While I was rolling around Europe I carried a giant stack of books with me. Thinking that it would be wasting energy for me to continue carrying the books after I finished them I decided that I'd abandon each book after I'd finished it. However, it seemed impersonal to me to just abandon the books never to hear from them again. In order to keep a connection with each book and whoever's hands they happened to fall into I inscribed my name and e-mail address in each one along with the instructions:
1. Read the book.
2. Write your name.
3. Abandon the book in a public place.
All under the title of "Harry Haller's Wandering Book Club". Now I have only to sit and wait and hope that whoever finds "The Crying of Lot 49", "Les Miserables", "The Way of All Flesh", or any of the other books I left behind as a literary trail of my travels, and see if anybody actually steps up to be part of the club. Until then, I'll keep reading and trailing books behind me, hoping that somewhere somebody picks up where I left off. Soon "The Iliad" will be lying somewhere in Makati, and somebody else will be wondering why the hell Achilles is such a wimp and why he won't just man up.
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