I’ve been crowing all week about my new favorite book Love Does – Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World. Do yourself a favor and buy this book, if for no other reason than the proceeds go to build schools in Uganda.

Love Does made it to somewhere around #12 on the New York Times Bestseller list and in keeping of the book’s spirit of whimsy and adventure, the author, Bob Goff, put his cell phone number in the back. That’s crazy. Do you know what’s even crazier? He answers it.

“Hi, This is Bob Goff.”

“Wow, you answered! Hi Bob, this is Erin from Texas. I just wanted to call and tell you how much I loved your book.”

“That is so sweet, thank you.”

“I can’t believe you answer your cell phone, I barely answer mine.”

“Don’t you think we all need to be more connected, instead of less connected” he said.

Bob had just stepped off a 27-hour flight from Uganda. He turned his phone on moments before I called. I asked how many people have called since the book came out and if I heard correctly, he said at least a thousand.

“It’s the best thing I ever did,” he said.

I’m going to Los Angeles next week (more on why later) and I asked if I could bring him a cup of coffee on Tom Sawyer Island. He gave me his email, so we can set it up. He said to make sure and email him because, after three weeks in Uganda, he’ll be walking into a wall of stuff when he gets home and doesn’t want to forget.

Love Does is the reason I decided to go to LA, where I’m going after my own secretly incredible life by doing something new, something that’s a leap of faith for me – or as Bob would put it, a caper.

I told Bob, I had blogged about Love Does (here and here) and he said he was really happy to talk to me. He reiterated how surprising or lucky it was I caught him. But I don’t think luck has anything to do with it.

“When you write your book, you should put your phone number in the back,” he said.

That’s funny, I didn’t tell Bob I was writing a book.