Maybe this is just my subconscious making choices I’m not even consciously aware of, but there have been times where I’ll want to get into something (not always a book), and it felt as if the choice was already made before I actively made it.
In the context of books, I was sitting here thinking about what I want to read next, and was considering a bunch of books that seem dark and mysterious (Dracula, Slewfoot, Frankenstein, Six of Crows), and my indecision made me think of a scene I’ve heard from The Bell Jar about figs falling from a tree from indecision. And just like that, without me actually making the choice consciously, my mind latched onto The Bell Jar and I couldn’t shake it. Now I feel like I have to read it or it’ll just continue to bug me if I don’t. It’s like the book chose me, not the other way around. So I guess I’m reading The Bell Jar now.
I stumbled on a book through Goodreads that intrigued me greatly.
A few weeks later Im at a used bookstore that is notorious for, shall I say, a very loose and fluid organizational style. Down a little corridor and under a stack of books there it was
The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll by Alvaro Mutis
The perfect book. The best damn I’ve ever read. And the one I’m taking with me when we all move to Mars.