| My Found Bookmarks
Found Bookmarks Sometimes I open a book, either at a book sale, in a second-hand bookshop or a library, and I find somebody else's temporary bookmark. Often I value the book the more for this find; and on occasion have even bought the book so I can possess the book and it's ancient bookmark. So I have decided to digitally collect these bookmarks and ephemera on this page. What fascinates me about these bookmarks is that they are often receipts, train tickets, bills or some such thing that probably dates the time the reader last sat-down and read the book. And since that date, the book has not been opened. They are fragments that mark time and place -- and a book that was never finished. I keep the book and its bookmark together, the bookmark between the pages I found it at. I have found this story - "Found in Books" - where someone has collected some of the items used as bookmarks.
Written: 28 January 2007, Geneva, CH
Links 3. - Gods and Myths of Northern Europe
Description of Each Discovery I intend to include a photo or scan of each bookmark I have found. I will also note the following:
The entries will be in added with the most recent find first. Not exactly a blog, but in that style. If the page gets too large I will create sub-pages, archives, manually.
My first found bookmark is one I no longer have, and I regret giving it away. It was a beautiful receipt from a dressmaker, dated sometime in the 1920s. It was about the size of an A4 envelope, but a little wider, and was made from old and beautiful paper, the sort that has creamy ridges and watermarks. On it was a simple black silhouette of a dressmaker sewing a dress. The printed text was an elegant old typeface, more fancy then Times New Roman. The details of the receipt were written in dark-blue faded ink. I found it in an old book in the Ministry of Defence's Great Scotland Yard (GSY) Library. My memory of the book is hazy, but I think it was a history of the Russian v Turkish war sometime in the 1870s. At the time I knew that one of my colleague's father -- I worked as a librarian at GSY -- collected ephemera. This must have been gold-dust for such collectors. A mint receipt of such beauty and elegance, and age. The date of the find was about 1997 or 1998.
Finding this bookmark was the inspiration for this page. Thus an ordinary person becomes a collector. I browsing the English language book shelves of the Emmaus charity shop in Geneva. I saw the unmistakable NEL 1970s cover, usually indicating a ripping read of some military campaign, or historic event. Leafing through the book I noticed an old British Railways reservation slip. 1971! I had to have the book. And it only cost 25 cents. There was something about this reservation slip that made me try to imagine how the book had laid there for nearly 30 years with the slip in it and had then been moved with the owner to Geneva. It was obvious to me that the book had been bought from a station bookstand. Perhaps the chap getting the train was hasty in organising their train and had nothing to read. A first class ticket from 17:15 to Birmingham would mean they left from Euston Station. To get there for the train they must had worked close by, not in the City, more likely one of the offices nearby. Wealthy enough to afford a first class ticket, a senior executive. The choice of book would indicate a man, interested, obviously in military history. I do not think they would be a military man, maybe a publisher, an accountant or some general office worker from the area. The day of the week was interesting, a Wednesday. Perhaps they were going to meeting in Birmingham for the next day, not a regular commute. And then this bookmark had laid in this book at page 48-49. The journey should take about 2 hours, so maybe they read for an hour or so, put the book down, stuffed in their briefcase and forgot about. And then, it went onto the bookshelves. Later on they must have moved to Geneva and could afford someone to pack their possessions - no time to weed their book collection themselves. Perhaps the person had either died recently or retired and had time to sort out their book collection - it was over 36 years ago - and their family had donated the book to Emmaus. Fascinating. By the way I read the book, and it was a good read.
3. - Gods and Myths of Northern Europe
I was browsing the Emmaus shop in West Norwood, London. I was immediately attracted by the title of the book - Norse Gods - always of interest to me. This story is quite complicated. The book is a first edition, but has 1.50 written on the inside cover, indicating it was resold second-hand, probably in the late 1990s, judging from the price and the time of the year on the ticket. Whoever was reading the book was on a outward journey to Stanstead, on a Friday, indicating to me that they were probably going for a weekend break. But Stanstead is the airport of cheap flights to Europe, a lot of package holidays go from there and late June is a good date for starting a holiday, before things get too hot and before the school holidays make things busy and expensive. So I guess the person was not a family person, or a school teacher. From the subject of the book they were interested in cultural things, or perhaps history, but quite happy to buy old books from second-hand shops and take such things to read on their holidays. They had got nearly half-way into the book, so perhaps they had read it on the train and plane, but not when they arrived at their new place. The book mark, is about 5 pages into a new chapter, that might indicate they arrived at their destination and just stopped reading. And then the book turns up in less than well-heeled West Norwood. Not the sort of place the wealthy choose to live - more like teachers, landscape gardners, dental receptionists, and general office workers and librarians. But the book must have sat on a shelf for a few years before the person discarded it - perhaps moving away from West Norwood and clearing out old stock from their shelves, a divorce, a new job? Fascinating, the little stories I can make up from so little evidence. Updated: 10th July 2009
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