In Praise (and Memory) of Serendipity

ser·en·dip·i·ty  (srn-dp-t)
n. pl. ser·en·dip·i·ties
1. The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.
2. The fact or occurrence of such discoveries.
3. An instance of making such a discovery.

[From the characters in the Persian fairy tale 
 The Three Princes of Serendip, who made such discoveries, 
from Persian Sarandp, Sri Lanka, from Arabic sarandb.]

I’m planning a folklore-related blog post (out soon), and, as always, I started with my own bookshelves for the research.

They failed me. Or so I thought.

I went to the web, of course, and I found bits and pieces of what I needed — but not enough. This became inspiration for another blog post that will come after the folklore one.

But then, purely by accident, I found a book that I had forgotten that I owned, that had a bit more of what I wanted. I love my bookshelves.

And this experience reminded me of a wonderful place in Berkeley: Serendipity Books.