Books From Home: An Experiment

Hi everybody. I’m happy you’re here. Let’s play a game together.

Each day, I will pick a book and open it to a random page. I will pick a line and post it in a Google document.

This is where you come in. Meditate on the line, think about it. There are no right or wrong answers. You don’t need to have read the book.

Here’s how the game works.

1. I will post a link to a public Google document with a line from a book in it.
2. You think about the line. Let your mind and imagination wander.
3. Write a sentence or paragraph in response to the line and paste it into the Google doc. Don’t write in real time in the document because that makes it harder for other people. Open it, paste your line in, and close it.
4. Put an asterisk at the beginning and end of your line to distinguish it from the ones that come before and after it.
5. You’re welcome to participate with or without including your name.
6. Don’t touch anybody else’s lines. Don’t edit them, erase them, or add to them. Don’t copy anything out of the document.
7. At midnight I will close this line out and curate a collection from the document.
8. Tomorrow I will post a new line.
9. This game operates on the honor system like a roadside produce stand. This is an experiment and may evolve as we go.

Our first book is HOUSE OF STONE by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, who was born in Zimbabwe and lives in Houston, Texas.

Nuvoyo Rosa Tshuma

Here’s the link to the Google doc with the line from HOUSE OF STONE. Anyone can participate. You don’t have to have read the book though I encourage you to consider doing so and to buy it from an independent bookseller.

I opened the book at random to pick this line. It carries strong energy.

And here it is:

Believing the problem solved, I concentrated on the bigger issue of how I would rid myself of our holy man.

In the coming days I’m going to be buying books that have been published recently to support authors and independent bookstores, and choose lines from them for this game. Please leave comments on this post with books and independent bookstores you recommend.