Monday, September 28, 2015

Bookish coincidences

(This isn't really a real post but it's something odd I wanted to call out and also hey, look, now I have another post done!)

I started listening to Serial the other day. You know the podcast that was a big thing awhile ago? I am amazing at jumping on trends after the moment has passed. But I was up to date on Freakonomics and wasn't in the mood for Welcome to Nightvale but still wanted to listen to something while working and said "Hey, here's a thing that people like and SNL did that parody and PBS Idea Channel had 2 episodes about it, so yeah, let's try that."

I listened to the first 6 episodes while working and later starting to make dinner. That's something like 3 1/2 hours. Then listened to another hour today while cleaning, so yeah, I am enjoying it.
But I'm not (just) writing to be like "Check out this thing I like that you probably know all about already." I'm also writing because I didn't expect there to be overlap between this podcast about a 15 year old murder and A Walk in the Woods but there is! Kinda!

At one point in the podcast the host is meeting with a law professor who runs an organization The Innocence Project, which reexamines cases where it seems the person could have been wrongly convicted. One of the cases she had worked on (not sure if part of that organization or just a case she had taken) was a guy who had been accused of murdering two hikers in Shenandoah National Park. You know, the hikers Bryson mentions in his book as the ones that were killed a few weeks after he and Katz passed through the park.

There isn't anything more to this other than a coincidence but I thought how strange it was that that was the case she had worked on and referenced during the podcast. And of course I recently re-read the book because I was going to see the movie (which I did, and which does not mention the murders because, you know, why would it?)
Sometimes coincidences are a real thing. Get off your throne, Mycroft. 

Something to take from this? Umm, listen to Serial and read A Walk in the Woods. Just cos those are two very cool things. I told you this was a non-post.