People say that entire worlds can fit inside a book, no matter how tiny it is. Books give us fearless heroes, relatable stories, and transport us to lands unknown. But books can also carry stories as physical conduits: stories of their readers’ past.
There’s an online community that shares the odd and delightful things readers find inside their old books. The subreddit, aptly titled r/ForgottenBookmarks, is all about the quirky and sometimes strange things people use as bookmarks, forgetting them only for its next reader to find many years later.
Bored Panda reached out to the creator and the moderator of the community, u/unmoderated, and they kindly agreed to give us a little backstory about the subreddit. Read our conversation below!
More info: Reddit
#1 Found In A Bible From 1895, “Ain’t I A Peach? Ha, Ha”
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#2 Found A Lincoln Campaign Ribbon In An Old Book At An Antique Store!
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#3 This “Bookmark” I Found In An Old Shakspeare Book Is A Voting Ticket From The Civil War
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The story of r/ForgottenBookmarks is quite an interesting one. Created in 2008 by the Redditor u/unmoderated, it was an extension of the blog they started in 2007. “I was the manager at my family’s used and rare bookshop and always thought these finds were interesting,” u/unmoderated tells Bored Panda.
“I shared a few with friends and decided to just make a simple Blogspot so I wouldn’t have to send out emails,” they add. Thus, the Forgotten Bookmarks blog was born. Throughout the years, that it was active, the Redditor posted many personal, funny, heartbreaking, and weird things they’ve found in the old books at their family’s store.
#4 Found In A Book Of Poetry Purchased In Used Bookstore. The Back Of The Photo Has “1 Year Old” And “1999” Written On It. I Hope This Now 25-Year-Old Is A Happy Reader
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#5 Found 20 Million German Mark In A Book From 1923. Time To Retire
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#6 Found Inside A Copy Of The Sirens Of Titan At The Goodwill Bins
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Although the blog and other social media accounts for Forgotten Bookmarks aren’t active anymore, in its heyday, it was quite popular. “The blog and the Twitter account ended up getting some traction and led to two books published by Penguin in 2011 and 2012,” the creator tells us.
Indeed, you can even buy the two books today. The first one is a collection of similar things to this list, and it’s titled Forgotten Bookmarks: A Bookseller’s Collection of Odd Things Lost Between The Pages. The second one is a book of recipes: Handwritten Recipes: A Bookseller’s Collection of Curious and Wonderful Recipes Forgotten Between the Pages.
#7 Homemade Bookmark Found In A Library Book: “Was I Ever Happier..”
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#8 From A 1955 Copy Of The Idiot By Dostoyevsky
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#9 I Used To Work In Libraries
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As far as the subreddit goes, u/unmoderated doesn’t have much time to partake in making sure things are running smoothly there. “I wish I could take some of the credit for the subreddit, but I’m probably the worst moderator on Reddit,” they quip. “I created it many years back to pair with my blog forgottenbookmarks.com and never really spent much time on it.”
#10 The Most Random (And Terrifying) Bookmarks Found At My Library Recently
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#11 A Beautiful Polaroid Of Eggs
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#12 Cool Vintage Bookmark I Found
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Life got in the way for the Redditor to continue posting on the blog and its social media accounts, too. “I took over the bookstore in 2016, and between that and having a young child and then the 2020 stuff, I have more or less stepped away,” they clarify. Well, the good news is that r/ForgottenBookmarks seems to be doing quite well on its own, having over 76k members and several new posts daily.
#13 My Favorite Kind Of Bookmark
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#14 Coupon Expired In 1990 – Restaurant Still Around Today!
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#15 Inside A 150 Year Old Book I Found A 4-Leaf Clover Dated June 17, 1923
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When we ask u/unmoderated whether forgotten bookmarks sometimes might get put between the book pages on purpose, they’re doubtful. “I always go with the assumption that the bookmarks were forgotten. The only items I think might have been left on purpose were leaves and flowers to be pressed,” the Redditor says.
#16 1950 Five Dollar Bill In A 1935 Cookbook
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#17 A Laminated Harry Potter Valentine Card From “Bella & Edward”
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#18 Found This Glasgow Tram Ticket In A 4th Edition (1923) Of The Great White South
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There was one curious object that u/unmoderated still remembers finding in a book to this day. “It was not a forgotten bookmark, but I did find a ‘baby book,’ one of those little decorative keepsakes where you fill in a baby’s height and weight, when they walked for the first time, etc. It was all filled out until the baby was two years old or so, [with] lots of photos inside.”
“Keep in mind, the birth date listed was from the 1950s or so, had the full name – but all of my internet sleuthing skills and even a ton of help from Twitter weren’t enough to find the person or any family,” the Redditor adds.
#19 I’ll Admit I Cried
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#20 Julie’s Wedding (2/18/1992) – Found In A Copy Of “You Suck” By Christopher Moore
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#21 Leg
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If you thought that the end for print books was nigh and nobody reads them anymore, think again! 2024 saw an increase in sales: 782.7 million books were sold in 2024, compared to 778.3 million in 2023. While the peak of print book sales was in 2021 with 839.7 million units sold, recent sale numbers are still better than those before the pandemic.
