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Forgotten Bookmarks blog, via MeFi.

I work at a used and rare bookstore, and I buy books from people everyday. These are the personal, funny, heartbreaking and weird things I find in those books.

(Librarians would have such collections, too. Or must they throw them away? Shhh... )

David left a letter from Julia in "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro.

The letter begins,

Dearest David, I am returning the beautiful necklace you gave me - not as a gesture if finality of our friendship, but because it is a special token in your family and I could not in good conscience keep it....

and Julia elegantly, gently and firmly turns him down.

David discarded it there, probably stopped reading the book, too.

The novel's narrator, Stevens, is a perfect English butler who tries to give his narrow existence form and meaning through the self-effacing, almost mystical practice of his profession. In a career that spans the second World War, Stevens is oblivious of the real life that goes on around him -- oblivious, for instance, of the fact that his aristocrat employer is a Nazi sympathizer. Still, there are even larger matters at stake in this heartbreaking, pitch-perfect novel -- namely, Stevens' own ability to allow some bit of life-affirming love into his tightly repressed existence. -- Amazon

Heading deeper to tease out the source of these bits of lives, I found that This Old Paper has already done the due diligence in a post titled, Of Popek's, Of Pauper's.

Taking a behind-the-scenes look at Forgotten Bookmarks , I found Popek's Used and Rare Book Store - the very source of those ever-intriguing old ephemera bits that we look forward to daily. Seeing the photo of smiling Michael Popek among the towering shelves of books in the accompanying Press and Sun-Bulletin article increases my happiness-factor, making me smile too...

Michael Popek's bookstore is in Oneonta, N.Y.

 Tags  Forgotten Bookmarks

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1 Comments

daniel e said:

thanks so much for the mention! we have a lot of fun finding/sharing these types of stories and connections.

daniel e
www.thisoldpaper.com

Link | July 29, 2009 1:07 PM
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