A propos of this article in the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/dec/21/secret-histories-secondhand-books
Alas, most of my books are second hand, and yet I've never found anything as salacious as the commenters (below the fold) have. I usually find train tickets from 2005; occasionally a birthday dedication; often a 'my love, always' sort of comment.
I'll always make a point of writing a dedication in a book - to me, that makes it 'unthrowawayable', but perhaps that isn't the case for everyone.
At home, there's a Chambers dictionary on some shelves above the family computer. Tucked into the front pages there's a pressed flower, the flower my dad gave my mum on their first date: December 31st, one year in the late seventies. The spine on the dictionary broke many years ago. But it's still there, serving its purpose, its newfound purpose. I haven't used that dictionary to look up a word for years.
I know that rose.
ReplyDeleteOn a similar theme, I just bought a copy of Mishima's The Sound of Waves with the inscription "To Anne and Ari, We want you to be a happy couple like the couple of this story, from Hisao and Asako". Hisao is a male name and Asako a female... :3 I also remember the joy with which I found a copy of Michael Swanwick's Station of the Tides, and then realised that it was signed.
At the charity shop we usually throw out any books that have been written in, but a small dediation can easily escape the purge, or be deemed inconspicuous.
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