Even in today's digital age, where many of us read on screens, books still hold a special place—especially second-hand books with their tanned pages and nostalgic, musty smell. These used books sometimes carry unexpected treasures, like personal mementos left behind by previous owners. One Redditor, u/relentlesslykind, found a touching letter from a mother to her son Adrian tucked inside an old copy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring.
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The Redditor shared a screenshot of the letter in the r/MadeMeSmile group, where it quickly racked up 31,000 upvotes. One commenter even said it was their “favorite unintentional poem.” The note, addressed to Adrian, read: “‘The Hobbit’ is the first book. So keep your eyes open in second-hand bookstores. Remember, take your time—whether it’s a paragraph, a line, or a page. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, what matters is that you do it.” This heartfelt message shows two things: the mother’s deep love for her son and her desire to nurture his love for reading.
No one knows the identity of the boy named Adrian mentioned in the note or the mother, but wherever he may be, the Redditor told him, “Adrian, if you’re out there - your book is in safe hands, hit me up if you’d like it back,” through the caption of his post. He also added that the book spent a considerable time in the Toronto school’s library system before reaching him. A search for the title “The Fellowship of the Ring” reveals lots of results in Toronto Public Library’s online catalog. Perhaps, another copy might contain one such surreal souvenir from its previous owner as well.
Found a note inside this book
byu/relentlesslykind inMadeMeSmile
In the comments section, people shared their thoughts on different elements of the book and the note left within. Some just adored how much this mom seemed to love her son Adrian, which made them bawl. Whereas, some others even commented about mom’s whimsical handwriting, noting that there are some spelling and punctuation errors, which they considered cute. Many people shared personal stories of how they too found treasures like this note in old books, or how their mom used to inspire them to read books.
Image Source: Reddit | u/judasfoley
“I've found lots of little notes scribbled in the Silver Age comics I collect. One time I even found an old Polaroid of a couple on their 49th anniversary, and it was about as old as Polaroid cameras get. Noted with the names and all. Always fun to think that the thing you have has had its own rich story,” said u/segmentedmoss in a comment. Another Redditor, u/JonPQ, recounted an experience when they also bought a secondhand copy of “The Hobbit” and found a sweet note inside it. They added, “I absolutely adore finding notes in used books I buy. I have an 80s copy of The Hobbit I randomly bought online, with a cheerful note from a guy to his sister wishing her an ‘Amazing Adventure’ and it is signed the day I was born.”
Image Source: Reddit | u/throwawayaccount1437
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Pictured: A healthy practice?
Will your current friends still be with you after seven years?
Professor shares how many years a friendship must last before it'll become lifelong
Think of your best friend. How long have you known them? Growing up, children make friends and say they’ll be best friends forever. That’s where “BFF” came from, for crying out loud. But is the concept of the lifelong friend real? If so, how many years of friendship will have to bloom before a friendship goes the distance? Well, a Dutch study may have the answer to that last question.
Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst and his team in the Netherlands did extensive research on friendships and made some interesting findings in his surveys and studies. Mollenhorst found that over half of your friendships will “shed” within seven years. However, the relationships that go past the seven-year mark tend to last. This led to the prevailing theory that most friendships lasting more than seven years would endure throughout a person’s lifetime.
In Mollenhorst’s findings, lifelong friendships seem to come down to one thing: reciprocal effort. The primary reason so many friendships form and fade within seven-year cycles has much to do with a person’s ages and life stages. A lot of people lose touch with elementary and high school friends because so many leave home to attend college. Work friends change when someone gets promoted or finds a better job in a different state. Some friends get married and have children, reducing one-on-one time together, and thus a friendship fades. It’s easy to lose friends, but naturally harder to keep them when you’re no longer in proximity.
Some people on Reddit even wonder if lifelong friendships are actually real or just a romanticized thought nowadays. However, older commenters showed that lifelong friendship is still possible:
“I met my friend on the first day of kindergarten. Maybe not the very first day, but within the first week. We were texting each other stupid memes just yesterday. This year we’ll both celebrate our 58th birthdays.”
“My oldest friend and I met when she was just 5 and I was 9. Next-door neighbors. We're now both over 60 and still talk weekly and visit at least twice a year.”
“I’m 55. I’ve just spent a weekend with friends I met 24 and 32 years ago respectively. I’m also still in touch with my penpal in the States. I was 15 when we started writing to each other.”
“My friends (3 of them) go back to my college days in my 20’s that I still talk to a minimum of once a week. I'm in my early 60s now.”
“We ebb and flow. Sometimes many years will pass as we go through different things and phases. Nobody gets buttsore if we aren’t in touch all the time. In our 50s we don’t try and argue or be petty like we did before. But I love them. I don’t need a weekly lunch to know that. I could make a call right now if I needed something. Same with them.”
Maintaining a friendship for life is never guaranteed, but there are ways, psychotherapists say, that can make a friendship last. It’s not easy, but for a friendship to last, both participants need to make room for patience and place greater weight on their similarities than on the differences that may develop over time. Along with that, it’s helpful to be tolerant of large distances and gaps of time between visits, too. It’s not easy, and it requires both people involved to be equally invested to keep the friendship alive and from becoming stagnant.
As tough as it sounds, it is still possible. You may be a fortunate person who can name several friends you’ve kept for over seven years or over seventy years. But if you’re not, every new friendship you make has the same chance and potential of being lifelong.