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Does synchronicity factor in to your reading choices?
And have you been noticing a wave of them?

so I finished the wonderful and for some fishy reason decided to read ( It seemed logical at the time) When I looked at the GR quote of the day it was DNA! When I next picked up the book it was hours later but not a half dozen pages in, there it was like deja vu, the excellent quote.

To me,a synchronicity is an event that cant be planned. The more I think about it the harder it is to precisely to define. Ideas?

I don't know that you need to define it so much as pay attention to where it's leading you - like the white rabbit into Wonderland...

I think of it as good timing in the universe-something like heart beating together, if the universe has a heart.

Ellie wrote: "I think of it as good timing in the universe-something like heart beating together, if the universe has a heart."
I like that idea of good timing.Curiously, synchronicities are seldom bad, maybe value neutral, pointers we are on the right track. If the universe has a heart....is it one or a multiplicity? I somehow have concluded the universe is heartless, like any of its natural manifestions, like mountains, oceans, weather,clouds,planets....

Jim wrote: "I don't know that you need to define it so much as pay attention to where it's leading you - like the white rabbit into Wonderland..."

synchronicity does demand immediate attention and response or like a dream, it fades fast unless we catch it before it disolves. Question: how necessary are we to the phenomenum?

If it has a heart, I think it would be a core of the most powerfully held/felt/enacted thoughts/beliefs/values, fired by the energy of both creation & destruction.

passionate!

yeah, that's me. :/

Ellie wrote: "yeah, that's me. :/"

I got a bellylaugh out of that response somehow.
Lately my passion has ebbed somewhat. I am in a quiet phase.

There were a couple of synchronicities today at the bookstore, too convoluted to describe.
Has anyone else noticed an increase in frequency?
Does anyone else steer their life accordingly?
Ellie, you didn't mention,Jim didn't either.

this morning I was going through some back issues of our local paper the Georgia Straight. It has become less radical over the years but still leaf through for booka and movie reviews, art happenings. Lo and behold, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen has been made into a movie!

Well, now I have to read it. (not that your endorsement wasn't enough!)

As for synchronicity: I've always felt my life was kindof discordant, sort of the opposite of synchronicity. So maybe I've steered it in a negative way by that-doing the opposite. Although since my husband is gone, I have noticed a shift in the universe, my universe anyway.

Do I rule my life by it? Sadly, I'm not that trusting. So I pray for trust.

In the right things/events/etc.

Soon as we change our POV the universe reveals another aspect. A partner leaving is huge! I wish you delight in your new universe :-)

Maybe it was a little strong and silly to say I rule my life by it, but for me,a synchronicity is like a little wave from the universe, an indication that I am on the right track. It confirms my trust.

The other day at work a young man came in asking for a certain book which we did not have.Browsing a while,he found something else and after I had sold it to him and he was about to leave I mentioned that if he gave me his info,I would put him in our wish book. So he gave me his name,Jason, and as he did, a head popped around the shelves on the other side of the desk, where, hidden by the big shelf, he couldnt be seen. Yes, the only other customer in the shp was also called Jason, and they got into a big discussion and went off together to have lunch!

how about this: in the fantasy book I am reading, there is fatal condition, the Aciddie.
I didn't look it up, its fantasy, right.
How surprised I was to read in my other book on the go, that Acidie was a condition documented as occurring in the middle ages. That my fantasy writer might have got her inspiration from this fact is not so surprising as the fact that I read it just when it was pertinent.

Kathleen Norris has written an entire book on acidie (Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, And A Writer's Life)-it has always been a favorite topic of mine (I have no idea why-that and Tourette's Syndrome *shrug*)

It is fatal to any sense of joy or enthusiasm or meaningfulness.

Thank you!! Ellie for this recommendation...I immediately added it to my tbr and just reading the description added another dimension to the definition I have of this condition,in addition to your comment >>It is fatal to any sense of joy or enthusiasm or meaningfulness.
Maybe thats what's the matter with too many people these days.
In Songspinners acedie is the breakdown of the boundary between the self and the world, with the noise of the world overwhelming the afflicted person's individual rhythm. The lack of silence drives the suffering soul insane.

Gary Eberle gave a different spin inSacred Time and the Search for Meaningwhen he defines acedia as an irritability,a lack of calm and peace...that can lead in teenagers to vandalism and and in adults to...self-destructive behavior.
Eberle notes the roots of this malady as being attributable to sloth,which led to idleness and restlessness and ultimately acedia.

Sigmund Freud ain't got nothing on medieval psychiatry. And Tourettes just might be the key to psychopathology.

