This morning in the practice, I was putting the toolbox back in the cupboard; I had to screw a bolt onto the bottom of my chair, and I'd asked if anyone had seen the little toolbox that we have, and it was delivered to my desk a bit later.
I put it back in the cupboard, and I found five copies of one of the most important books I've ever read in my life (Perhaps the most important book).
The book itself is in the picture above. It's called Healing Without Freud or Prozac. David Servan-Schreiber wrote it and published it first in 2005.
I must have read it in the late noughties, maybe 2008/9 because by the time it reached the 2011 edition (which those photographs are of), I was buying multiple copies to give away to people whenever I had the opportunity.
I got the book on recommendation from a friend when I was really sad. He had asked me if I was sad enough to want to crawl underneath my bed and curl up into a ball, and he said if I was, I should read the book, and I did.
It's not an overestimation to say that it changed my life; therefore, I felt I had a little responsibility to try and pass on to other people.
As I put the toolbox away in the cupboard this morning, I found five copies of that book, pretty old, pretty grey, and pretty dusty. I'd obviously bought them as one of the big purchases of the number of books that I bought to give to people to try and help them in different circumstances.
For a while, the book was completely out of print. In fact, if you go on to Amazon at the moment, some sites are selling it for £242 a copy, but you could get it used on Amazon for about a fiver.
But here's the deal here.
I'm going to keep one of these books for myself so that I've always got a copy, and I'm going to keep another one in case I need to give it to someone in an emergency. However, I'm going to give the other two away as a gift to anyone who reads this blog.
The only proviso, the only condition to the gift, is that you hit reply to the email that you got this from, or else email me here and tell me that you promise you will read the book.
Don't take the book for free and never read it; take the book because you'll read it, and then as soon as you've read it, give it to someone else.
We cannot change the world, and the world will continue to burn and change and be in crisis in many places, but if you read this book, it might make you a little bit better, and if you then give it to someone else, then you've started a wonderful chain reaction.
So, a gift for a promise. Promise you'll read it and you can have it.
I've only got two to give away, so I guess it's first two, with your address in the email and you'll get it by post.
Blog Post Number - 3947