It listed butter at 49 cents a pound and a phone number with only 5 digits, which made me realize how much we take for granted in 2024, anyone else ever find something that old in a used book and just sit there staring at it?
I used to cringe whenever someone highlighted or scribbled in a used book, thought it ruined the value, you know? Then last Saturday at the Goodwill on 4th Street I grabbed a $2 copy of a 1971 field guide and found a tiny bookmark, actually a receipt, with a note on the back that said 'p. 114 has the mushroom sketch Dad wanted.' That little personal pointer made me realize those marks are just breadcrumbs from a stranger's life, not damage. Now I actually hunt for books with margin notes, the more specific the better. Has anyone else warmed up to penciled-in observations after seeing one that felt like a message aimed at you?
Last month I bought two used field guides from the same library sale. One had a typed index card tucked in the back, the other had a pencil scrawl in the margins about a hawk sighting near the creek. The pencil note felt way more real, like a tiny timestamp of someone's actual moment. Anyone else find the messy, cheap notes more alive than the neat, printed ones?