As I posted a reply to a message from Melissa, I realized that the heroine of the book I am reading is Melissa....

It's so very good to hear from Kinkajou-you're one of my favorite voices of GR.

Without art, my soul would die. Work feeds me in a number of ways-money, of course, but also a feeling of usefulness and service and the gift of being with children-but it also saps a great deal from me. Art gives without asking, or at least asking what is a joy for me to give, never draining me, not the art of reading and listening and awakening my mind and senses to worlds I would never know about otherwise.

Thanks. :)

Ellie wrote: "It's so very good to hear from Kinkajou-you're one of my favorite voices of GR.

Without art, my soul would die. Work feeds me in a number of ways-money, of course, but also a feeling of usefulness..."

where is Kinkajou? I was so glad too when she she surfaced,only to completely disappear.
Blessings on you Kink,wherever you are

Good question-it would be great to have everyone all together!

In Seville,found on the hostel bookshelf,Lonesome Travelerwhich of course I grabbed,thinking it a perfect read for this moment in my life,synchronistic even. Before I even started it, a man in the hostel handed me his just finished copy of Sputnik Sweetheartand I chose to read that first.
Imagine my surprise to find right away the references to Jack Kerouacand even the point that Lonesome Traveleris the main characters favorite book.This is not one of K's more known works....it will be interesting to see what parallels abound,in addition to the aptness of the Kerouac title to the characters in the Murakami.

In the book Here Comes Everybody there is a reference to a meta-group called meet up.
I checked it out and what came up was a group called shut up and write.
Later that morning I went to look at a room in a house, and lo! the woman renting out the room is the facilitator of that very group.

That is a sign.
Are you taking the room? Is it in the Vancouver area?

It certainly seems I could. It's in a great location in Powell River but its rather small. Also not long term. Thinking I could leave most of my stuff in storage and at least try it out.

That's exciting! A place to hang your hat!
How long is "not long term"? I'm happy for you at this opportunity.

Yay!! I'm so happy for you--I hope it's not too short-term. And hopefully you'll be able to find something longer term.

So I've taken the room.

Thanks for your enthusiasm Petra and Ellie!

High five, Magdelanye! This is exciting. I really hope it's a restful place for the winter. I so hope you enjoy your new home.

well, we know how that turned out %÷×
No regrets.

Yesterday or the day before I read a poem in the collection i just started by Al Purdy , Rooms for Rent in the outer planets.
This evening i went to cbc radio to see if i could find some music referred to by Murakami in the book ive just begun. For some reason (bloody app) i couldnt find the classical music streaming and was about to switch to YouTube when i saw a section on Canada Reads and persuing that brought me to a video on Al Purdy s 100 anniversary event with Steven Heighton.
Of course i clicked it on.
Steven begins with reading a poem, and it was a bit eerie when i realized that i recognized the words i had i just read.
This was so random

Magdelanye wrote: "well, we know how that turned out %÷×
No regrets.

Yesterday or the day before I read a poem in the collection i just started by Al Purdy , Rooms for Rent in the outer planets.
This evening i went..."

Maybe not "random"!

Was the music from Killing H? I read a wonderful book of conversations between Murakami and Seji Ozawa (I hope I've remembered the name correctly) the conductor. The conversations were about Ozawa and music. I loved the book--Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa

exactly that i was looking for, ( im itching to read that book) Could not find on cbc so had to settle for a YouTube version, so irritating with an advertisement every so often just blaring over the music. But the book has pulled me in and i am planning to spend the day with it. The size of it, which initially seemed intimidating, is now comforting. I have 500+ pages left to discover

how are you finding AP?

Magdelanye wrote: "exactly that i was looking for, ( im itching to read that book) Could not find on cbc so had to settle for a YouTube version, so irritating with an advertisement every so often just blaring over th..."

I haven't actually started it: I ordered it and am waiting (impatiently) for it to arrive.

wondering whether this was the place to put an odd....yes yes synchronicity!
Just finished a curiously delightful book, the debut novel of Rebecca Makkai whose book of short stories i recently reread: Music for Wartime. that was a week + ago. Now Im 3 stories in to What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi, and when I finished the Makkai, The Borrower, the next thing was to finish the HO story (they are all quite long).
Bear with me...you now have enough details to maybe appreciate this, and to see why I had a hard time in labelling...

One of the slightly odd genetic traits that Lucy, our anti- heroine, inherited from her father :
p126 two knobs of bone. They arent terribly prominent....Horns! Debussy had this also.

