GREAT VARIETY OF OBJECTS USED AS MARKS IN BOOKS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 37, 12 September 1949, Page 5

GREAT VARIETY OF OBJECTS USED AS MARKS IN BOOKS

Love letters, engagement rings, lottery tickets, flies, bread crumbs and shopping lists are some of the great variety of articles returned in books to public libraries and Whakatane is no exception to this practice, according to the librarian, Mrs H. Carr. In mos': cases they appear to have been placed between the pages as a temporary book mark but somehow, have been overlooked the last minute.

Take, for example, the man who put a £5 note in a book to mark the place while he went to answer the phone. Somehow he never completed reading the book but he remembered the £5 weeks after his wife had returned the book to the library. A thorough search was made but the money disappeared. Engagement Ring Lost In one library the librarian was confronted one day by a shy young thing who had lost her engagement ring. She thought it was tucked away between the pages of Margaret Pedlar. A hurried search and there it was. At Whakatane there are not the variety of articles left in books although some really good love letters have made their appearance. Perhaps the most common thing found in books is the remains of somebody’s breakfast. It seems a fact that some people make a habit of spreading their meals over the

pages of library books. Cake crumbs, fat and stray pieces of bacon rind are not unknown, while in one South Island library a rather astonished reader found the remains of a fried egg marking the end of a chapter. He expressed his annoy-* ance at the wastage of an egg, which at that time happened to be in short supply.

Lottery tickets are popular book marks but few have had any realising value. In one library a raffle ticket was found which had drawn first prize in a competition for a ham. The owner could not be found and when he did eventually turn up in answer to advertisements he was too late. The ham had been disposed of. But of all the unusual objects that make their appearance in books flies must cause the most speculation. A few librarians have spent hours trying to puzzle out how they manage to end their days in squashed oblivion of library books. Catching Flies

Apparently the practice is for the reader to find some warm spot and sit with the book open on the knees. When an unwary fly lands on the opened pages a quick snap and it is imprisoned. The trap may be set again by opening the book at some other page, and so it. can go on indefinitely, depending how large the book is.

This pastime is not encouraged by libraries: To cut it down to a minimum the Whakatane Library issues marks with every book leaving the library, but even then some readers prefer to double the page over or add outside articles. Even so the scheme has helped in length-

ening the life of books.