The Books We Leave Behind

Have you ever been perusing a yard sale, or second-hand book store, or your local Little Free Library and found a book with an inscription written to someone else?

My office has a little shelf in the break room dedicated to a hodgepodge of paperback novels, left behind by previous employees or office visitors who never came back for them. It's become a sort of Little Free Library in its own right, and I try to keep an eye out for any interesting titles.

The other day, I picked up a slightly older book I hadn't noticed before and opened it up to read the dust jacket. Inside was written:

My Dearest Jane*,

I hope you love this story as much as I love you. 

Happy 10th Anniversary.

Love,

John* (March 1999)
(Note: Names have been changed for privacy of the book's previous owners.)

I stood there, oblivious to the chatter of my coworkers, rereading the message and puzzling over how it could have gotten left in an office break room. Did the owner bring it with her to work and accidentally leave it after retiring? Was the couple no longer together and the book was a source of pain, so she left it on purpose? I started thinking about all the books I own with personal messages written inside from my parents, relatives, friends...would they one day end up in the hands of a future reader who'd have no connection to the note someone took the time to write? 

I'd also like to point out that this wasn't a love story or a tale of triumph, it was a murder mystery. You know what they say, the couple that plots together... (muah-ha-ha!)

In a way, I suppose it's no different than the antique letters some people collect. I once met a woman who'd amassed over one hundred letters sent from Civil War soldiers to their families and sweethearts at home, a lot of them simply given to her because they were taking up space. 

This also reminded me of that old, library legend: The person who leaves anonymous notes in the books they return for the next reader to find. Though it hasn't happened to me yet, I've heard of people finding these mysterious messages. A friend of mine in college would leave note cards with external sources written down if certain information couldn't be found in the reference book she'd borrowed. I could never decide if that was brilliant, or if she just had a lot of time on her hands.

Maybe I'll start leaving the occasional book note myself. (The fun kind, not the reference librarian kind.)

So tell me, has there ever been a time when you've picked up a book and found a touching, or funny, or bizarre inscription? What was it?