NYC Book Project Seeks to Disrupt Our Digital Lives

The idea came to Shaheryar Malik when he was taking a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and felt the urge to take a selfie. Then he stopped himself – this was the photo everyone took. Who would it actually be for? Would this really bring him joy? He didn’t take the photo and decided to do something else instead. He brought eight stacks of books from his own collection – his favorite books, not ones headed for the thrift store – and left them in various public places around New York City. His books made appearances in Grand Central Park, the middle of a subway station and a child’s swing in Harlem. Inside each book, he tucked in a note saying:  “Take a book. Any book. When you finish, email the artist.”  

  Malik decided not to go back to see what had become of his book stacks. “If I stuck around or revisited the stacks then it would be very close to how we live ‘digitally,’” he told The Huffington Post. “Nowadays we can go back and look at something we posted whenever we want. We can just hang around on social networks for hours [watching a post].” He calls this The Reading Project and it’s been a success – he’s received over 70 emails from more than 30 countries. And since many of us are slow readers he expects to receive even more. The underlying question of Malik’s project seems to ask: how can we make meaningful connections? Malik has three books left which he says brings him a feeling of joy rather than one of loss. “I have given away something, but I’ve never really left them. What you’ve read becomes you and stays with you, and now they carry on and get extra lives,” he told the Guardian. Malik’s next destinations? Brazil and Malaysia.