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Found : The Best Lost, Tossed, and Forgotten Items from Around the World

Found : The Best Lost, Tossed, and Forgotten Items from Around the World

List Price: $14.00
Your Price: $10.50
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Needed some cutting
Review: After seeing the author on "Late Night with David Letterman" and hearing some of the excerpts from the book, I thought it seemed like a very interesting concept. However, not every forgotten piece of paper is worth reviewing. Some of the notes and letters included are genuinely funny or poignant. Too many consist of mundane grocery lists, scribbles, and primitive profane diatribes. If someone had weeded out about half of the material, the book would have been memorable. As it is, there is too much trash to sort through to make it worth finding the discarded treasures.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: interesting for the whole family
Review: although some of the subject matter may be inappropriate for chilren under 13, this book will captivate all readers. it's a facinatingly vouyeristic look into other's lives. some of the findings are absolutely hilarious, a few are sad and disturbing, but all are entertaining. i searched for this book at many 'big name' bookstores and was unsuccessful. thank you, amazon.com, for coming thru yet again!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A busy body's dream come true!
Review: As a very nosey person myself, it's full of interesting things to read, ponder, idenify with, or just laugh about.

I love the magazines, I love the book.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Novelty book
Review: Dave Rothbert had the clever idea of asking people to send him all those bits of scrap paper that you find in second-hand furniture or blowing in the wind with hand-written messages on them. Then he pasted them into a book.

Some of these little notes are laugh-out-loud funny. One woman excoriated her lover in a note left under the windshield wipers of a car parked outside a rival girlfriend's house that she thought belonged to him. She finished her letter with a postscript that read: Please call me. What was she thinking of?

It's amazing how many people curse out inconsiderate neighbors or car-parkers a blue streak and then politely end their message with "Thanks." The entertainment in the book is mostly in the incongruity of the messages. On the other hand, after a few pages the humor fades. Either the notes aren't especially amusing or they're obviously deliberate attempts at humor. At least, I hope the person asking for information on a lost cobra "answering to Psycho" was making a joke.

A couple of items are an odd choice for a mostly funny book. There's a heart-breaking letter from a woman incarcerated in the Nazi concentration camp at Theresienstadt signed "Widow" (underlined in German). Then there's a sooty, burned toothbrush found at Waco. The missing star on this review reflects the sense that not all readers will approve this juxtaposition.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Live it. Love it.
Review: Davy Rothbart has created a wonderful thing with "Found." It's not just a magazine. It's a philosophy. His magazine and this equally amazing book is about seeing the beauty behind all things. Each of the notes and photographs have a story behind them. You resurrect the note when you pick it up off the sidewalk. You find value in a forgotten photo. One of my favorite notes is a conversation of a couple of teenage girls -- passing notes in class and fighting over a borrowed pen. The language is angry, but you can't tell how serious they are. But - it seems from the ending that some feelings have been hurt. The more aggressive of the two has gone too far when she taunts the other about having sex on a dryer and having to go to summer school. A community has formed around "Found" - hundreds of people who look twice at a scrap of paper on the sidewalk. Some of these treasures will make you cry, some will make you laugh. This colletion is enriching and fascinating.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Live it. Love it.
Review: Davy Rothbart will be quick to tell you that "Found" is not just a magazine. It's a philosophy. His fantastic magazine and this equally amazing book is about seeing the beauty behind all things. Each of the notes and photographs have a story behind them. You resurrect the note when you pick it up off the sidewalk. You find value in a forgotten photo. Some of these treasures will make you cry, some will make you laugh, but you can be certain that you will be fascinated and enriched by this collection.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: earth beautification & anthropological observation
Review: ever since i learned about FOUND magazine i have been recommending it to friends, and even strangers. the book is just like the magazine, only larger and with praise from respected critics, writers and drew barrymore on the back cover... a compliation of many new found items and the best items from past issues of the magazine version. notes, photographs, letters, business cards, keys, a cat... all items lost or discarded that were later collected from all across the world, accompanied by speculations on the object and circumstances of the discovery of the objects, as written by the finders. a collaborative art project with thousands of contributors.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Lovely Book
Review: Fascinating collection of detritus. Wish print quality of book was better. Looks like a bad photocopy.

Good Content/ Bad Appearance.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Funny but really crass/pornographic/filthy at times
Review: I bought this as a gift for someone who has the same sense of humor as I to enjoy this book but some of the items included were so verbally sexually graphic or violent that I didn't feel like it would really be a good gift--meaning, they couldn't really leave it around where their 8 to 11 year old kids might read it.

So, yes this book is funny. A couple times I split my side laughing. No, the humor isn't just wierd, it's also pretty filthy, it has notes liberally peppered with expletives, creative and explicit sexual reference--so if thats's your thing, go for it, but I wouldn't give it to a 15 year old...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not "found" but truly reborn...
Review: I laughed and cried my way through this book, couldn't put it down. It mixes the ludicrous, the joyful and the heartbreaking, offering a clear view into human nature. I see myself and those around me on every page, but with a loving heart fostered by Davy's sense of humor. I find myself wanting to know these people, actually seeing I DO know them, for they are me!

What I love most is that Davy had the wisdom to take these scraps we all see as trash and recognize them as rich compost, ready to be reborn into a fascinating source of wisdom, to delight us, surprise us, and to foster our ability to laugh at ourselves and our world. They show us at our best, worst and most vulnerable, show all our loves and fears. The book is a true teacher of compassion!

While Davy says there's no special order, the book fit together perfectly for me, leading me from one insight to another, one laugh to another. The layout that looks like a collection of scraps is perfect for the contents.


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