Forgotten Bookmarks by Michael Popek

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Perigee Trade 
• ISBN-13: 978-0399537011

It's happened to all of us: we're reading a book, something interrupts us, and we grab the closest thing at hand to mark our spot. It could be a train ticket, a letter, an advertisement, a photograph, or a receipt. Eventually the book finds its way into the world - landing in a library, a flea market, other people's bookshelves, a used bookstore. But what becomes of those forgotten bookmarks? What stories could they tell?


By day, Michael Popek works in his family's used bookstore. By night, he's the voyeuristic force behind www.forgottenbookmarks.com, where he shares the weird objects he has found among the stacks at his store. 


Forgotten Bookmarks is a scrapbook of Popek's most interesting finds. Sure, there are actual bookmarks, but there are also pictures and ticket stubs, old recipes and notes, valentines, unsent letters, four-leaf clovers, and various sordid, heartbreaking, and bizarre keepsakes. Together this collection of lost treasures offers a glimpse into other readers' lives that they never intended for us to see. 

When I first heard of this book I thought it would be a perfect book for me to read. I love to collect bookmarks so I thought it would be a neat idea to see what other people used or what treasures people left in their books. I would recommend this book to any treasure seeker. A couple of the most interesting things I liked that were found was the birth certificate, the report card, the rules for the adult night club as well as the collection of four leaf clovers. I also liked to read the letters and try to figure out what the people were like that wrote them. I give this book 4 stars