Book #5: One Red Paperclip

(and January's Wild Cherry (Red) cover love challenge book)

Whenever I visit someone’s house I inevitably end up at their bookshelf, scouring the shelves to see what their bookshelf says about them. Do we have similar reading tastes? Is there anything I can borrow? Ideas for my next book purchase? And how many of their books have I already read!

When we visited friends in south London, sure enough, I was found standing next to their fireplace, perusing their bookshelf – and that’s when I noticed One Red Paperclip. It immediately caught my interest, so I filed it away as a book to add to my own bookshelf.

But, one week later I received an email from said friend, saying he’d like to buy us One Red Paperclip  and did we already have it on our bookshelf – meant to be or what?!

And that’s how One Red Paperclip ended up as book number five for my 2011 reading challenge. The story of Kyle MacDonald himself, who began by trading one red paperclip and worked his way up to eventually being able to trade a house – trading on the way a snowmobile, a date with Alice Cooper, a camping stove, and a fish pen – among other such items.

A quirky story, a great idea, but unfortunately a rather boring read. I’d recommend cheating this one and going to his blog instead: http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/