FOUND all over again
So, there's a guy named Davy Rothbart and he started a magazine and website called FOUND. The magazine is a collection of notes, letters, shopping lists, photos, etc. that have been sent in to Rothbart and collected together. One of my favorites is a little slip of paper with "Ticket for funny story starting in 5 m" written on it in a child's hand. I suggest you read here about the note that started it all. I had been following the website and sent in a couple of finds of my own but never saw them appear there. Eventually, a FOUND book was released (others have since followed). I bought it after it came out but then never got a chance to look it over because I started nursing school. It sat on my shelf, with all my other "to be read" books until yesterday when I finally had the leisure to crack it open.
As I read through the book, I was pretty sure none of my finds had made it in because I figured I must have flipped through it when I first bought it. But as I read the notes inside, I found myself secretly hoping I would rediscover some nearly-forgotten scrap from my childhood that a stranger had picked up and submitted. When I came to the acknowledgments page at the end of the book I found myself feeling a tiny bit sad both because the book was finished and because I hadn't found the time capsule for which I'd hoped.
Then I turned the page. The endpaper had one note on it that read: "Book was ok -- very informative -- If bored - throw it out. Love Mom" It looked familiar. When I looked down to the bottom of the page, I realized why. I had submitted the find! The note was labeled "FOUND by Adriana, Brooklyn, NY" How wonderfully fitting! That little gem waited about 3 years on my bookshelf for me to discover it.
If memory serves I found the slip of paper inside a very old edition of Bartlett's quotations that I purchased from a man who sets up his table in front of FIT on Seventh Avenue. He sells mostly fashion magazines, and quotes all prices in millions ("That's three million dollars"). The pocket-sized book caught my eye right away. There is no copyright date, but an inscription inside the cover has a name and the date Dec 25 07. I would have bought it sometime in 2003, perhaps, so one assumes the book was given as a Christmas gift in 1907.
So now that you know the backstory, I know you're itching to go out and buy the book, right?
As I read through the book, I was pretty sure none of my finds had made it in because I figured I must have flipped through it when I first bought it. But as I read the notes inside, I found myself secretly hoping I would rediscover some nearly-forgotten scrap from my childhood that a stranger had picked up and submitted. When I came to the acknowledgments page at the end of the book I found myself feeling a tiny bit sad both because the book was finished and because I hadn't found the time capsule for which I'd hoped.
Then I turned the page. The endpaper had one note on it that read: "Book was ok -- very informative -- If bored - throw it out. Love Mom" It looked familiar. When I looked down to the bottom of the page, I realized why. I had submitted the find! The note was labeled "FOUND by Adriana, Brooklyn, NY" How wonderfully fitting! That little gem waited about 3 years on my bookshelf for me to discover it.
If memory serves I found the slip of paper inside a very old edition of Bartlett's quotations that I purchased from a man who sets up his table in front of FIT on Seventh Avenue. He sells mostly fashion magazines, and quotes all prices in millions ("That's three million dollars"). The pocket-sized book caught my eye right away. There is no copyright date, but an inscription inside the cover has a name and the date Dec 25 07. I would have bought it sometime in 2003, perhaps, so one assumes the book was given as a Christmas gift in 1907.
So now that you know the backstory, I know you're itching to go out and buy the book, right?
