240320]

>>9240264
how old is it? dude could be dead, they could have broken up, or he could have just sold it/donated b/c life.

>Also the -y in Shelly is in cursive and curves into a heart
cute

[Anonymous No.9240333]

>>9240320
Ink on the pen is pretty faded, and this edition's copywrite pages say 1978 and 1982, so it's been some time
Hope they're alright

[Anonymous No.9241021]

>>9233079
>difficult to read books
people don't really annotate outside of high school assignments, do they? nothing that is assigned in high school can be too difficult

[Anonymous No.9241147]

>>9238530
WAIT. I lied.

Most interesting was in a book I inherited from my grandfather when he died. It was not an inherently interesting book in and of itself. I think it was a dated atlas of New Zealand maybe. But pressed between the pages about halfway through was a dried up little genuine four-leafed clover.

I've been thinking about getting that wee scrap of plant laminated to save it forever.

[Anonymous No.9241165]

Pic on the left appears to me as a birth certificate. It's in arabic(?) but has one finnish phrase "born 22.30"

3.550 appears to be the weight of the baby

On the right you see a woman working on a... I don't know what.

These were inside Rudolf Carnap's Meaning and Necessity.

[Anonymous No.9241172]

>>9235930

But why though?

[Anonymous No.9241260]

>>9240229
I have my name on it,an icon of a book and a line that says "collection"

[Anonymous No.9241283]

>>9232792
I found this cipher in The Importance of Bein Ernest... Still yet to crack it

[Anonymous No.9241318]

>>9241165
it's a sewing or weaving machine

[Anonymous No.9241357]

Found this as the outside-sleeve of my 1760 Livius copy

[Anonymous No.9241374]

not something i found in a book but this old latin textbook was found in the attic of my childhood home in the 90s when we were moving in. it has a lot of writing and doodles in it and i always found it neat.

[Anonymous No.9241377]

>>9241374

[Anonymous No.9241383]

>>9241374
>>9241377
edgy, i guess it was a middle school or high school Latin book. the book is probably from the 70s or something if i had to guess.

[Anonymous No.9241389]

>>9239951
04/03/13

[Anonymous No.9241398]

>>9241377
Sweet!

Funnily, I got my mom's old latin books from the cellar when I moved out, and they look just the same.

[Anonymous No.9241400]

>>9239887

Not only did he plagiarize but he lied and said that the Painted Bird was autobiographical. Kosinski became something of a celebrity writer and had other, more talented people ghostwriting his other books.

[Anonymous No.9241506]

>>9232792
In my copy of HG Wells "History of the World" I got newspaper clippings from the moon landing and 2 invitations to attending a dinner honouring the queen mother, from the 50's.

[Anonymous No.9241623]

>>9234059
post hoc ergo propter hoc: Jesus gave him cancer

[Anonymous No.9241635]

>>9241165
this isn't really a birth certificate, it's like a thing that documents the weight and height of a baby when for vaccination records and stuff. it belongs to a girl named Reem Abdelraouf.

[Anonymous No.9241659]

>>9241165
>>9241357
>>9241283
>>9241377
>>9241398


this is all so fascinating
good thread

[Anonymous No.9241677]

>>9232792
I once bought a new copy of Infinite Jest, only to discover that the entire contents of the book had been replaced with rancid verbal feces.

[Anonymous No.9242279]

>>9241659
If you think that's some good shit, check out what my 1515 edition of Tacitus is bound in.
Protip: It's an 11th century manuscript

[Anonymous No.9243493]

>>9234059
holy fuck

[Anonymous No.9243655]

>>9232792
>What weird things have you found inside used books?
Myself tbqh, pham.

[Anonymous No.9243670]

In my copy of Ulysses I found an 80s college essay assignment comparing the book to the Brothers Karamazov. /lit/ never changes.

[Anonymous No.9243685]

>>9233014
I found a copy of Finnegans Wake in the library that had "Merry Christmas Anne" on the inside.

[Anonymous No.9243726]

>>9243685
I've got one adressed to my grandpa. It's "Murphy's laws in one volume". (German edition for 8.- DM)
(translated from German: )
"Dear Paul,
you'll surely find a law fitting your current bad situation.
With best wishes for a soon recovery,
Hildegard + Peter,
9. Oct. 1986"

[Anonymous No.9243745]

This was written on the inside back cover of "Native North American Spirituality of the Eastern Woodlands". I have no clue what it means, but I always wonder what reason someone had for writing it.

[Anonymous No.9244965]

bump

[Anonymous No.9244976]

>>9239070

[Anonymous No.9245924]

>touching others' filth

[Anonymous No.9245992]

>An author I like talks to a conference in my college City
>All his books I have are at my hometown
>Decide to buy an used book and make him autograph that
>It's already autographed
At the end I had to buy another book, his probably worst, new at the library. Funnily enough it wasn't the first time that I bought one of his books already autographed