I read almost every genre and I typically try to switch it up with every new book I pick up, and yet sometimes when I read two wildly different books back-to-back, there’s occasionally a really suprising overlap or complimentary element between them. It’s made me interested in finding other examples where this can happen.
For example, I just finished Piranesi (Susanna Clarke), which (spoiler alert?) talks about knowledges from ancient humans that have since been lost to time. Then I read Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves (James Nestor), which has many references to vistigial biology or documented (but now universally lost) skills that humans have had – like holding breath under water for 15 minutes – which likely come from our distant evolution from ocean creatures. The overlap was an unexpected bridge between the books and so satisfying! If I were to recommend this set to someone else, I’d probably throw Our Wives Under The Sea (Julia Armfield) in there as well because of the cross-over of all the strange things that happen to our bodies in deep water.
As I queue up my reads for 2024, I’d like to have more of those unexpected and satisfying moments with complimentary books – give me your best examples, preferrably with books you’d actually recommend! Any and all genres welcome, the more oddball the pairing the better.
by bisphosphatase