BOOKS ARE ARRIVING! The dream is realized. Boo-yah. The following information will be critical to your happiness.
What to do if you have a problem: Talk to the person who's sending you the book (i.e., problems with the book that you'll be getting.) Talk to me if it's a bigger problem, which I'm sure may arise.
What to do if you don't have a problem: We are shooting for having all the books mailed out one week from the deadline. That'll be Saturday, April 12th. Take your best shots. After the books get here, people's comments will be placed, aftermath-style, in this node.
Cool. What if I don't get my book?: You'll get your book. If you don't, a roving noder band of vengeance will be formed to hunt you down and kill the non-sender. Do NOT doubt it.
OH, A PROBLEM THAT WILL COME UP: One bad line in the Perl script means that nobody's messages listed *who* they are receiving the book from. So: If you can't find the book (or if it's not a specific book) on the list of participants below, /msg magicmanzach with the text of your message, and I'll tell you.
Signup time is over, in case it wasn't clear. No more people are being admitted. Sorry.
Sign up. Tell all your amazing and well-read friends to sign up. Jump at the opportunity to expand your mind. Punch conventional ideas of libraries and bookstores in the face.
For those of you who don't want to read the whole writeup:
This is NOT the same format as the original Lotto. This is a one-for-one massive trading system, sort of like E2 Secret Santa. The lotto formerly run by jessicapierce is now under new management; you can find it here. The difference is that the other exchange is more along the lines of "I'm looking for a specific book, and someone who owns it", and this one is "I am going to trade one of my books for the book of an anonymous stranger." Anyone who wants to have to do with it should /msg magicmanzach. Clear?
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I join the lotto?
Yes. Everyone can join the lotto. It is public.
What if I've already read the book that I receive?
Before anybody mails anything, participants will be informed of what books they are getting. Changes can then be made before ship-time.
Should I submit "Love In The Time Of Cholera"?
No, thank you. While it is very interesting and ironic to send the book from Serendipity, we really don't want any copies of it beyond the ones we already have.
I like Perl! Can I help with the coding?
(Alright, nobody has asked this. But it's a valid question.) Yes. If you have a clever idea about how to make the engine run smoother, I'd love to hear it.
OK. Clearly, this is a crazy idea that lots of people have tried before, and which always turns out to be an administrative nightmare. Sounds to me like it's time to step in and take over.
Here's the idea. Anyone who wants to participate in The Great Grand E2 Book Lotto II (henceforth GGE2BL2) should follow these rules:
- Each person will receive one book and contribute one book. No more, no less. Unless they have a really clever way of doing it.
- If you want to be involved, /msg magicmanzach with the following information: a mailing address (or a note saying that you're in The Everything Mailing Address Registry), and the title of the book that you're willing to part with.
- Good books, please. Of course, everyone's standard of "good" is completely different; therefore, this works on the honor system. Contribute a book that you like.
- No writeups here. Please don't post here; /msg me with anything you think is worthy of being added. Otherwise, this will turn into a nightmare. (It's locked anyway.)
- How it actually works: At 23:00 EST April 05 2003, a simple little Perl script I have whipped up will assign each noder a recipient. Example: Noder A is matched with Noder B. Noder A is informed of this by me, and mails the book they wish to contribute to Noder B (paying the meager postage.). They wait awhile and receive a book from Noder C. Simple enough?
- Because of postage, geographical restrictions apply. Basically; I'll try to give noders within a country other noders within the same country. If you're willing to mail internationally, say so. That'd be cool.
- A Note From pylon: (and I agree) Noders mailing in the US and APO/FPOs would do well to use Media Mail, which has much lower rates when sending things like books. See http://www.usps.com/customers/domestic.htm#standard for more information.
- The usual threats of death to those who don't mail their books. You will be hunted down by winged monkeys or burly Mafia hitmen. Whichever proves cost-effective.
Simple enough? The date of mailing has been set for
April 12, 2003 (or earlier).
The list of authors:
- magicmanzach: Girlfriend in a Coma, by Douglas Coupland
magicmanzach says Got my book yesterday by airmail, and mine's somewhere in the Mid Atlantic as we speak...
- bariau and mod: Watership Down, by Richard Adams
- SEF: Dinosaur In A Haystack, by Steven Jay Gould
- theboy: What A Carve Up!, by Johnathan Coe
theboy says a big thank you for engineering all this. I received, read, and much enjoyed Naked, sent to me by sloebertje.
