What do you find inside books?

Lately Maggie and I have bought nearly all of our books used, some from Elliott Bay, tons from Half-Price Books and a bunch from Bookmans (Tucson). Something I enjoy is finding ephemera inside a book left behind from someone else who had read it. When I was re-reading The Stranger earlier this year I found a receipt from someone who had purchased it twenty-five years prior at the same used bookstore where I did. Earlier this week, reading another Camus work, The Plague, I found an old Northwest Airlines boarding pass from 1993.

Look at this thing:

Those are stamped characters! From a daisy wheel printer! I found it fascinating how antiquated that document appears today, despite it being only fifteen years old. And yes, hello Heidi Tsai.

I try to do my part when finishing a book. I'll leave behind some scrap of paper that reflects where I was reading the book and, perhaps, when. Unfortunately, with the amount I've been flying this year, this has always been a boarding pass.