’ve mentioned this topic in the past but recently a bout of serendipity has brought it to the fore again. Once more, we discover the solidarity of readers.
Event 1 – at the weekly get together at Juniors (not the place my wife and I go to lunch and read at on weekends but the pizza parlor the model train buddies meet at). Was sitting there talking to a couple of guys about Razor Girl, a crime novel I’d just finished. Suddenly Steve, an older guy (practical, levelheaded) tells me that he’s currently reading it too. That surprised me – I actually blinked. Funny to find that we were both reading the book pretty much at the same time.
Event 2 – A few days later, I went to drop my Mini Cooper off at the shop (water leak). Plunked down in the chair opposite the service guy, a young black fellow, friendly and outgoing. He saw my copy of The Girl on the Train, which I had heard about and had picked up in the used bookstore. Yes, he’d read it and had seen the movie, too. The book, he told me, was much better (having just ducked out to see the trailer I’d have to agree). But it was funny to talk about a book where the main character is so unlikable. But it was a fun chat, literature drawing two different people into an honest discussion.
That’s where I was going to leave this blog this morning. But then, as we were waiting in our local weekend diner (Juniors, the first one this time) for a table to clear, an older couple paused while passing us on their way out (I’d been standing there reading Girl again). Turns out the wife had read it and had not quite liked it (the author’s follow-up book was more to her liking). But we chatted about the characters and first-half situations (I showed her my mid-book progress and told her not to spoil it). But it was funny that while considering writing this when we got home, Event 3 just popped right up. Serendipity, indeed.
But I won’t be posting this until Thursday. Let’s see what other tricks the universe might play on me.
Event 4 – Crazy. Went to Train-Club Juniors last night and told Steve I’d written about him, and that now I was reading The Girl on the Train. And he tells me that he’s reading that book too. Okay, Universe, what are you trying to say? What are the crazy odds that two completely different people (Steve and I only share commonality in trains) would read two books (out of all the millions of books out there), both of them a year out of date, in the same order, a week apart? Weird. Just very weird. I don’t think my life is normal anymore. I think I’m in the Twilight Zone.