Matthew Flores was not asking for much when he posed a question to a mailman making deliveries to his apartment complex. He was just asking if there was any extra mail he could read.

What he received was far more than he ever imagined.

No doubt Matthew's question was not one you would normally expect from a 12-year-old boy. Perhaps this is what sparked mailman Ron Lynch's curiosity. Here was a young boy with a passion for reading, without a single book.

Lynch said, "I asked him about going to the library, and he said he couldn't afford the bus pass."

With no access to books, Matthew had taken to reading whatever he could get his hands on. This most often turned out to be the newspaper, advertisements or whatever junk mail landed in his family's mailbox.

"At 12 years old, he didn't want electronics. He didn't want to sit in front of the TV playing games all day," Lynch said, "This kid just wanted to read."

Moved by this boy's story, Lynch posted Matthew's picture on Facebook, asking his friends if they could donate a book or two to give this avid reader something good to read.

In his post he wrote, "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!"

The response? Overwhelming.

Lynch was expecting to collect, at most, fifty or sixty books for Matthew. Instead, thousands poured in.

The mailman's plea went viral.

People from all over the world have come together to get a young boy from Utah something to read. Books have been sent from places as far as India, the United Kingdom and Australia. And they are still coming.

Matthew says that he wants to read every single book and share them with others.

"I don't even know," he said. "I'm just super happy."

Thanks to the help of one kind mailman and strangers from around the world, Matthew Flores won't be asking for extra junk mail ever again.