Weird things I Found in Used Books

Sometimes when I look over my overflowing bookshelves, I think “I should buy less and check out more books.” Between hoarding books and bookmarks, I always end up with interesting gems when I check out rather than buy. But sometimes the items I find are weird.

An Ace of Spades -Let’s start out with something normal. It was in a copy of On the Road by Jack Kerouac but not just any copy of On the Road. The original version wasn’t available at the time I was looking for it but what they did have was the unedited “scroll edition.” I found a typical Bicycle Ace of Spaces within. There is something eye-rollingly pretentious about finding these two things together. Like the protagonist of On the Road put it there. This book was from my college’s library which was already full of men who thought they were Jack Kerouac so I had more reasons than one to repeatedly eye-roll myself cross eyed. I hated that book btw.

An Eyelash -I hate hate HATE this one. It haunts me even now. I don’t even remember what the book was. All I remember was that it was an old hardcover I needed for class. I was in bed, opening up my new library book and I see this thick-a$$ eyelash in the middle. I was lying down too so before I could stop it, the damn thing was sliding down the book (it even made a scratching noise on the way down) and landed somewhere on my body. I honestly would have rather had a small spider land on me.

A Tiny Polaroid Picture -Nothing vintage. It appeared to be a recent attempt at a selfie but it was blurred because something furry got in the way. The angle suggests this was a selfie taken while lying in bed. Us readers seem to share a distaste for reading anywhere else. The furball’s mouth shape suggested it’s a cat.

A Postcard from Disneyworld -That’s not the weird part. I’m not taking a picture for the anonymous card writer’s sake but also it was uhhh pretty racy.

Noice

A handwritten dedication -Don’t remember the book but this was from a used bookstore. The sender signed it to someone named Dan. It was a sweet note about how Dan was their one and only and they couldn’t imagine being with anyone else and blah blah sweet nothings. The book was pretty old too so the state of that relationship is up in the air except maybe... This begs the question: WHY’D YOU SELL THE BOOK DAN?

A BOOK WITHIN A BOOK -As a Tarot collector, I also enjoy reading books on Tarot. One Tarot book I got from a used New Age bookstore also had a little white book -a small booklet that comes with a box of Tarot cards. This one was my favorite find.

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