Mathew Flores made a strange request of his postman recently. Standing outside his apartment complex, the 12-year-old asked his local postman, Ron Lynch, if he could deliver him some junk mail, so he would have something to read.

Flores, from Salt Lake City in the United States, as desperate to get his hand on any reading material he could as he couldn’t afford any books – and even some light advertising would do the trick.

When he heard this Lynch suggested Flores try the local library, but Flores said he couldn’t afford the bus.

Lynch decided to see if he could help by asking his Facebook friends to donate some books to Mathew.

“Today while delivering mail to his apartment complex I saw him reading ads, and then he asked me if I had any extra mail he could read,” Lynch wrote.

“He told me his wish is to have books to read. “

Posting to his Facebook friends, Lynch said: “Let's get this 12 year old some books! Let's help him. I was given many books as a child, and it's time to help someone else! Please share and let's get him tons of reading material! Most kids his age want electronics! It's great to see his desire, and you should have seen him beam when I said I could help!”

Lynch expected that, at best, "He might end up with 50 or 60 books,” he said.

"You know, 10, 20, 30 of my friend's might give him some books.”

But the response has been staggering. Since Lynch posted the message it has been shared worldwide, over 13,000 times, with books coming to Mathew from across the globe – with Mathew now owning hundreds of books, and quickly building a small library in his home.

"I've heard from the UK, from Australia, from India,” Lynch said.