Latest / Illinois Valley - Shaw Local / Paperwork: Look for those secret stories that are hidden between pages of books

Transcript

Paperwork: Look for those secret stories that are hidden between pages of books · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

0:05
Speaker 1: Paperwork. Look for those secret stories that are hidden between
0:08
Speaker 1: pages of books written by Lonnie Kine. This article is
0:14
Speaker 1: being read by an automated voice brought to you by
0:17
Speaker 1: Everlet hey, stop, do not dog hear that page. I'm
0:21
Speaker 1: talking to all you vandals who enjoy a good book
0:24
Speaker 1: but also think it's okay to bend the corner of
0:26
Speaker 1: a page to mark your spot or flag a page.
0:29
Speaker 1: Please stop. I buy lots of used books. I like
0:32
Speaker 1: them because they often have a personal and visible history.
0:36
Speaker 1: I find hints of a journey through the years, beyond
0:38
Speaker 1: wear and tear. Lately, I find myself gently and surgically
0:42
Speaker 1: folding back several corners. I can tell when a classic
0:46
Speaker 1: was read as part of a classroom assignment because the
0:48
Speaker 1: reader made studious notes throughout. That's okay. Every book has
0:53
Speaker 1: its own story besides the one crafted by authors and editors.
0:56
Speaker 1: I enjoy discovering those details. But a dog eared page
1:00
Speaker 1: I see as a broken limb. Here's an idea. Do
1:03
Speaker 1: what most readers do. Grab something clean and thin to
1:06
Speaker 1: slide into the book. Okay, I'm taking this too far.
1:09
Speaker 1: I'm not the boss of you or your books, but
1:11
Speaker 1: let's take a moment to honor that blessed little item
1:14
Speaker 1: we call a bookmark, which can turn into a treasure.
1:18
Speaker 1: I have a little cubby in my desk where I
1:20
Speaker 1: shove bookmarks or anything that could be a bookmark. Some
1:24
Speaker 1: are duplicates because I cannot throw any away, such as
1:27
Speaker 1: those from magazine solicitations. Most of them stay in the cubby.
1:30
Speaker 1: But hey, you never know. Maybe someday I will be
1:33
Speaker 1: reading forty two books at the same time. Perhaps bookmarks
1:37
Speaker 1: should remain with the book. What a great way to
1:40
Speaker 1: add myself to the history of books I read. A
1:42
Speaker 1: simple index card would be great, with my name and
1:45
Speaker 1: dates and some personal notes like dear reader quote on
1:49
Speaker 1: page one twenty three is amazing stuff like that. Why
1:52
Speaker 1: not give bookmarks a higher purpose. I am struggling, though,
1:56
Speaker 1: with what to do with a bookmark. I discovered when
1:58
Speaker 1: I bought a nice eighteen forty four edition of The
2:02
Speaker 1: Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugam. I have more than
2:05
Speaker 1: one copy of this book, but this edition had a
2:07
Speaker 1: personal history. I wanted to keep the bookmark. On pages
2:11
Speaker 1: one hundred and eighteen and one hundred and nineteen there
2:14
Speaker 1: is a brown tint the same size and shape on
2:17
Speaker 1: both pages. It remains as a shadow of a thin
2:20
Speaker 1: slip of paper stuck in the pages for years. The
2:23
Speaker 1: paper stock is thin and feels like newsprint. It has
2:26
Speaker 1: browned with age as newsprint does, but is an excellent condition.
2:29
Speaker 1: I suspect it should be in a museum somewhere in Chicago,
2:32
Speaker 1: because it is a used ticket for the Chicago Surface Lines.
2:36
Speaker 1: A quick snoop online tells me Chicago Surflace Lines ran
2:40
Speaker 1: the street railway system from nineteen thirteen to nineteen forty
2:43
Speaker 1: seven and was a predecessor to the Chicago Transit Authority.
2:47
Speaker 1: In nineteen forty four, Chicago Surface Lines operated the largest
2:51
Speaker 1: street railway system in the world, with more than three thousand,
2:54
Speaker 1: five hundred street cars and four hundred buses. The ticket
2:58
Speaker 1: is dated December eleventh, but there is no year. I
3:01
Speaker 1: suspect the owner got the book the year it was printed.
3:04
Speaker 1: On the inside cover is written Phyllis Gene Wickencamp, July
3:08
Speaker 1: nineteen forty four. This could have been one of those
3:11
Speaker 1: ake shift bookmarks used then forgotten. To me, it's important
3:16
Speaker 1: history and part of this book's story. I feel it
3:18
Speaker 1: should remain in the book where it made its lasting mark.
3:22
Speaker 1: I've had other interesting fines, including two one dollar bills.
3:25
Speaker 1: On one of the bills, inked across the top is
3:27
Speaker 1: this note found this June eighteenth, ninety five in Leaves
3:31
Speaker 1: of Grass Whitman. The bills sit on my desk above
3:34
Speaker 1: my keyboard. I cannot bring myself to spend them. One
3:38
Speaker 1: of my favorite fines is still embedded in the Complete
3:40
Speaker 1: Works of O. Henry, a nineteen thirty six edition. Inside
3:44
Speaker 1: I found a crisp but preserved four leaf clover. After
3:48
Speaker 1: careful page turning, I later found a total of twenty
3:50
Speaker 1: eight clovers. There's a great quote that says all this
3:53
Speaker 1: better than I have pulled from Library Confidential by Don Borchert,
3:58
Speaker 1: a memoir about his years as an assistant librarian. He
4:02
Speaker 1: made this observation, when a bookmark tumbles out of an
4:05
Speaker 1: old book, pristine and unwrinkled, it is like a gasp
4:08
Speaker 1: of breath from another century. Indeed, the perfect time capsule
4:12
Speaker 1: a book. Lonnie Kane, retired managing an editor of The
4:15
Speaker 1: Times in Ottawa, also was a reporter for the Herald
4:18
Speaker 1: News in Joliet in the nineteen seventies. His paperwork email
4:21
Speaker 1: is Lonie Jacaine at gmail dot com or mail The
4:24
Speaker 1: News Tribune four to twenty six Second Street, LaSalle Il
4:27
Speaker 1: six one three zero one