Play Book Tag discussion

The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (aka frequency bias) is when you notice something for the first time (e.g., a word, name, or object) and then start seeing it everywhere. Example is when you purchase a specific model or color car and then you start to notice that car or color everywhere.

What are some Baader-Meinhof phenomenon you can remember in your reading?

Reading Jim Butcher and having one of his characters raise a single eyebrow: it's on every other page!

Seeing a lot of books with characters in menopause this year after the PopSugar 2025 challenge had that as a prompt. And I thought it was going to be a hard one to find!

I don't know that this specifically qualifies but I am amused at the number of times that I'm seeing Finley, Finlay and Findlay as first names with increasing frequency in popular books. It's one of my family names and I rarely ever met another person with a similar last name when I was growing up.

Yes, I just came across this recently but now I can't remember what it was! Like a weird fact comes up in a book and then in the next book, when it is nothing to do with the main subject of the book.

Book Concierge has a GR group https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
where there's a scavenger hunt for certain words each month. Recently, we had the word "eel". I thought that would be hard to find, but it turned up in 4 books in a row!

Robin P wrote: "Yes, I just came across this recently but now I can't remember what it was! Like a weird fact comes up in a book and then in the next book, when it is nothing to do with the main subject of the boo..."

Funny - I just came across 'eel' in one of my recent reads - a fictional road! It's not a word that crops up all that often.

This is certianly a phenomena that I have experienced in different ways, with some frequency. There was a point where every book I picked up had some mention of Tudor and Tudor history in it, even if it wasn't HF, and I was given a gift that was a stitched tudor rose ornament. Another time every book I picked up seemed to feature trees in some important way or have an important tree in it. I call the rabbit holes -- but it's really like something has been released into the atmosphere and is pulling some common thread to you over and over.

Rose wrote: "Seeing a lot of books with characters in menopause this year after the PopSugar 2025 challenge had that as a prompt. And I thought it was going to be a hard one to find!"

This cracks me up because I was reading a mystery for The Compass and out of the blue in it a character briefly appears who is suffering menopause and her husband's reactions to her mood swings, complaints, etc. lead to a critical decision he makes in the book that he will come to regret. There was nothing about the mystery that would suggest you'd find a character going through menopause yet there she was. I was very happy to check off that prompt. But it is true, as it also popped up in Mrs. Dalloway which I read right after (though more euphemistically described).

Without naming names, when I named my children I started seeing two of their names more in fiction. My "baby's" name (he's six foot two and sports a good beard, but allows me to that term in jest now and then) is not as common. I was quite peeved to read his name as an antagonist not all that long ago.

I had this problem with a TV show some years back where a character my younger daughter's name was nasty.

Karin wrote: "Without naming names, when I named my children I started seeing two of their names more in fiction. My "baby's" name (he's six foot two and sports a good beard, but allows me to that term in jest n..."

I like finding my real name or my nickname in a book I read. Algernon is not such a popular handle today, but I found one character with this name in my latest Regency book by Georgette Heyer.

Algernon (Darth Anyan) wrote: "Karin wrote: "Without naming names, when I named my children I started seeing two of their names more in fiction. My "baby's" name (he's six foot two and sports a good beard, but allows me to that ..."

There's a famous Algernon in The Importance of Being Earnest. It's a wonderfully British name, like Cecil or Roland.

A few years ago I read Haven and The Colony both set on isolated islands. Since that time, I've seen any number of island books, both fiction and nonfiction. I've fallen into a bit of a rabbit hole and have been reading them intentionally this year.

One thing I see all the time that I am not a fan of and will not fall down into a rabbit hole with, is the abundance of "evil women" books. I try to avoid them but sometimes in a mystery it turns out that the woman is the criminal. It happens more in fiction than it does in real life.

Booknblues wrote: "A few years ago I read Haven and The Colony both set on isolated islands. Since that time, I've seen any number of island books, both fiction and nonfiction. I've fa..."

Well, even fairytales have a very hefty leaning towards 'evil women' - Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and on. Quesion is why - because they are in the end less frightening because they are not as physically strong and can thus be taken down more easily?

BnB - now you have me thinking down odd paths! I'm not actually going to fall down a rabbit hole but let's see if this triggers someone like Crime Reads blogging about it now that we've put that into the atmosphere.

