Friday, September 2, 2022

The mighty coincidence

 





Due to the wealth of cultural and subject references teeming about in a library, and the wide ranging nature of casual workplace discussions, libraries are an extremely fertile ground for coincidences. I have come across many, and probably talked about quite a few in this space over the years.

Great coincidences usually feel more like great fun to me, than they feel like magic. But that is maybe another subject.

Anyway, today I had a very simply constructed coincidence, but, boy, it was a doozy!


This is a true story.

When I am shelving these days, I usually have a bluetooth ear bud in my ear through which I'm listening to a recorded book. And so it was today up in the non fiction section. I was shelving and listening to Bruce Springsteen read his own autobiography, which is excellent, called, naturally, Born to Run. A woman came into my aisle and said something to me. I didn't hear it too well, what with Bruce talking in my ear, so I paused the playback, removed the earbud, and said "What was that?"

The woman, flustered, asked "Can you help me find a book?"

I replied "Yes, what book?"

She said "This one." And handed me a scrap of paper.

The paper had a call number on it and three words: 


Born to Run. 




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