[INDOLOGY] Book Club Invitations

Fri Aug 21 01:40:12 UTC 2026

Dear Colleagues,

I got a rash of these solicitous saccharine messages some months ago —
supposedly from agents, book club promoters, podcasters, other authors,
“influencers”, literary journalists and so on. Let me see if I can find the
article explaining the workings of this bizarre phenomenon — it has
happened to so many writer friends! Don’t believe a word of it.

All best,

AV.

On Friday, August 21, 2026, Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Thanks for the tip! The message I received was from someone claiming to
> represent “Unfotgettable Reads”. Must be a cousin of the Goodreads.
>
> Madhav
>
> Madhav M. Deshpande
> Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
> University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
> Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
> Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India
>
> [Residence: Campbell, California, USA]
>
> On Thu, Aug 20, 2026 at 3:51 PM Antonia Ruppel <rhododaktylos at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Just thought I’d add my usual two Euro cents on using AI here: simply
>> search online for scam book club Goodreads (or whatever other platform was
>> offered to you) and you will find large numbers of actual people telling
>> you this is actually a scam. (Also, lots of people write genuine emails
>> with the help of AI, so that alone doesn’t tell you much.)
>>
>> Your luddite truly,
>>      Antonia
>>
>> On Thu 20 Aug 2026 at 22:39, Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh at umich.edu> wrote:
>>
>>> I also received one of these, but it looked fishy to me. I ran it
>>> through ChatGPT and was told that this was most likely a scam message.
>>>
>>> Madhav
>>>
>>> Madhav M. Deshpande
>>> Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
>>> University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
>>> Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
>>> Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore,
>>> India
>>>
>>> [Residence: Campbell, California, USA]
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Aug 20, 2026 at 3:27 PM Antonia Ruppel via INDOLOGY <
>>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Not dozens in my case, but also just two, specifically for Goodreads.
>>>> It seemed odd to me right from the start that someone wanted to make some
>>>> poor book club read my Sanskrit textbook, so I never responded.
>>>>
>>>> Antonia
>>>>
>>>> On Thu 20 Aug 2026 at 22:06, Jeffery Long via INDOLOGY <
>>>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Dear Patrick, I receive these almost daily. Like you, I took it at
>>>>> face value at first. But it’s a scam. I started putting these emails
>>>>> through an AI detector. They have all come up as 100% written by AI. I now
>>>>> delete them reflexively. All the best! Jeff
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
>>>>> <https://mail.onelink.me/107872968?pid=nativeplacement&c=Global_Acquisition_YMktg_315_Internal_EmailSignature&af_sub1=Acquisition&af_sub2=Global_YMktg&af_sub3=&af_sub4=100000604&af_sub5=EmailSignature__Static_&af_ios_store_cpp=9d3a686e-218d-4849-8298-b480188dc8ac&af_android_url=https%3A%2F%2Fplay.google.com%2Fstore%2Fapps%2Fdetails%3Fid%3Dcom.yahoo.mobile.client.android.mail%26listing%3Demail_signature>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Thursday, August 20, 2026, 5:51 PM, Uskokov, Aleksandar via
>>>>> INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Dear Patrick,
>>>>>
>>>>> I have received these as well, though not quite a dozen, more like
>>>>> two. I had the same experience, an initial brief exchange until it was
>>>>> obvious that they want money.
>>>>>
>>>>> Best wishes
>>>>> Aleksandar
>>>>>
>>>>> Get Outlook for iOS <https://aka.ms/o0ukef>
>>>>> ------------------------------
>>>>> *From:* INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info> on behalf of
>>>>> Patrick Olivelle via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>
>>>>> *Sent:* Thursday, 20 August 2026 17:28:19
>>>>> *To:* INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>
>>>>> *Subject:* [INDOLOGY] Book Club Invitations
>>>>>
>>>>> Dear All:
>>>>>
>>>>> Just wanted to alert you all to a scam that is widespread. Someone,
>>>>> generally with only a first name, sends an email saying he/she is leading a
>>>>> large book club and would like to read a book of yours. They want you to
>>>>> support this effort, and with the added advantage of publicity for the
>>>>> book. Over the past year or so I must have received at least a dozen such
>>>>> requests. I did respond to the first one, and with the third email there
>>>>> was a request for money, small amount like a couple of hundred dollars, so
>>>>> help with expenses — and she said this is NOT a pay to pay scan. I stopped
>>>>> responding. Wonder how many have received similar emails.
>>>>>
>>>>> With warm good wishes,
>>>>>
>>>>> Patrick
>>>>>
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>>>>>
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-- 
Sent on the fly, please excuse typos.
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