Used books can be found in a wide variety for any reader including adventure, action, romance, western, literature, cook books, and so many more. Used book stores can be a treasure hunt for collectors and avid readers as well. Another great place for the avid reader to purchase used books is at yard and garage sales. Throughout the years readers of used books have found every thing from money to love letters to baseball cards.



Readers have opened up books and uncovered all kinds of treasures throughout the years such as a grocery list found in a novel by Louis L'amour or ticket stubs to a Aerosmith concert in an old Zane Grey novel. I know it may sound crazy, but you would be amazed at the stories used book stores owners could tell you. In fact, one summer I worked at a used book store to help out a friend of my boss. My job was to flip through the pages of the used books to make sure there were no hidden surprises inside that offend his customers.

While flipping through millions of pages of these used books throughout the summer I found an array of treasures that were hidden within the pages. Some of these treasures were comical, while others where quite disturbing, but all in all this was very interesting job to say the least. These used books had apparently been purchased from a variety of sources from all over the world and were an interesting assortment to say the least.

I had read articles about different items that were being left inside of books, which consisted of a Mickey Mantle rookie baseball card, a diamond ring, several handwritten poems, and a letter written by the author of the Narnia series. Throughout the summer I found several clippings out of a variety of newspapers and magazines for all types of recipes, some of which, I felt, were worth adding to my recipe box. I found several one dollar bills that summer and even was lucky enough to come across two ten dollar bills and three twenty dollar bills, which my boss let me keep.

I found a couple of obituary clippings from newspapers that had turned yellow through the passing years. In one book I found a post card from Ireland, a receipt where a credit card had been used, a grocery list, a picture of a little boy, and a voided check. Since the check had the phone number on it I decided to call the number and see if it was still the same number as the person on the check. When the lady answered the phone and I told her I was going through a used book and asked her if the name on the check was hers, I was really excited when she said yes. I wanted to be sure so I asked her if she could give me her address and it matched the one on the check. After several minutes of conversation, I found out the little boy was her grandson and she had given a bunch of her used books to charity. I told her that I would mail all the items I found in that book to her, and she was thrilled.

Some bookstores have created their own special display within their bookstore that display items that have been discovered in used books throughout the years that they have been in business. Some of these items include an airline boarding pass that was from West Africa to Texas, recipes, dollars, many newspaper clippings, and much more.