Last September when Furiously Happy came out I was so terrified that people wouldn’t like it, wouldn’t understand it, or would run away after realizing I’m quite a bit crazier than I ever let on. But you stayed – for the most part – and then even more of you showed up, and now it’s February and Furiously Happy is still on the top 20 NYT list. This is because of you. You share quotes, and pictures of yourself reading it, and tell others that it helped and pass it on to people who you think will need it to understand you or to better understand themselves. Every day I see people online sharing it and it makes such a difference to me and to the people who every day discover that they are so much less alone than they thought.
As a thank you I’d like to give you all a box full of live kittens but I don’t have that many kittens or boxes and also I don’t have your address, so instead today I’m giving out copies of Furiously Happy to people who haven’t been able to afford a copy. If you’re struggling right now and you need a copy just make a wishlist with Furiously Happy on it. Or if you have Furiously Happy but need someone to buy you another book to get you through a rough time then make a wish list with that book on it. A book you loved as a kid. A book to calm you, or revive you, or to read to children.
Will this work? No idea. But let’s try.
Here are the rules:
- If you’re in a rough place and need a book to transport you somewhere else make a BRAND NEW wish list with nothing on it but the book you want. (Exception: If you have a kid who needs a book you can add that too.)
- Here’s how you make a wish list: Under “Your Lists” on the right, top side of Amazon select “Create a list”. Choose “Wish list” and name it something like “The book I really need right now” and choose “Public”. Then click “Create list”. Now add a book to your list by going to the book and clicking the “add to list” button on the bottom right. Now here’s the most important thing that everyone forgets to do. You have to assign a shipping address to that specific wish list or it won’t go to you. So click on the wish list and click on “public” and it’ll take you to “List settings”. Click “view details” and where it says “shipping address” add yours. (Your city will be shown to others but not your full address.) Then save changes. Now leave a comment with a link to your wish list. Click here for my sample wish list so you’ll know what one looks like. I have about 20 books listed on it for inspiration if you don’t know exactly what you want. In your comment say which book you want in case someone specifically wants to buy you that book. Feel happy.
- Here’s how you buy a book for a stranger. Click on their link. Choose a book. Select their name so it goes to their address. If it doesn’t give you the option of picking their name it means they didn’t add a shipping address so delete what’s in your cart and go to the next person. Send a story to someone in need. Feel happy.
The only rule is that this is just for books. No gift cards or clothes or anything else because it gets out of hand really quickly. Just a simple book to take you away from the world and help you find new ones.
And as always, thank you. Thank you for supporting my words and listening and passing them on to others. I’m hesitantly starting book 3 right now and you’re giving me strength to keep writing even when I doubt myself. I owe you one. Or 30.
UPDATED: Here are screen shots of what you should see while making a wishlist and add a shipping destination because it’s really easy to mess up.
Create a list under “Your lists”.
Make it a wish list, name it and make it public.
After you click “create list” click on the “public” button below:
Click “view details” to add your shipping address to this wish list:
Choose a shipping address and save changes.
Now you’re ready to add something to your list. Pick a book and choose the “add to list” button on bottom right side:
If you have another wish list set as your default then you’ll need to click “move to another list.”
Just click the list you’re going to share here.
Now go to the wish list and copy the link and paste it into the comments. That should work. There might be a better way of doing it but that’s how I do it.
PS. If you click on a wish list that says it’s empty that’s because the book has been bought for them. 🙂 If you leave a comment and don’t see it that’s because my blog puts people into moderation for a bit so I have to approve the comments and sometimes it takes me a minute. It’ll show up.
PPS. In the time it’s taken for me to write all of this a ton of books have been sent out to strangers (I prefer the term “strangelings”) on the internet and I haven’t even started giving away my own portion. Thank you. For asking and for giving.
PPPS. It’s 10:30pm Texas time and when I try to buy people books it gives me an error message during checkout. I’m just going to assume we broke amazon with our awesomeness. If you get error messages too just try again in a bit. Also, a ton of books have been sent out all over the world so you might have to search a lot to find a wish list that hasn’t been filled. Keep looking though if you want to help. New comments are approved every 15 minutes (until I go to sleep, at least) and they’re still coming in.
UPDATED, DAY 2: Technically yesterday was Booksgiving but Amazon crashed for like 4 hours yesterday so I say we keep going today. Besides, it’s a leap year so we get an extra day this month anyway. Might as well use it for good.
Also, are you reading these comments? Because you should be…
I love you guys. Off to buy more books…