Cloud Atlas

I decided to read a book titled 'Cloud Atlas', which is considered to be one of the best fiction books of the new millennium.

What could be easier than going to the library and finding a book published in 2004 with a relatively easy title to remember? Turns out it was pretty easy - maybe too easy. I went to the computer catalog, typed in the title, found it, then wrote down the author's name and headed for the shelves. There it was. Clean, unread, ready to be checked out. [Hmmm, how can such a celebrated book appear to be unread, I thought?]

I took the book home and began to read it. It was quite good. Then, looking back at the 'best of' list, I realized that the author's name on the list was not the same name on the book I had checked out. Whoa, I was reading the wrong book!

Turns out there are two books published in 2004 with [basically] the same title. Yep, 'Cloud Atlas' by David Mitchell and 'The Cloud Atlas' by Liam Callanan.

Anyway, The Cloud Atlas is a good read. May not be the best of the last ten years but then again I liked it better than a couple other books that made that 'best of' list. So I'll chalk this up as a serendipitous read. Plus, it taught me a little about the rarely reported Japanese balloon bombs used during World War Two.

Turns out I'm not the first to do this.
Here and here.