I received a message yesterday. I think. It wasn’t addressed to me, it didn’t contain any personal information, no written note, and I am not sure the sender tried to reach out to me. It feels like it, though, because I found it on my library bookshelf and it was about one of the books that had featured on it. Want to know it was and what it could mean? Read on!
The month is over. My thirty days of having a bookshelf at the library are done. Whenever I had the time, I visited my lovely collection of books in order to find out if any of them had been borrowed yet. Every time, my bookshelf consisted of different books – which either means that yes, people had borrowed these books, or that no, nobody ever bothered even looking at the shelf and someone kept changing them, hoping that these books would appeal to prospective borrowers. Maybe they did, and maybe they didn’t. I might never know.
I like to think people do look at my bookshelf. I like to think they are just walking around at the library, not quite knowing what to read, until they walk past my bookshelf at the third floor. I like to think that they pick up some books, decide they don’t want that one but are mightily interested by the other one. I like to think that they decide to borrow that book (or in some cases, I like to think that they don’t even have a library card but conclude they need to have one right now so they walk over to the counter and fix that problem) and read it the moment they return home. I like to think that they finish that book in one sitting, reread it, and then go back to the library and borrow more books by the same author. Or about the same topic. Or in the same genre. Now wouldn’t that be nice?
I’m still quite uncomfortable with the term ‘bookfluencer’. For I don’t feel influential at all, I have an embarrassingly small amount of followers, and I would be lying to myself if I felt like my followers were all waiting eagerly for my new blog posts. Still, though, I think I might have actually influenced someone to do something. I don’t know what it means, but still.
Yesterday I visited my bookshelf one last time. I smiled when I saw that yet again there were new books on it. But there was something else as well. It was a piece of paper, which, on closer inspection, turned out to be a library receipt. It stated that someone had borrowed the Dutch version of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. Well, that’s cool, I thought, someone had read this book because they saw it on my bookshelf and decided to read it. However, when I had another look at the note, I realised that they had already borrowed it in March, when I didn’t even know I would curate another bookshelf. So why would they leave this receipt behind? What were they trying to say with it?
Did they want to let me know they loved it? Were they informing me they hated it? Was it just a note to show me that they didn’t even finish the book? Or that they borrowed it and completely forgot about it? Or that they want me to suggest more books to them?
If I were a writer, I would write a book about this mysterious note. I would have a protagonist who would be obsessed by it, and they would start thinking about who left it there and why, and they would fall in love with the one who left the note. They would ask the library staff who had borrowed this book on this day, and then they would hack into the system because that information would be private, and they would spend the rest of their life finding out who left that note and what they were trying to say with it.
I think I’m a bit obsessed, too, just like my imaginary main character. I want to know who left that receipt. I want to know whether those who borrowed any of my books loved them or hated them. I want to know who picked which book, and I want to know whether they have any suggestions for me. But I might never know.
You see: I’m not really a Bookfluencer. Instead, the books influence me.
What did you think of my list? Have you wondered what people think of you, or the things you recommend? Or are you someone who leaves anonymous notes for others?
The Open Book 