(Looks Over Shoulder)

I’m planning to assign a couple of chapters from a particular book this spring, but I didn’t ask the students to buy it; it’s a good book, but if I’m asking them to read less than a quarter of it, I don’t feel justified in asking them to pay for it. I put it on reserve, so that they can read it in the library.
 
This morning, I checked my (usually empty) mail folder at Duke, and a copy of the book was there. No explanatory note, no packaging, not from the library; it looks like a new copy. I didn’t request a desk copy. Evidently someone somewhere in the information chain figured out that I should own it, which is pleasant and kind and astonishingly efficient, but a little scary.
 
I wonder if there’s a way I can indicate to these powerful, effective, anonymous agents that Margaret and I could use jobs for next year….