FaceBook Experiment: The Book Exchange

So last month I came across an interesting looking post in my FaceBook Feed:

(Side note - if any of my readers are interested, now you know how to find me on Facebook!)

And as a long-time reading enthusiast, I clicked on the "Like" button and awaiting further information.

I was rewarded a day later with the following direct message:

Hi! So the way this works is you'll copy and paste this status:
Hey Facebook Friends! I'm participating in an international book exchange. I'm a huge bookworm and can't wait to see how this works out! Who wants to join me? All I need are at least 6 humans to participate! You only need to send one book to the address I will give to you. It may be bought new, or use one of your favourites that has been laying around untouched! Expect to receive approximately 36 books back!!! If you are interested, let me know or click "like" and I will PM you the details
#savetheculture 🌏🌞

Or make a similar one about #savetheculture and send one book to:
To the people who will like your status, you will give my name to have them send a book to
***ADDRESS OF THE PERSON WHO CONTACTED ME***
Then change the addresses and write yours when you're passing this on to get books back! Hooray for bookworms!
So It's now been a month and here's how it broke down; I sent away a book (mailing cost, $10) and over the next few weeks received a couple in the mail myself.

Now, you'll note I didn't receive 36, but I did get to send a book I was done with to a good home, and I got a couple new (to me) books for my trouble.

Worth it? Sure - the effort on my end was pretty low, and I doubled my original investment.

Also I liked the fact that this was about book sharing, rather than a business opportunity. Will I get anymore books? Probably not, but I still had fun, and I have to admit it's nice getting stuff in the mail that isn't a bill.

Things I've noticed: The Power of Sandwiches

Not my photo, but YUM!

To begin, I'm not any sort of social media expert.

I've been on Facebook since 2008, had a blog since 2009, did some coursework online and have coordinated a series of online interviews for a division of the American Library Association (ALA), but for all that I still don't know how to make Reddit work or how to represent myself on Pinterest, Tumblr or Instagram (although I do have a Flickr account!)

And last year I finally bit the bullet and started on Twitter (after a lunch at the 2014 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia where people exchanged Twitter handles rather than business cards) and since then I've happily tweeted with 10 to 20 retweets or favourites to mark my twitter-based impact.

However, I have noticed is that if you reference a writer or a sandwich, you get significantly more views.  My current record for views is in the 2000s, and referred to the introduction of the recent Penguin Horror edition of Frankenstein.  Also sandwiches get a remarkable amount of feedback.

So there you go - tweet about writers or sandwiches, or perhaps writers eating sandwiches, and watch the retweets fly!

You Owe it to Yourself #9: Attack your "I'll get around to it" pile

When it comes to gamers, readers, and viewers, we all have one; a pile of stuff that we are definitely going to get around to checking out, someday. For me it sits on the shelf next to my computer (pictured above), a collection of books I've put together over the last few years from used book stores, my local comic book store, and even from Amazon that although I haven't read yet, I promise myself I will definitely be reading pretty soon.

I've got other lists for movies and games as well; they exist on spreadsheets and includes classics, hard-to-find, and upcoming titles I am totally going to check out... sometime.

Now, just like all of you, I lead a pretty busy life - I'm a husband, a parent, a worker, a reader, a blogger (for the last two months - Horray!), a part-time university student, a BFF, and a guy trying to get on top of my weight. These things are all pretty big priorities to me, and sometimes they mean that I don't get around to checking out the stuff I want to get around to checking out.

In addiction, I'm also more than a little obsessed with working my way through lists of stuff (my latest two, lists from new friends on Facebook, give me a suggested reading order for the novels of Neville Shute and a list of Laurel and Hardy flicks to check out - I'm pretty excited about those actually), but even with my successes in that, I seem to constantly be adding to my collection of titles and lists of titles that I haven't checked out yet, but want to get around to soon.

So hears what I suggest, lets call this The Bookmonkey Challenge '09. Take a couple minutes today and go through your "I'll get around to it" pile. Pick one thing and try to check it out before Christmas - that's 75 days to read a book, watch a movie or play through a game you've been meaning to get around to.

As the guy who suggested it, and being pretty excited about the idea (pictured right) I'll try to do three (my picks - Novel - The Wolf's Hour, by Robert McCammon, Comic - Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe, Brian Lee O'Halley, and DVD - Apocalypto, directed by Mel Gibson) We'll compare notes and Christmas and at the very least will have put a small dent in our "I'll get around to it" piles, because, after all, you owe it to yourself.