When I titled this column, I considered employing a more sophisticated word than “used” to describe the dear, dusty, musty and cherished volumes that, like treasure seekers with metal detectors, we sometimes happen upon.

Pre-owned? Antiquarian? First-edition? Gently perused?

Bottom line, the books are old and they have wandered far a field from their first homes. Often, they are battered and bruised. Always, they are … used.

The pleasure of possessing this darling little volume by Michael Popek is the insights it gives us into who once owned and read them, and what they were thinking or doing at the time.

In his introduction, Michael tells us that his most important task, after he became manager of his parents’ bookstore, was buying and sorting through his acquisitions. “I loved the fact that I could come across nearly anything: a moldy copy of Ulysses, a Victorian-era scrapbook filled with trade cards, a first-edition of Steinbeck. This treasure hunt led directly to my fascination with forgotten bookmarks.”

It also led to the next step in his literary adventure. That of collecting “treasures within treasures, little bits of random ephemera left inside books, often untouched for decades.”

In Forgotten Bookmarks, Michael Popek (www.forgottenbookmarks.com) invites us to gently peruse his favorites. These includes photographs, postcards, recipes (I can’t wait to try the one for peanut butter cookies), and love letters. My god … what love letters!

Here is a quick look at what you will find:

PHOTOGRAPHS

A white casket draped with flowers and college banners on display in an old-fashioned parlor. Found inside the book The Fun of It, by Emilia Earhart. 1932.

A man in a saggy sweater with big ears, a big nose, demonic eyebrows, a sour mouth, and the face of an executioner. Found in Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol. 1936.

ODDITIES