cover image Found II: More of the Best Lost, Tossed, and Forgotten Items from Around the World

Found II: More of the Best Lost, Tossed, and Forgotten Items from Around the World

Davy Rothbart. Fireside Books, $14 (252pp) ISBN 978-0-7432-7307-7

If you've ever pocketed a stranger's forgotten train ticket-stub because you're fascinated by the little bird doodled on it, this book's for you. The sequel to the first Found, and sister to Found magazine makes happened-upon stuff-notes, lists, photos-its raison d'etre. What's intriguing about this book's reconnoitered artifacts, is that they run the gamut from a young boy's storyboard retelling of having a gun held to his head to a disgruntled airline customer's complaint letter about being seated near the lavatory. Each item appears mostly intact (names and phone numbers have been redacted or changed) and looks as if photocopied onto the page. There's no organizational logic to the book, though that's a small gripe considering the wealth of puzzling and hilarious goodies included: a pros/cons list written about someone's male love interest; a letter from a London city official asking a guest of a library to stay away until his ""personal hygiene becomes acceptable""; a letter from student propositioning a male teacher, and a rudimentary cartoon drawing of a pregnant man. Some inclusions benefit from contextualization (as in the notes that are found near prisons or inside floating balloons), and the author keeps editorializing to a minimum, leaving the found objects to speak for themselves.