#22 Receipt Circa 1930s
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#23 Amy Winehouse Ticket From 2007 Found In A Second Hand Book I Bought Today
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#24 Victorian Hair Bookmark Found At Work
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The demand for print books is growing so much that Barnes & Noble even opened 60 stores all across the U.S. in 2024. That’s their biggest number of new bookstores since 2007. And don’t worry, corporation haters, independent bookstores are actually thriving as well. According to the American Booksellers Association, there were 2,433 indie bookstores in 2024, with 190 projected to open in the next two years.
#25 News Article From 1997 Found Inside An Old Religious Book. I Wonder Who Put It There
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#26 Found In A Used Book I Bought Online
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#27 I Was Told To Post This Here. Found In A Book I Bought
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The president of the ABA says that there are many different reasons people are opening up new bookstores. Some are opposing bans, others are championing diversity, while others are just looking for a career change after the pandemic. “Some are opening to give back to their community. And some still just love books,” she told Associated Press.
#28 Found This In A Copy Of The Catcher In The Rye A Couple Years Ago. When Folded, The Outside Looks Like A $20 Bill
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#29 Treasure At The Town Dump: A Forgotten Bookmark Brings A Final Reminder From My Dad
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#30 Bookmark Found In A Free Book
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What do you use to mark your place in a book, Pandas? A receipt, a metro card, a sticky note, a leaf, a nacho chip? Or, perhaps, an actual bookmark designed for that very purpose? Whatever it is, at least it’s a sign that people are still reading print books! Share the strangest things you’ve found in vintage books, and while you’re here, check out the books that are so strange you have to read them to believe they’re real!
#31 Lock Of Hair From 1879 “From A Friend” Found In A Book About The Meaning Of Flowers
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#32 Kind Of Awkward When You Find A Love Letter In A Used Book You Bought
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#33 Forgotten Bookmarks – Library Edition
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#34 Found This Receipt From 1985 In This Cookbook At My Local Thrift!
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#35 Found In The Bookshelves Of A Tip Shop On The East Coast Of Australia:
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#36 Found In A Library Book
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#37 Found In A Thrift Shop Book
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#38 A Little Surprise
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#39 Unknown Couple In My Old Copy Of Dracula
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#40 Found This Forgotten Bookmark In A Second-Hand Copy Of The Road Less Travelled
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#41 An Old Negative And A Brazilian Bus Ticket
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#42 Found This In A Book A Couple Years Ago…she’s Been On My Fridge Ever Since (I’ve Stopped Noticing LOL She’s A Part Of My World Now)
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#43 Found In A Book Of Decorative Painted Finishes
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#44 Newspaper Clipping About The Atomic Bomb In My Thrifted Copy Of Flowers In The Attic
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#45 Found In An Old Paperback Copy Of Bluebeard By Kurt Vonnegut
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#46 Flattened Smartee Wrapper
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#47 Found This Boarding Pass From 1981 In This Book At My Local Shop. Notice It Was A Smoking Seat
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#48 The Bookmarker I Found In My Old Les Mis Set Is Over 100 Years Old
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#49 Tiny Feather In An 1888 Danish Proedikener Ober Evangelierne
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#50 A Mcdonalds Receipt From 1996 In A Book That My Grandpa Gave Me (This Receipt Is 3 Years Older Than Me!)
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#51 Found This Lovely Surprise In An Oscar Wilde Poetry Book From Oxfam!
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#52 A Tamarack Twig From The 1860s In An Old Dictionary
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#53 Foreign Money Found In A Book
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#54 Okay Everyone, I Found A Toothbrush Mousepad In A Kid’s Encyclopedia
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#55 Actual (Home-Made) Bookmark I Found In An Antique Book
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#56 Found Someone’s 116 Year Old Travel Itinerary Tucked In An Antique Guidebook To Paris
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#57 Found In A Extremely Old Book I Bought At A Antique Store
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#58 Vintage Cool-Whip Lid Found In A 1971 Printing Of The Joy Of Cooking
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#59 Ordered A Book Off Of Ebay And Found A Clover!
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#60 Recruitment Is Getting Sneaky. Found This In A Book We Got My Daughter From A Used Bookstore
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#61 Found In A Thrift Store Book On Stamps. Does Anyone Know What These Are?
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#62 Ticket To A Shakespeare Play From 2001 Inside A Copy Of Much Ado About Nothing
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#63 Diet Coke Coupon From 1996 In A Thrifted Copy Of The Silmarillion
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#64 In A Bible From The 1940s
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#65 Weird Al Concert Ticket Used To Bookmark A Harry Potter Book. Pretty Good Summary Of Who I Was A Decade Ago
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#66 Found In A Second Hand Birdwatchers Book
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#67 $1,000,000
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#68 I Just Got “Hexaflexagons And Other Mathematical Divisions” By Martin Gardner Online, And Found This Bookmark In The Middle Of The Book
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#69 New Favourite Bookmark
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#70 Hygiene Is Very Important
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