Finished, also sick

I finished my re-read of The Drowning Tree and it was rewarding - there were a ton of things I had forgotten about!  I stand by its eerie similarity to The Swan Thieves but I think there's more to it than that.  Two quick thoughts:

1. Maybe plots featuring artists, crazy people, and psychiatrists are not all that uncommon.  It's a pretty typical move, relating artistic ability with madness, isn't it?  Not that either of the aforementioned books does that, really - but I bet there's a reason each author chose to make the person with the mental health problems an artist and not, say, an accountant.
2. Even though in this case the similarities are pretty big, I've had it happen before that books I read consecutively share certain things with each other.  For example, I read The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay right before I read The Book Thief and both focus a lot on World War 2.  I think this is either because I am subconsciously choosing similar books to follow each other, so as not to break a mood, or because I am more attuned to similarities, and would therefore find something related in any two books I read.  Or perhaps it's magic.

And that's all, because I have a fever and I'm going to bed.  I was going to start reading my newest purchase, Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons, but the cover alone scares me, and I want nice dreams while I sleep.  So instead I'm re-reading A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson.