People lose themselves in books all the time.
But as a volunteer and former board member at my local library, I ve seen the phrase take on new meaning. People are revealed in astonishing, hinting ways by the things they leave behind. Unlike messages in a bottle, whose senders desperately long for an audience, the flotsam and jetsam tucked into books tell secrets never meant to be told. They are a keyhole peek into closed-curtain lives. Phone numbers without names.