The project
On March 10th, when I woke up, I got quite excited about my move to New York and thought that a new life needs space and so, I looked around my apartment for what I wanted to leave behind. I have been quite attached to my books over the years but really thought that I probably wouldn't read them again, and so, it was only fair to give them a new life too. What started as a little fun with words has turned into a whole new project!
I wanted to thank you for being a part of it. I collected around 60 words and gave away just as many books! The best thing about the whole thing for me was the wonderful interactions with you all. A few of you said I made your day with this project, well, you made mine!
I wanted to thank you for being a part of it. I collected around 60 words and gave away just as many books! The best thing about the whole thing for me was the wonderful interactions with you all. A few of you said I made your day with this project, well, you made mine!
The way it worked was simple:
Passers-by would choose one of my books and in exchange, they would give me a word. It was a way for me to get my book collection to a more manageable moving size! After they had chosen a book, I asked them to write a word on a piece of paper. I also asked some of them if I could take a picture of them with their book. I don't have names for these amazing people. It wasn't the aim. I just wanted to show that we can make people happy, we can make people think and interact with each others. Strangers would instantly become connected and each person would take away a little of the other through a book or a word.
After a few books exchanged for a word, I decided to start asking if people would mind if I also took their picture. It is so much fun to look at these pictures today and remember all the smiley faces. Some of those had stories to share, some were surprised, amused, inspired and again, that's what it was all about.
Hong Kong is a city filled with wonderful people but it is so easy for us all to ignore each other, to walk by and not look at one another. We don't even need a book to have an interaction, a smile can do! But the book was my medium. All sorts of people stopped and talked to me. Some offered a word without taking a book, some took two books, some joined their words to give me an expression. Thank you Hong Kong!
I am hoping to write the poem / story in NYC over the Easter break. I hope you like it! You will have to excuse the poor literary style, I was never a writer! This was a great challenge for me, but also an adventure in itself.
As I mentioned to some of you and on the paper with my story, I wanted to write for a pretty cool dude called Peter. If you'd like to know who he is, you can check out his work here:
http://www.petergynd.com/index.html
Thank you for coming to check out the result! Feel free to share this project if you think that others will enjoy reading about it! Don't forget to check out the pictures to see some happy books with their new happy owners!
You can also check out Rachel's post about it and check out her blog while you're there because it's pretty awesome!
http://hkadventurebaby.com/2013/03/10/happiness-in-the-city-an-afternoon-lesson-in-generosity/
Keep on giving, it makes life more fun!