Turn Every Page: Why I love used books

Used books sometimes provide Easter Eggs to make your reading more enjoyable

Reading can be a very solitary activity. Even when you are reading in a coffee shop or library with others around, you are often reading next to someone rather than reading with that person. So it is an interesting phenomenon when you purchase a used book. In a sense, you get to experience something of what the previous reader(s) experienced. You can read notes, see highlights, and catch a glimpse of someone else’s mind as you read.

On occasion, there are unexpected surprises as well. Take the photo above. This photo was stuck inside a book I purchased recently, apparently used as a bookmark. The book was about an event in American history. There’s nothing on the back of the photo—no names, dates, places—and no rationale connection between the book and the picture. I don’t know why the photo was in the book, but it creates a whole different experience of reading, or at least a momentary diversion. It’s almost like the bookstore included a mystery story for free when it sent my history book.

Think about it: Who are these people? When did they live? Where did they live? You may guess that they were teens in the early 80s based on their age and wardrobes (that Lacoste polo is a good clue). So if they were born in the mid-to-late-1960s, they would be just shy of 60 years old now. I wonder what they are doing now, assuming they are still alive.

And why was this photo in this book? Had someone kept the photo in the book because it was one of their favorites and they wanted to see it often, or was the photo used as a bookmark because it was no more valuable than another piece of paper? Did they always use photos as bookmarks? A simple photo can be worth a thousand words. Or a thousand questions.

In my copy of Economics and Society by John F. Cronin, the first page shows it was owned by Catherine O’Roga (Webster College) and Dr. George Francis Donovan (Harvard University). With the power of Google, we learn that George Francis Donovan was born December 1, 1901. When Economics and Society was published in 1939, Donovan was the President of Webster College. He had gone to Harvard—as well as Boston College and St. Louis University—but he apparently overlapped with Ms. O’Roga at Webster. I couldn’t tell what Ms. O’Roga did after graduation, but Donovan had an interesting career as the Branch Chief of educational and cultural relations for the U.S. Military in Germany in 1948-1949, an adviser to the State Department in Germany, a senior adviser to the U.S. High Command, and then a cultural affairs attache in the American embassy in India. After these post-war world travels, he seems to have settled down and was the department chair for the education department at Marquette starting in 1966.

And now the book belongs to a random attorney in Phoenix. Fascinating.

Another treasure I found was in a book from the 1940s. Four pages of the April 1948 Industrial Bulletin from the N.Y. State Department of Labor was tucked inside the cover. It includes an illustrated “Glossary of Labor Terms” that heavily favors terms used in labor negotiations with unions. The Glossary appears to come at the end of an article discussing collective bargaining, so that makes sense.

This Glossary was in the same book as a small pamphlet from The American Economic Foundation entitled, “The Ten Pillars of Economic Wisdom.” That little reminder of mid-century free-market economics will make a good bookmark, I think.

I’ve found a lot of random things in books through the years, or found that I am the owner of a book owned by a mentor or someone I admired. These things are reminders that even though we pass on, or even if books are discarded, they last for generations. And the treasures inside provide a little bonus, a little glimpse into the life of another person—another reader—who gained something from the book just as we did. Even if you are reading alone, you can at least know that someone else turned those very pages before you, and that they were somehow changed by the book just as you may be.

Remember to turn every page. Enjoy your weekend. Please let me know whether you need anything.

Best,

Aaron