#lost book

Peanuts - March 12, 1959

Man, this is one hell of a hard question 😩 😮‍💨

There's a few possible answers, based on how you interpret the question:

#1 - The Maya codices

If we allow a broad category like this, it's the obvious choice. These were almost all actively destroyed by the Spanish (only four precontact manuscripts survive), and they would be of unimaginable value.

The Maya were the only Pre-Columbian civilization with a true manuscript tradition and a writing system that is both complex and also now largely deciphered. And since, based on inscriptions, we know the writing system stretched back at least to the 3rd century BC, and any texts on religion, history, or even potentially narrative works would be absolutely invaluable. It would shed light on a world that has been tragically ignored and erased.

#3 - The Poems of Sappho

If we can only limit it to a single specific work that was intentionally destroyed, this is the best I can come up with off the top of my head. I worry that it's not as important in shedding light on wider history though.

Sappho is one of the few ancient writers whom we know was genuinely subject to mass book burning. Modern people often think it happened because of her erotic homosexual content, but it seems just as likely to have happened due to the religious "pagan" elements.

Her poems were of amazing quality and yet only fragments survive. They totaled nine books, estimated to be around 10,000 lines. And today, only ONE complete poem of hers survives.

As an extremely early ancient female author of the highest caliber, I'd say that her work would be extremely important

Bonus - The Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar

This is the most unusual choice because it's not very well-known, it's extremely short, it has little literary value, and, as far as we can tell, it was NOT actively destroyed.

This work basically listed omens associated with lightning strikes on various days. So it would be something like "April 11th - There will be a bountiful harvest this year" and so forth.

I was reading a fourth wing fanfic and for some reason Wattpad removed it from my reading list and I’m going crazy trying to find it.

Basically at the end of the first book the oc saves Liam and Deigh by binding her soul to theirs or something like that. I know a few more things happen in the end battle and I’m not sure if she gets hurt from saving them or fighting before they go to Aretia. When they do make it or on the way her heart stops for a minute and I think Liam talks about feeling himself dying with her until she starts breathing again.

If anyone knows what the book or authors name is or if it’s on any platform PLEASE let me know. I’m going insane because I can’t read it now and it was starting on book two.

I was a lost book,

covered in dust,

left there to rust—

lonely in the dark hollows

of the archives.

I don’t know how—

or why—

you entered that place

where you didn’t belong,

and started looking

for something

to read on.

All of a sudden,

I was shy

and glowing—

you found me!

One touch,

and I was marshmallow:

light and soft in your hand,

ready to unravel

Each moment as I felt.

It was as if I had never known

any pain or sorrow,

any wound from arrows—

as if I had never been alone

in this world so unknown.

You dusted me,

opened me,

read me—

word by word,

line by line,

half-understood,

Half-defined.

I felt seen.

I felt found.

Maybe that was the moment

I’d been waiting for

my whole life—

to be read,

And just be fine.

🪶 génie

Prompt #unraveling

Grade 1: *crying because they can't find the book they just signed out (don't ask me how they lost it, your guess is as good as mine)*

Me: Okay, how about this: you pick out a different book for now, and if I find the other book, I'll bring it to you in your class, and you can have both for this week. Would that help?