serendipity at work: I’m giving away a book to you

It’s Winter officially and it’s an ideal time to read a book in a cozy warm place. I want to test how serendipity works in all my social networks and test how dynamics with the situation I’ll describe will unfold. I want to give away a book, the one for winter reading, an interesting novel (meta novel I’d like to say) by Italo Calvino, If On a Winters Night a Traveller. I have read it only once, it’s a Vintage edition and it’s brand new. I dared not to write the end, my vision of ending (though I did write much earlier a story about the Reader) so it’s untouched from my usual scribble on margins or end covers. I wanted initially to send a book to one of my friends, but then I realised that all of them would love to read the book, and I only have one, so… it is Winter, officially now. The book was sent to me this Summer, as a merchandise item, the book as I mentioned, is brand new, no dedication or any kind of lines. Thus, I would like to de-virginise it and write a tiny note, if you allow, and send directly to anyone of you, wherever in the world you are at the moment. Propositions for entering the serendipity travelling book project:

1. to leave a comment, if you really want to read this novel, or if you like Calvino’s work, just in 1- 2 lines why would you like to read this book (apart from the obvious reason if you are a passionate reader or a writer).

2. anyone can send comments, including friends, contacts, colleagues, followers, strangers, everyone is equal opportunity to get the book.

3. when I choose the comment I like the most, I’ll send the book wherever the person lives, and you can use my email for contact (please don’t send me on email comments or why would you like If on a winters night a traveller)

4. you have to promise me that upon reading the book, you’ll also send it to someone randomly, wherever in the world, either locally or internationally, and ask them to do the same (the note in the book to be followed). If you have a blog - would be nice to write a short blog post on that, if not - then tumblr, if not a tumblr, then twitter, oh well, find a way to shout out and distribute this message, OK? Give everyone a chance to read the travelling book and get involved. Also, I have registered at BookCrossing, my profile, so I will track the book via this service.

5. don’t forget to take a photo of the book and where you are, when you get it, or upon reading or during the reading, that would be nice. You can use a regular camera, if you don’t have one, you probably do have a mobile phone. And send it to blog, twitpic, or maybe flickr (it’s free), and let me know about it, send links.

6. before you send the book to some random person, ask them to proceed the same way as I did, the way you did, and on and on. Don’t lose the trace of the book, it would be nice to map out where the book is travelling.

It took me one evening and one early morning to finish reading the book, but I was too much into it. You can take it easy and read your own rhythm, you are the reader after all. The book is in English, translated from Italian. Be kind, and handle the book with care.

Ok, comments are open now, for any other related questions feel free to email me on danica at danicar dot org. I hope you will enjoy If On a Winters Night a Traveller, and I will close the comments on December 29th (in a week) and then choose the comment I like the most, and ship it wherever before December 31st. Who knows maybe other folks who wanted to read the book will have the chance to read it after someone else… Now, feel free to comment and share your thoughts on, beside obvious assuming you like books and like reading and/or Italian literature, why would you like to get into the story of Calvino’s novel If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller?

A guide what to buy your favourite Internet researcher, writer for Christmas and Birthday?

The Fierce Imagination of Haruki Murakami

Murakami sold his jazz club in order to devote himself, full time, to writing.

“Full time,” for Murakami, means something different from what it does for most people. For 30 years now, he has lived a monkishly regimented life, each facet of which has been precisely engineered to help him produce his work. He runs or swims long distances almost every day, eats a healthful diet, goes to bed around 9 p.m. and wakes up, without an alarm, around 4 a.m. — at which point he goes straight to his desk for five to six hours of concentrated writing. (Sometimes he wakes up as early as 2.) He thinks of his office, he told me, as a place of confinement — “but voluntary confinement, happy confinement.”

“Concentration is one of the happiest things in my life,” he said. “If you cannot concentrate, you are not so happy. I’m not a fast thinker, but once I am interested in something, I am doing it for many years. I don’t get bored. I’m kind of a big kettle. It takes time to get boiled, but then I’m always hot.”

You should date a woman who writes.

The woman who writes short stories, novel/book chapters, findings, dissertation, observations, thoughts, ideas, columns, then publish them and let others read; in one, two or several languages is the woman who writes literature of linear and non linear discourse. Under the kiwi tree, at the old writing table from the communist era, on her laps, in a bed, in the plane, train. 
The woman who writes in the hot summer days usually sits barefoot, with her right leg crossed over her left; focused on the screen and her multiple tabs, hopping from one to another, trying to catch and gather the meaning.

The woman who writes smiles to the screen when she writes, she smiles at you when she writes to you, she smiles when she writes and addresses to her imaginary friends from this box or from her near surrounding.  She is complexed, simple and quirky, fragile and feisty, passionate and unique in a way. That woman who writes. 

The woman who writes is sending you a book by the Other author for your birthday, sometimes when inspired she sends you her own literature, she may write a story and a book chapter about you or them, which she usually does. Mostly fondly. She may invite you for a cup of coffee or tea by sending you an invitation via express mail with two teabags in it, blushing in front of the post officer who examines the envelope before accepting to deliver it. Yes, the woman who writes is actually an old fashioned young lady in a way, despite her appearances of the geekiness multitaskquality persona that she only expresses while on screen.

The woman who writes prefers short stories with the sudden or unpredictable happy end or the promise of continued suspense as she knows there will be many of them, interconnected serendipitously written stories. She used to write pretending to be the Other Male author, tricking the literature jury by thinking that the man stands behind her words in her story, but as she is growing, she realizes that the only way to stay away from her own “I” written stories and the way to express herself is to write as everyone - but I. “I read - therefore it writes”. 

The woman who writes wrote this unfinished story five days ago on a malfunctioning laptop keyboard, while you were sleeping, dreaming, having lunch, fighting or making love to someone, dwelling on your past or presence, blocking your future with your fears, had a business meeting or maybe just reading the book of the Other.

The woman who writes is preparing material for her next chapter.

the truth of literature consists only in the physicality of the act of writing.- said she.

by danica r