A few years ago I kept seeing descriptions in novels of the thought experiment - schrödinger's cat. It was used by many people to explain quantum theory. I think I saw it in 6 novels, plus more since then. Mostly in conversations between two characters. I guess once you hear about it, it’s a fun thing to share in conversation or include in a novel. The best description I heard later was in When We Cease to Understand the World. I learned that Schrödinger actually meant it as a tongue in cheek joke to show the absurdity of some of the discussions about quantum theory. (I’m sure I missed the point of the joke since my understanding of quantum theory was formed by a crazy SyFy tv series many years ago.)

Algernon (Darth Anyan) wrote: "Karin wrote: "Without naming names, when I named my children I started seeing two of their names more in fiction. My "baby's" name (he's six foot two and sports a good beard, but allows me to that ..."

Interesting. I read a novel with a Karin as a protagonist for a challenge and disliked reading my name as the main character (partly because of the character, but I think that would be the case in general.) We're all so different!

I just read The Road to Oz, featuring Dorothy and her dog Toto. ThenI started The Adventures of Sally. It is partly set in a boarding house where the landlady has a little dog named Toto. It was written 20 years after, so P.G. Wodehouse would have known those books. Maybe there was a fad of naming small dogs after the character,

@Robin, that is a striking coincidence.

I enjoy noting coincidences while I'm reading too, and have been following this discussion. I just had one happen the other day.

"Shillelagh" is a word I seldom see used. (Meaning: walking stick or cane.) In a phone conversation, my out-of-state uncle told me that he is now walking with a shillelagh.

Strangely enough, I then read the word in a fiction book the very next day! A character was using a shillelagh.

Oops, I am on a trip using my tablet and it autocorrected several things in my previous post, I have fixed them.

Robin P wrote: "Algernon (Darth Anyan) wrote: "Karin wrote: "Without naming names, when I named my children I started seeing two of their names more in fiction. My "baby's" name (he's six foot two and sports a goo..."

I saw two movie adaptations of this wonderful Oscar Wilde, and it is one of my favorite plays. My handle actually comes from a science-fiction book Flowers for Algernon and it refers to a little lab rat.

Algernon (Darth Anyan) wrote: "Robin P wrote: "Algernon (Darth Anyan) wrote: "Karin wrote: "Without naming names, when I named my children I started seeing two of their names more in fiction. My "baby's" name (he's six foot two ..."

That book about that little lab rat had a huge impact on me when I read it as a teen - I was probably 15. Have never reread it - and won't. The first time I saw you called yourself 'Algernon', that book and the warm bittersweet feelings I still retain all these decades later are now linked to your posts. No pressure 😅

Yes, of course, another amazing Algernon!

I just read 2 mysteries back to back where victims had their hands cut off after death (for different reasons).

Another trope that is super unrealistic is people with addiction issues (drugs or alcohol) just give it up in a snap with no apparent difficulties.

Karin wrote: "Without naming names, when I named my children I started seeing two of their names more in fiction. My "baby's" name (he's six foot two and sports a good beard, but allows me to that term in jest n..."

My boys have fairly common first names, so I barely notice them in books. But, many years ago I read a novel that had a character with my son’s full name, and the physical description was very close too. The character later turned out to be a lousy cheating husband, and I was so disappointed in him. LOL.

NancyJ wrote: "Karin wrote: "Without naming names, when I named my children I started seeing two of their names more in fiction. My "baby's" name (he's six foot two and sports a good beard, but allows me to that ..."

This reminds me of when I read Miller's Valley by Anna Quindlen. As I read the initial chapters, which are set on a family farm in rural PA not unlike my family farm, and the MC had a brother 10 years older than she who was called Eddie until he went away to college and insisted on Ed and he never really came home, and the MC ultimately herself goes to college and doesn't return.... well I have a brother 10 years older same name, same going to college and never returning, etc.

Now of course, the rest of the book - the mystery and secrets and ultimate flooding of Miller Valley by a new dam - none of that is my family history. But it was damn eerie at the beginning!

In fact, if you haven't read it, it's all about Family Drama - and I enjoyed it a lot when I read it.

NancyJ wrote: "Karin wrote: "Without naming names, when I named my children I started seeing two of their names more in fiction. My "baby's" name (he's six foot two and sports a good beard, but allows me to that ..."

That makes sense. My son's name is common in Scandinavia, but not over here, so I don't see it often. Two of my brothers have very common names, so I don't think twice when I read fiction books with characters who have those names.

Stranger is when more than one family name pops up in a book if one of the names isn't popular.