One Red Paperclip
The story of how one man changed his life one swap at a time
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- 12,99 €
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- 12,99 €
Description de l’éditeur
Kyle MacDonald wanted his own house. The problem was he didn't have a job and he didn't have any money. Thinking back to his childhood he remembered the game he loved to play - Bigger and Better. It was a way of trading your old stuff to get bigger and better new stuff. Legend had it, some people managed to trade an old biro for a brand new car! This got Kyle thinking. If that kind of entrepreneurial spirit could turn tiny objects into big ones, then why not try trading up to a house?
And then he saw it. One red paperclip, sitting on his desk, holding the pages of his CV together, ready to go out into the world and help him find the job that would eventually get him a house.
But that didn't sound nearly as much fun as trading. So he wrote an internet advert hoping to trade one red paperclip and suddenly his inbox filled with responses: the trading had begun.
Did he get the house? Well, you're about to find out! One thing's for sure, he did a lot of trades and met a lot of very interesting people. One small paperclip was the beginning of a great big adventure.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
MacDonald is just a regular, sharp-witted guy on a quest for "funtential," his coined word for the maximum potential for fun. In a casual, playful tone, his account begins as he stares past his computer screen and at the brick wall of his girlfriend's apartment in Quebec; he lives there, and she pays the rent. Wanting to contribute financially to the relationship, he recalls a childhood game, Bigger and Better, and begins looking for something to trade. He's drawn to the red paperclip holding together his r sum and cover letter. The rest of the book traces his exchanges from the red paperclip to a fish pen to a smiley-face door knob and culminates with a house in Kipling, Saskatchewan all within a year. From the outset, MacDonald insists on making each deal in person, and these personal exchanges provide the book with a human interest that transcends any fascination with quirky material swaps. Trading a door knob for Shawn's camping stove, for example, becomes an excuse for the once strangers to chat over steak sandwiches and beer. So, while the trades are the unifying element of the book, it isn't really about getting a house; it's about people, relationships and living life to its fullest.
