A little while ago, I bought a book called Capricornia from a used book store. Inside the book were 2 things: a business card, and a handwritten note on a scrap piece of notebook paper. Unfortunately for current me, past me never took a picture of the handwritten note, but I did get a picture of the business card.
Rick Steadman & Willum Cubbert
Architects & Best Friends
I there was nothing else on the card. I decided to look it up, and it turns out that this is a business card either from or based off of a musical called The Nerd. The card was being used as a bookmark, I found it nestled between pages 374 and 375.
The book itself was in excellent condition, too. fully intact, the hardback cover only had some dulling of the dye along the edges of the spines and on the bottom. The pages didn't even have a single little stain on them. looking at the pages from the outside, they're deeply deeply yellowed, a wavy pattern of slightly longer and slightly shorter pages can be clearly seen and felt. In the inside, the pages are a near perfect white, barely a hint of yellow in them. But on either end, between the cover and the table of contents, and between that one blank piece of paper and the cover, is a map of the world in which the story of Capricornia takes place. Those pages are definitely stained by time, a clear, uniform tinting of yellow all across the map on both ends.
I put the paragraph about the note here, because I don't actually have it anymore, nor do I have a photo of it. But I do somewhat remember what it said, "have a safe flight dear, I'm waiting for you at home". Wasn't those exact words, but close. it was probably written by the spouse of whoever owned this book before me, the owner possibly an avid traveller, probably had to go all over the place for work. I don't remember where I found the handwritten note.
None of the other books I got from the used book store that day had anything like what Capricornia had in it. This book I got gave me a little bit of a look into someone else's life. Unless a very unlikely series of events take place, and the book was donated by it's owner and not their descendants, I will never know anything else about who owned this copy of Capricornia before me. All I can say is they were married, loved looking at maps in fantasy books, went to musicals and collected things from them, took good care of their books, and traveled a fair amount. Also, most likely an American, considering the country I was in when I found the book.
I don't know why the bookmark was on page 374. Maybe it was the old owner's favorite page. Maybe that was the moment they realized they had read the book so many times that they had completely memorized it. Maybe that was the last place they left off before their death. Page 374 is right before the end of a chapter, if I was reading up to that spot, I would have kept on going until I finished off the chapter, personally, but whoever owned it before me decided to stop reading and mark their spot right there.
The book is old. It was published in 1941, and based on the yellowed pages, I'd guess that this copy was printed not too much later than that. It's absolutely older than me, by far, and it's probably older than my parents too. My grandfather mentioned once that he was a combat medic when he was younger, said his helicopter got shot down. I've never really asked more about it, but the relevant information here is that he was a soldier in the Vietnam War, fighting for the USA. This means he was in his prime during the late 60's and early 70's, and therefore it is entirely likely that my copy of Capricornia is older than my grandparents.
It's really weird, holding this book in my hands. It's probably older than any of my living family, and it was a cherished part of another family.
