Here's a fun and ancient way to decide your next book-buying spree. A rabid fan of our work used the Japanese "Ghost Leg" (
Amidakuji,
阿弥陀籤) technique to pick two book titles out of nine possibilities.
Step One: Since he intended to buy two books, he needed two random numbers for his starting points on the Ghost Leg diagram. He wrote a secret list of nine possible choices of books and randomly numbered them, then turned the sheet over and wrote the numbers one through nine randomly on the back.
Then he placed the sheet on the floor and waited for his feline animal familiar to step on it. Whatever two numbers the cat touched would be the choices. Half an hour later, the cat finally relinquished and touched the 3 and the 7.
Step Two: Our reader drew nine vertical lines on a sheet of paper with a koala bear on it (to prove that he is in Australia, and it's frankly the best proof of Australia that we've ever seen). These lines serve as the legs of ladders. Then he randomly drew in horizontal rungs for the ladders, no two horizontal lines touching each other. Elegantly, this forms nine discrete pathways, each leading to its own book title.
Step Three: Our reader traced the paths down lines 3 and 7, as per his cat's decision. Again, each line of a Ghost Leg diagram leads to its own outcome, and it's impossible to tell where any line will go by a mere glance.
The lingering question is: did the Ghost Leg accurately predict which two books our reader will buy? Only time will tell.
Send us your own Ghost Leg diagram. If it's about our own books, we'll post about it! (Yeah, it's all about us; other authors can fend for themselves, eh?)
