(CNN)Many weekends, high school teacher Emma Smreker can be found searching for treasure. Not at the bottom of the sea -- but at the bottom of bookshelves.
In her search, she hopes to unearth forgotten mementoes left between the pages of used paperbacks at her local book store or thrift shop. She often finds old plane tickets, business cards or receipts hastily used as bookmarks -- small clues that tell a story about the book's previous owner.
But occasionally she strikes gold and finds a poem written between pages, a long-lost photo from a previous reader or a love letter meant for a stranger.
"Through the reselling or donating or borrowing of books, you're connected to another person in another way, especially if we leave notes in margins or a sticky note on a certain page or even a bookmark or a dog-eared page, which, god forbid," said Smreker, who teaches high school French in Oklahoma City.
"It almost takes the solitary out of books because you've connected to this person who had the book before you, as well as their impressions and who they were when they had that book."
Rest of the article here:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/16/us/teacher-searches-for-forgotten-mementoes-used-books-trnd/index.html
