One of my neighbors posted something on Facebook a few weeks ago that caught my eye. It was, it said, a “social experiment” in which you send one of your favorite books to someone and then, eventually, you get a bunch of books in the mail from other folks. It was a good old-fashioned chain letter, but with books.
After being disappointed time and again as a youth, I finally grew wise to the chain letter and stopped sending them along. But I’m a sucker for a good book — and sometimes even for a bad book, as evidenced by the fact that I read a tome called “Saint Dale” in its entirety. So I signed on for my neighbor’s literary Facebook experiment, sent a Graham Greene paperback off to her friend and hoped for the best. Worst-case scenario, I figured, was someone would get to read “The Quiet American.”
And then a few days later Abraham Verghese’s “Cutting for Stone” arrived. And then “Supreme Courtship” by Christopher Buckley, and then “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” by Truman Capote. Then we went on vacation, and when we came home Rebecca Skloot’s “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” Rob Sheffield’s “Love is a Mix Tape,” Lisel Mueller’s “Alive Together” and Maria Semple’s “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?” were there waiting for me. I love a good book recommendation, and it’s been delightful getting things in the mail that aren’t bills.
The moral of the story? I don’t know. Take a chance on a chain letter now and again? Have a little faith in goofy Facebook things? Regardless, I’m loving having a stack of books waiting for me to read.
