Friday, January 14, 2011

Coincidences

As you’ve noticed if you’ve seen my pile posts I’ve always got several books going. I read a little bit of one, then put it aside and read a little bit of another. Frequently, more than one book at the same reading session will mention the same something – Proust, say, or Plato. Maybe even referring to Proust’s madeleine or Plato’s shadows on the cave wall. One book will be a novel, the other will be a book on crows. Or whatever. It’s not like I’m reading two books about Proust – or Plato.

A couple days ago I found two different authors describing a scar on a woman’s belly as she was undressing.

My books are talking to each other.

2 comments:

Art Durkee said...

It happens to me all the time. Perhaps there's some pre-sorting because I will often read more than one book on a similar topic at one time; but it happens regardless of that, too.

The mind is very good at locating patterns and repetitions. Jung called it synchronicity.

Glenn Ingersoll said...

I've thought about keeping track, but haven't. In some ways it makes what seems an endless world of books & thoughts & people seem rather small. Even cozy.