Monday 15 February 2021

Six Degrees of Separation ~ Redhead By the Side of the Road

Tyler, Anne "The Readhead by the Side of the Road"

I discovered this challenge on one of the blogs I follow, Carol from the "Reading Ladies Book Club". Thank you, Carol.

#6Degrees of Separation:
from Redhead By the Side of the Road (Goodreads) to Palace Walk.

#6Degrees is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. I love the idea.

Each month, a book is chosen by Kate and we get to go on from there, no matter how, the book just have to be linked to six other ones to form a chain. Any book only has to be connected to the one before them.

Rules:

  •     Link the books together in any way you like.
  •     Provide a link in your post to the meme at Books Are My Favourite and Best.
  •     Share these rules in your post.
  •     Paste the link to your post in the comments on Kate’s post and/or the Linky Tool on that post.
  •     Invite your blog readers to join in and paste their links in the comments and/or the Linky Tool.
  •     Share your post on Twitter using the #6Degrees hashtag.
  •     Be nice! Visit and comment on other posts and/or retweet other #6Degrees posts.

This month’s prompt starts with "Redhead By the Side of the Road" (Goodreads) by Anne Tyler. I have mixed feelings about this author, I read four of her books, two I quite liked but I wasn't very impressed with the others.

What a fun way of reminiscing about books I read. Since this is the first time I participate in this challenge, I have concentrated on the titles of the books and always looked for a new title with one of the other words.

The chain took me from Turkey to Great Britain, to Italy and Turkey, from there to the US, to Bangladesh and Myanmar and finally to Egypt. Quite a nice trip, don't you think?

Red
Pamuk, Orhan "The Red-Haired Woman"
Woman
Collins, Wilkie "A Woman in White"
White
Pamuk, Orhan "The White Castle"
Castle
Walls, Jeanette "The Glass Castle"
Glass
Ghosh, Amitav
"The Glass Palace"
Palace
Mahfouz, Naguib "Palace Walk"

I could carry on, e.g. with "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson but since it's SIX degrees of separation, I stop here.

This is what Kate says (check here)

Annabel Smith and Emma Chapman began the 6 Degrees of Separation meme in 2014 (and Kate took over in 2016).

The meme was inspired by Hungarian writer and poet Frigyes Karinthy. In his 1929 short story, Chains, Karinthy coined the phrase 'six degrees of separation'. The phrase was popularised by a 1990 play written by John Guare, which was later made into a film starring Stockard Channing. Since then, the idea that everyone in the world is separated from everyone else by just six links has been explored in many ways, from 'six degress of Kevin Bacon' to the science of connections. And now it’s a meme for readers.

So, to the meme. On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own 'chain' leading from the selected book.

How the meme works
Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge.
A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain.

How to Join the Meme
Each person’s chain will look completely different.  It doesn’t matter what the connection is or where it takes you – just take us on the journey with you. Don’t worry if you haven’t read the first book either: you can always find ways to link it based on your expectations/ideas about it.

Join in by posting your own six degrees chain on your blog and adding the link in the Linky section (or comments) of each month’s post. If you don’t have a blog, you can share your chain in the comments section. You can also check out links to posts on Twitter using the hashtag #6Degree. 

You will find all the following months here.

12 comments:

  1. Nice chain... I like how you used words in the title.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Davida. As I said, it was the first time I did this and the word "Red" sprang to mind. I had a lot of other books with that word but ended up using this one because "Red-haired" is as close to "redhead" as you can get.

      Thanks for your visit and your comment. Will see what you came up with.

      Delete
  2. How fun to see another blogger t do the chain that way as well! The Woman in White was so good!
    Thanks for posting about the history of the expression 6 degrees of separation

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's what I thought when I saw yours. I doubt we'll have that chance next month, I don't have another book with "Phosphorescence" in the title. LOL. But I loved using the words in the titles, was fun.

      I always like to know where words or expressions come from, so I just had to google it. And then I like to pass on that knowledge. Isn't it interesting?

      Thanks for your visit.

      Delete
  3. This is a fun and creative chain! I like how you used words from the title. I’m happy to see Glass Castle there!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very fun. The word "Red" was the first that caught my attention, so I just went from there. I can imagine that you like "The Glass Castle", it certainly is a great book.

      Thanks for visiting and most of all thanks for introducing this to me.

      Delete
  4. Good job, Marianne! I have read The Glass Castle and Palace Walk. It is always a treat to see books I have read in these chains.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Since we have a similar taste and you read a lot more than me, I guess you often see a book or two that you've read. I think you might enjoy all of these.

      I first wanted to start with "My Name is Red" which is my favourite by Orhan Pamuk but then I thought redheaded and red-haired is even better.

      Anyway, always nice to see your face. Thanks.

      Delete
  5. I loved Palace Walk and I read the whole Cairo Trilogy. I liked the way you linked directly with words. I might try that next time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have also read the whole Cairo Trilogy, brilliant work. And "The Children of Gebelawi", another great book by Naguib Mahfouz. Glad you liked his books.

      This was my first time with this challenge. It was the first that came to mind when I saw the title.

      Next time will be a little harder to use the words in the title (no other book with "Phosphorescence", LOL) but I already have an idea. Maybe in April?

      Thanks for your visit. I'm curious as to what you came up with. See you on your page.

      Delete
  6. Oh, I see what you did here. I've never been any good at linking words, the book titles just won't strike me! Thanks for including the history of the meme, I'd quite forgotten it during the course of the meme.
    ~ Lex (lexlingua.co)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm so sorry that I didn't respond to this earlier. I have no idea why I overlooked your comment. Only just now, when I prepared the next post, I saw that you had posted here. Sorry.

      Anyway, it was the first time I did this, so I thought I better tell everyone the background.

      I'm really having fun with this. The new one was a little tougher because the title can't really be linked to anything. But I found a way. Watch this space. LOL

      Delete