- Scribe: In The Drink, by Kate Christensen
Scribe says Oh hey, I got my lotto book the other day. And I sent mine out weeks ago so I suppose it's been received by now. :)
- Ereneta: Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life, by Natalie Goldberg
- JediBix783: Bellwether, by Connie Willis
- atlas: The Long Way, by Bernard Moitessier
atlas says hi, My book arrived yesterday. I got Cat's Cradle from CygnusA thanks for putting this on...
- caknuck: Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War, by Peter Maass
- nine9: You'll see.
nine9 says okeydoke. Posting nice things to eversion tomorrow....
- HamsterMan: Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- mr100percent: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Islam, by Yahya Emerick
- sauron: Ubik, by Phillip K. Dick
sauron says Just received my book. All worked out fine. I've sent mine out earlier today. Cheers.
- Siobhan: Haroun and the Sea of Stories, by Salman Rushdie
Siobhan says ok. Book will be sent off today :) (in about an hour, when I've been to the post office :)
Siobhan says I have received my book with beautiful stamps from China! I don't yet know when I'll read it, might have to wait until summer break... Looking forward to it though :)
- bete_noire: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig
bete_noire says I got my book today. Yay! Sent mine out a while ago.
- yclept: Persuasion, by Jane Austen, or Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie
yclept says Hi, just to let you know my little link in the book lotto chain is working fine... Everything is copacetic!
- althorrat: The Seven Deadly Sins of Science Fiction, ed. by Isaac Asimov, Charles Waugh, Martin Greenberg
- Monkeylover: Book title is a secret.
- exceptinsects: Lives of the Monster Dogs, by Kirsten Bakis
exceptinsects says Scribe says she's received my book, hurrah
- Nero: All Families Are Psychotic, by Douglas Coupland
- sloebertje: Naked, by David Sedaris
sloebertje says Received my book!
- XWiz: Weaveworld, by Clive Barker
XWiz says Received my copy of Gravity's Rainbow; looks fantastic. Posted Weaveworld on Saturday, so hopefully it's found its way to its new owner by now...
- pacio49: Erendira, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- ideath: Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino
- GhettoAardvark: The Man The Worlds Rejected, by Gordon R. Dickson
- pitcher: Catch Me If You Can, by Frank Abagnale
pitcher says I received my book for the e2 book lotto from pint today.
- Catchpole: Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon
Catchpole says re The Great Grand E2 Book Lotto: fyi i received my book from theboy
- NothingLasts4Ever: Fierce Invalids Home From Warm Climates, by Tom Robbins
- wwwdsummers: The Tin Drum, by Gunter Grass
- Ouroboros: Book title is a secret.
- dmk: Undecided.
- trainman: The Cat Who Went To Paris, by Peter Gethers
- Pint: The Insult, by Rupert Thomson
- princess loulou: To be negotiated between her and the recipient.
- Martian_Bob: House of Leaves, by Mark Danielewski
- Anark: The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer
- pfft: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick
- ch'i-lin: 100 Selected Poems, by e. e. cummings
- dsch: J.B., by Archibald MacLiesh
- UPC747: The Stand, by Stephen King
UPC747 says just like you to put in the lotto node, that I am about to start reading my book, and love the bookmark that yclept sent with it! thanks!
- Joyquality: Dandelion Wine, by Ray Bradbury
- CygnusA: Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
- ttflyer: Ascending, by James Alan Gardner
- Squalor: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce
- RGD: A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin
RGD says Hi, thought I'd mention regarding the Book Lotto that I received Scribe's wonderful book a few weeks ago :)
- danlowlite: The Illuminatus! Trilogy, by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea
- evadyne: This Boy's Life, by Tobias Wolff
- Dregan: Echoes of the Great Song, by David Gemmell
- indestructible: The Corrections, by John Franzen
- bindlenix: Undecided.
- ravenword: Animal Dreams, by Barbara Kingsolver
- blondino: Dirty Havana Trilogy, by Pedro Juan Gutierrez
- bus ridin' fool: A Wrinkle In Time, by Madeline L'Engle
- jarsyl: Rim: A Novel Of Virtual Reality, by Alexander Besher
- loquacious: Undecided.
- eversion: The Odyssey, by Homer
- that girl: Artemis Fowl, by Eoin Cowler
- nephil: The New York Trilogy, by Paul Auster
nephil says Hey, just got my book from evadyne, yay! Came with a nice little note too.