Coincidence

Not long ago i finished Michael Chabon's book The Final Solution. I picked it up on the bargain table at the Barnes and Noble for $4.99. I had no idea what it was about, but i like Chabon's novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay so much that i bought it based on the author alone. It turns out that the story is about an elderly detective's final case (and yes there is a connection to the Nazis). The detective, though never named, is clearly meant to be Sherlock Holmes.

Upon finishing the book i decided to put it in the bookcase next to Kavalier and Clay. When i looked for that book, here's where i found it:

















I love coincidences like this. They remind me of why human beings tend to believe so strongly in things that are so unlikely. I haven't really analyzed what the probability is that i would have put Chabon's novel on the shelf next to Conan Doyle. I've got maybe 1500 books, but there are also conditions to consider such as that the books are roughly the same size and both are fiction. I don't follow any conventional filing system so the fact that the authors' names end in 'C' is not relevant (notice that the book next to Chabon is Jonathan Lethem's Fortress of Solitude, so filed because it also has a comic-book related theme).