togglesmcbobbins's review against another edition

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3.0

This book is best to look over with friends and has been a stable coffee table book in my home for years.

labunnywtf's review against another edition

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4.0

What an awesome concept. A collection of random items found over the years, random pieces of paper found on the street, in student lockers, in the garbage.

Love notes, pictures, drawings, to-do lists, plans for world domination, explanations for why restraining orders aren't necessary. This book has it all.

There's an overabundance of humor, but there's also things that made me tear up. A message in a bottle found too late to respond to the original sender. A Polish prayer for a health crisis.

Just the most incredible collection of randomness that makes me want to take a closer look at scraps of paper on the side of the road.

pacifickle's review against another edition

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3.0

I love the concept of this book- Davy Rothbart made a 'zine of cut-and-pasted items people find anywhere. Out of context, the items are often hilarious and poignant. My millenial brain finds it difficult to read handwriting though, so I skipped over some notes/lists/letters that were written too sloppily. My loss, though, I'm sure.

trixie_reads's review against another edition

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4.0

What a funny, sad, touching book! The author of a zine of "found" stuff gathered together enough to publish a book. There are pictures, love letters, hate letters, threatening notes, lists...all things people found and sent in to the zine.

shinychick's review against another edition

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4.0

This is a fitting companion to PostSecret, because they are both semi-voyeuristic in their intention. This has left me with a profound need to find stuff and submit it, if only for the masturbatory-ness of seeing it online...

innae's review against another edition

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2.0

I am reading this slowly...fascinating read actually. Amazing the things/notes especially/ that get found. But I wanted to be sure to note page 83 - a note reading "It Devours From Beneath" was found. The folks at the magazine (now book) decided it was a small craft warning, and have a lovely photo of a giant fish about to eat a small fishing boat -- but really --- for Buffy Fans, we of course know this is a reference to Season 7 -- the last TV season of Buffy. Kinda cool really.

I was not overly impressed with this book. IT is interesting to see what gets lost out there in the big bad world, but a lot of it seemed repetitive, and I got bored. I think I will see if anyone is wishing for this book and send it off -- and I will be taking a break from FOUND before I read the second installment.

merrinish's review against another edition

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4.0

Sometimes, it is AMAZING the ideas that people have that make them money. In the "oh man, WHY DID I NOT THINK OF THIS FIRST!?" kind of way. See, basically, this guy picks up trash. For a living. Even better, he has other people pick up trash and mail it to him.

Davy Rothbart put a magazine together, basically a scrap book of scraps of paper, notes, drawings, signs, etc that he found. this book is basically a best of the best collection. And it is FASCINATING. Seriously. It's like digging through America's purse/wallet/backpack. Some of it is terrifying, like the "do you want to sleep with me, check yes or no" note found in the hallway in a middle school. Some of it is heartbreaking, like the pained journal entry a man made after discovering his wife had cheated on him. Some of it is simply adorable, like the note written by the "boys of the sixth grade" to the hottest girl in school. There's a telegram from the 20s, sent by a man begging to see if his girl loved him, because his parents were urging him into priesthood, but he'd defy them if only she loved him back.

Sometimes painfully hilarious, sometimes painfully awkward, and pretty much always incredibly fascinating. Human beings are weird.

tanyarobinson's review against another edition

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This is not at all what I was expecting. I thought I was going to read about interesting objects that had turned up around the globe. Instead it was a collection of found notes and pictures - mostly crass. I came across a few humorous things in the 20 or so pages I glanced through, but the majority of the notes were full of bad spelling, bad grammar, bad language, and were altogether crude and unappealing. I imagine I would have found more interesting things if I had persisted through the book, but it's not worth it to wade through the "trash" that has been "found."

mugren's review against another edition

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2.0

An interesting concept.

But, poorly executed. A lot of the notes are illegible, and many would have benefited by not having someone's commentary added next to them.

booksnwhiskey's review against another edition

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2.0

It was messy and too much on one page. It gave me a headache. Some of the notes were ridiculous and I did laugh. I would probably just want to see a cleaned up version that wasn't so jumbled looking.