Updated:
Works with the .emacs-desktop files (as generated by desktop.el),
but unlike with desktop-read, provides an interactive menu that
let's the user choose which buffers will be restored.
Put this file into your load-path and the following into your ~/.emacs:
(require 'desktop-recover)
;; optionallly:
(setq desktop-recover-location
(desktop-recover-fixdir "$HOME/.emacs.d/")) ;; ~/.emacs.d is the default
Something like this is highly recommended:
(prefer-coding-system 'utf-8)
;; Brings up the interactive buffer restore menu
(desktop-recover-interactive)
;; Note that after using this menu, your desktop will be saved
;; automatically (triggered by the auto-save mechanism).
For finer-grained control of the frequency of desktop saves,
you can add the standard keybindings to your set-up:
(desktop-recover-define-global-key-bindings "\C-c%")