So does Rowan Wayland in HOs story :Is your blood as red as this? p127 two tiny corkscrews of bone at the front of the skull are visible. Yes, horns. Not scary ones.

Now i suppose there are other books out there in genres i dont read where this trait might be remarked upon, but i do not recall reading any such description ever. How unlikely to have these 2 books randomly resting beside me.

So i figure to make a note in this thread. of all things, the last comment i mentioned Steven Heighton. In fact, SH is reading in Sechelt tonight!

That made me chuckle.
I can't recall a mention of horns in my reading (unless intentional for Devil-type characters).
That's such a random connection between the two books, Magdelanye. I love that.

another random connection for the record. i will mention that as a teenager I struggled through this book and it greatly contributed to my dislike of Dickens.
Be that as it may, the oddity is this. that in the book i just finished Zoo Station, a wwII thriller based in Berlin, the book Martin Chizzlewait is featured as an essential prop.
Now, in the dystopian fiction i am reading, lo! up crops Martin C again.
i had actually forgotten all about this book. to have it referenced twice in the same week seems to qualify

If that isn't a hint from the Universe to have another look at Martin C, I don't know what is!
Magdelanye, that is a fun happening.

Yikes! I cant bear the thought of Dickens again.
Maybe in a dozen years or so. I remember falling asleep every few pages with Martin C. which might be his most obscure. Please lets try to find another reason.

I hated Hemingway's writing after having to read The Old Man & The Sea in high school. Stayed away for 30 years or more. Then read Islands In The Stream and was surprised that I found it enjoyable. Now I'm on the fence about Hemingway's writing. That doesn't sound positive but it's better than hating.

LOL...okay, we'll look for another connection. :D
Perhaps you'll meet a Martin soon in real life?
Do you know a Martin already? Perhaps give him a call?

I JUST read The Old Man & The Sea last year and loved it. I would not have appreciated that book 10 years old. Maybe I should reread The Sun Also Rises.

I listened to The Old Man & The Sea a few years back. While I didn't hate it, I found it slow moving. I did find the writing to be beautiful.

I agree that Hemingway should not be in a high school curriculum. I've now read 3 books by him and would not have liked any of them in my teen years.

I really enjoyed The Garden of Eden. It's very odd and off the wall.
I was/am on an Adam & Eve kick ever since reading The First Love Story: Adam, Eve, and Us. This book by Hemingway was mentioned in it. That's the first I've ever heard of this little story.

I have a copy of The Sun Also Rises and may read it this year. I keep looking at it but haven't found time yet.

I really liked A Moveable Feast. My second favorite was The Sun Also Rises but I read them 30 years ago so who knows? I'm not a huge Hemingway fan. I'd like to try The Garden of Eden.

@Ellie, I have A Moveable Feast on hold at the library, so I'll let you know how it goes.

a couple of days ago i started on a new to me David Grossman called be my knife. As usual with DG its hard to enter.
In fact, i am not yet enthralled and even considered putting it aside (ie ditching it)
The woman in the book is called Miriam which is my original birth name which is also slightly off putting.
So last night i paused it and grabbed the 2nd volume of the series ive embarked upon, Silesian Station, the wwll thriller.
No shillyshallying here!
Immediately we meet a woman on a train.
The synchronicity: her name is Miriam
in my life ive read less than a handfull of books that feature that name. To have both the fictions that im reading with that name does merit a note here

Actually, recently read Sonata for Miriam but that was out front, in the title.
Both the David Grossman and David Downing have the first word of their books Miriam. And they are both David\s.

Maybe I need to get out more.

What are the chances that as I was writing up my review of Flights of Love: Stories I was typing the title of one of the stories and as I wrote the words Gas Station the radio host uttered those very words.

I am excited that synchronicities are happening again!
It might have something to do with another book I am reading, Second Sight: An Intuitive Psychiatrist Tells Her Extraordinary Story and Shows You How To Tap Your Own Inner Wisdom

I love it when things like this happen. It shows an interconnectivity with everything. I like feeling that somehow, in some way, everything is connected and part of a whole.

yes its a warm feeling!

a bit unsettling as well:
this morning I began the next chapter of Second Sight. I hadnt read more tha page when I gasped. Not only had she written the words Gas Station she used it in the same context as the short story, the woman from the gas station.
This might well be the universe giving mea much needed boost when i was feeling like I was running out

�..or a round-about, continual reminder for me (LOL!) to get to a gas station, as my car is low on gas. LOL!...�.yeah, the Universe is messaging me, through your reading and your comments...�.oh, yeah......LOL!