Book stock exchange

When Yashna Shree receives books at work, she gets giddy with happiness — so much so that she is now the crazy book lady at work. “The joy of receiving a book is just something else,” she says, excited. All through last month and this, Yashna participated in a book challenge that has gone viral on Facebook. The challenge — or as the participants like to call it, a social experiment — is about sharing your favourite books with strangers.

Explaining the intriguing process of swapping books further, Yashna, a content manager at a digital agency, tells us, “It is like a circle — you have to comment on someone’s post about the book challenge; this confirms your participation. I did the same and then my friend sent me the name and address details of someone else who had commented on her post. You have to send the person your favourite book. The number of books you will receive depends on how many participants are there on a particular post.”

Like Yashna, Harish Iyengaar too participated in the challenge for the love of books. A digital marketer, Harish received ten books from complete strangers this year. “It was so great to come back home to see these books waiting for me. And the whole challenge is so interesting. I mean, the most heartfelt thing was that some of the people sent their own copies. Someone sent me a copy of Scott Pilgrim. It was so cool,” he recalls.

Yashna believes that apart from preserving book culture and promoting active reading, the challenge also spreads the joy of gifting. “These kind of posts usually go viral during the end of year when everyone is in the holiday spirit and joyous. The very essence of receiving something in your mail, from someone who you do not know, someone who has no idea who you are — this whole thing has a certain old-world charm to it,” she elucidates.

Harish, at first, was speculative of the challenge, “Well, to be honest, it does read like a scam of sorts — you send just one book and receive so many in return; what a scheme! But then again, there are always some people who cheat their way through something like this as well,” he rolls his eyes. “They don’t send any books, but receive many.”

While Yashna received 22 books last year, she just received nine this year. Supriya Joshi, on the other hand, has had a disappointing book challenge. “I love reading books, and more than that I love gifting them. And so, this challenge seemed like a good fit for me. However, I haven’t received even a single book as of yet. I had sent The Good Luck of Right Now by Mathew Quick. To be fair, I didn’t really get into this expecting to get anything in return,” she shrugs.

Yashna has made a pretty Christmas tree out of her stack of books.

Yashna believes that more than giving away books, you give a little bit of your heart away to a complete stranger. “Some people don’t just share their favourite books — they share these little notes and a part of themselves, which is magic in itself. This one time, I received a book by Murakami, which had a little handwritten note on the inside that said ‘I hope this doesn’t become a second edition on your bookshelf. But if it is, I like you more,’” Yashna giggles as she goes back to Facebook to dig out the identity of the stranger who sent her these positive vibes.