this post was submitted on 18 May 2026
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Recieved a book as a gift through Amazon (fedia.io)
submitted 3 days ago by zout@fedia.io to c/books@lemmy.world
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Has anyone ever had this happen to them?

Someone who's name I never heard of sent me a book as a gift. The book is about 200 pages, but the content could have easily fit in 100 pages or less. Also, page 3 says "printed in the USA", but the last page says "printed in Germany by Amazon distribution". The text is very generic self help stuff. My conclusion is this book was probably written by AI, and someone is sending out copies to get it to the best seller list. Holding the book doesn't justify the current price of € 46, and leafing through it doesn't give me the impression that it's dense in information, it looks to be just generic stuff.

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[–] zout@fedia.io 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Found it, but the reporting page specifically mentions it should be sent by a store, and not be a gift. To be clear, someone named "Latwan Estrella" sent me the book as a gift about three weeks ago (I googled that name, no hits). I reported that I recieved a package I didn't order to Amazon, but never heard back from them, they were supposed to respond within 10 days. So this morning I decided to open the package, and inside was this book with a note saying I recieved it as a gift.

[–] Zachariah@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

A couple of questions:

  1. Is Latwan Estrella an anagram of your name?
  2. Is this somehow a message from your future self?
[–] zout@fedia.io 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

LOL, most definitely not on both questions. Also, if I wanted a self help book on this topic I could find something better.

[–] Zachariah@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

But what if this was the book your future self received in their past.

[–] zout@fedia.io 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

They would have, since I recieved it. The problem is, I leafed through the book, and it seems to be very generic. So if future me sent it, it wouldn't be for the content. Maybe it has just the right thickness for a wonky table in my near future?

[–] xorollo@leminal.space 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

MAYBE its so generic because your future self encoded it. The self help is generic because its actually cipher text. And only YOU have the key. Maybe the giftee's name is the key. Hmm.

[–] zout@fedia.io 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Then I'll trust the process and guess I'll come around to decoding it when needed.

[–] xorollo@leminal.space 3 points 1 day ago

Let us know the secrets if you can!