Good Idea, BAD Execution | Found: The Best Lost, Tossed, and Forgotten Items from Around the World

Meh. | Found: The Best Lost, Tossed, and Forgotten Items from Around the World | Davy Rothbart

books:


	• Found: The Best Lost, Tossed, and Forgotten Items from Around the World Davy Rothbart Fireside, 2004 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 54 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A PEEK INTO OTHER PEOPLE'S LIVES....

I love this book. I did wish that it was in color, but the pictures and the notes are so voyeristic, I almost felt guilty for reading them! My favorite was the one where the mom and son were writing sitcky notes to each other about these scrambled eggs that had been in the refrigerater. And a grocery list that included 1 lb of Heroin....oddly interesting. I noticed that some of the names looked as if they had been cut out and re-written, so I wonder if they changed the names to protect people's privacy? Anyway, this book stays on my coffee table, along with PostSecret, and everyone who comes over is instantly addicted to it...so its been borrowed many times..a good, interesting read.

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Good Idea, BAD Execution

This book would be great if it simply presented the finds and allowed the viewer to think for himself. The black and white xerox copy format looks like a cheap pamphlet, and it is not enticing at all. It really annoys me that after reading an intriguing, beautiful note in the book, the author feels the need to ruin it with extraneous captions and silly drawings. I feel a little insulted that the author includes so much information with each note. It ruins the fun and the mystery of the entire idea. Overall, if you can get past the horrible black and white layout and the obnoxious side comments and stupid illustrations, this book is pretty original!

I would recommend it if you have extra money to spend. It is fun to look at, but not one of my prized pieces in my book collection. It is fun to flip through once in a while.

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Meh.

Davy Rothbart, Found: The Best Lost, Tossed, and Forgotten Items from Around the World (Fireside, 2004)

Rothbart speculates, in his preface to Found, that the reason this stuff is so fascinating is that it gives us a glimpse into the lives of strangers and shows us that our feelings are universal. I don't get that, so I'm not approaching the book from the same angle as Rothbart and a number of people he interviews here. I see it more as an interesting artifact of modern archaeology (or sociology), a roster of odd things people felt it important enough to write down, draw, or take pictures of. As such, it's interesting, but ot mandatory; I'm sure I'd get more out of it if I got that emotional connection Rothbart is on about.

Still, there's some interesting and/or amusing stuff to be found, no pun intended, in the pages of this volume; needless to say, if you're a fan of the magazine, you're going to love it, but it would also serve as a fine intro to the Found culture. ***

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Not in color

The book is, of course, funny and interesting, but I was disappointed when I opened it and found that there was no color inside.

Discarded valentines. Ransom notes. To-do lists. Diaries. Homework assignments. A break-up letter written on the back of an airsickness bag. Whether they are found on buses, at stores, in restaurants, waiting rooms, parking lots, or even prison yards, these items give readers an uncensored, poignant, and often hilarious peek into other people's lives. By collecting them in his hit magazine, Found (and its companion website, www.foundmagazine.com), Davy Rothbart has bewitched the nation with a surprising window into its heart and soul and turned his many readers into an army of sharp-eyed finders.

Found is chock-full of the latest and greatest of these finds, arranged in the style of the magazine, laying bare the tantalizing tales to be discovered in the trash we toss. By turns heartbreaking and hysterically funny, Found is a mesmerizing tribute to everyday life and our eternal curiosity about our fellow human beings.

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