The story of r/ForgottenBookmarks is quite an interesting one. Created in 2008 by the Redditor u/unmoderated, it was an extension of the blog they started in 2007. "I was the manager at my family's used and rare bookshop and always thought these finds were interesting," u/unmoderated tells Bored Panda.
"I shared a few with friends and decided to just make a simple Blogspot so I wouldn't have to send out emails," they add. Thus, the Forgotten Bookmarks blog was born. Throughout the years, that it was active, the Redditor posted many personal, funny, heartbreaking, and weird things they've found in the old books at their family's store.
Although the blog and other social media accounts for Forgotten Bookmarks aren't active anymore, in its heyday, it was quite popular. "The blog and the Twitter account ended up getting some traction and led to two books published by Penguin in 2011 and 2012," the creator tells us.
Indeed, you can even buy the two books today. The first one is a collection of similar things to this list, and it's titled Forgotten Bookmarks: A Bookseller's Collection of Odd Things Lost Between The Pages. The second one is a book of recipes: Handwritten Recipes: A Bookseller's Collection of Curious and Wonderful Recipes Forgotten Between the Pages.
#7 This "Bookmark" I Found In An Old Shakspeare Book Is A Voting Ticket From The Civil War
#9 Found In A Book Of Poetry Purchased In Used Bookstore. The Back Of The Photo Has "1 Year Old" And "1999" Written On It. I Hope This Now 25-Year-Old Is A Happy Reader
As far as the subreddit goes, u/unmoderated doesn't have much time to partake in making sure things are running smoothly there. "I wish I could take some of the credit for the subreddit, but I'm probably the worst moderator on Reddit," they quip. "I created it many years back to pair with my blog forgottenbookmarks.com and never really spent much time on it."
Life got in the way for the Redditor to continue posting on the blog and its social media accounts, too. "I took over the bookstore in 2016, and between that and having a young child and then the 2020 stuff, I have more or less stepped away," they clarify. Well, the good news is that r/ForgottenBookmarks seems to be doing quite well on its own, having over 76k members and several new posts daily.
#13 News Article From 1997 Found Inside An Old Religious Book. I Wonder Who Put It There
When we ask u/unmoderated whether forgotten bookmarks sometimes might get put between the book pages on purpose, they're doubtful. "I always go with the assumption that the bookmarks were forgotten. The only items I think might have been left on purpose were leaves and flowers to be pressed," the Redditor says.
#18 Found Someone’s 116 Year Old Travel Itinerary Tucked In An Antique Guidebook To Paris
There was one curious object that u/unmoderated still remembers finding in a book to this day. "It was not a forgotten bookmark, but I did find a 'baby book,' one of those little decorative keepsakes where you fill in a baby's height and weight, when they walked for the first time, etc. It was all filled out until the baby was two years old or so, [with] lots of photos inside."
"Keep in mind, the birth date listed was from the 1950s or so, had the full name – but all of my internet sleuthing skills and even a ton of help from Twitter weren't enough to find the person or any family," the Redditor adds.
