# Strange things found in second hand books (and other items) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 7, 2015, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-found-in-second-hand-books-and-other-items/733852 "2015-10-07T19:43:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-found-in-second-hand-books-and-other-items/733852/101 "2015-10-11T03:05:54Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > Was it in a specialised work? It was not unspecialized. The other book was indeed “To Serve Man” ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-found-in-second-hand-books-and-other-items/733852/102 "2015-10-11T03:57:06Z")
> [@AncientHumanoid](#): > > It was not unspecialized. That explains its bug-killing duties, then; specialisation is for insects. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-found-in-second-hand-books-and-other-items/733852/103 "2015-10-11T05:52:27Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > That explains its bug-killing duties, then; specialisation is for insects. Ahh, so it was Stormship Troopers. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-found-in-second-hand-books-and-other-items/733852/104 "2015-10-11T07:36:38Z")
I don’t know how I didn’t think of this last night, but when I was headed off to college, I donated a bunch of books I felt I would never want to read again to a Goodwill store. Eight years later, I’ve decided that I really did want them after all, and decided to buy them again. Since they were out of print, I searched used book shops, thrift stores and garage sales. I saw a copy of one of the books at a garage sale, almost an hour away from where I used to live, and bought it. When I got it home…my name was written in the first page. ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-found-in-second-hand-books-and-other-items/733852/105 "2015-10-11T08:11:59Z")
Not all that strange, I guess, but I once bought from a second-hand store a book that held a 1962 postcard of the Dike Bridge at Chappaquiddick, and wondered if they still sold them. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-found-in-second-hand-books-and-other-items/733852/106 "2015-10-11T09:02:27Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > Ahh, so it was Stormship Troopers. Not sure I’ve heard of that one; do you have an opus number? ---
**Author:** ![excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e8c25b/32.png) [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/excavating_for_a_mind)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-found-in-second-hand-books-and-other-items/733852/107 "2015-10-11T15:56:22Z")
Years ago, when I was living outside Houston, Texas, I picked up a [Slaid Cleaves](http://slaidcleaves.com/) CD, _Life’s Other Side_, at a used CD store. This would have been the 1990’s, and I had only heard some of his music on the local “community radio” station. Anyway, I decided to get it and loved it. I looked through the liner notes and inside was written “Bill, look me up when I get to Austin. Slaid”. Slaid Cleaves moved to Austin from Maine in the early 1990’s. I ran into Slaid at a show a few years later and asked him about “Bill”. He said he had no idea who he was, but that was his first CD and he gave a lot of them away to anybody who would take them. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-found-in-second-hand-books-and-other-items/733852/108 "2015-10-11T22:43:47Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > Not sure I’ve heard of that one; do you have an opus number? G-something… I can’t remember… ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-found-in-second-hand-books-and-other-items/733852/109 "2015-10-12T02:01:21Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > G-something… I can’t remember… Was it the one with JR04 as the hero? He was a not-impuissant protagonist. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-things-found-in-second-hand-books-and-other-items/733852.md?page=5)