Six Degrees of Separation for books is a monthly meme hosted by Kate. Each month Kate decides on a starting book and based on that everyone builds a chain of six books. Feel free to join in and post your link here.
Starting point: A Gentleman in Moscow
This month we continue where we left last month, which means that the participants in the meme will start with different titles. My last chain finished with A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.
1. From A Gentleman in Moscow to Uncle Vanya
In A Gentleman in Moscow, Count Rostov muses about the difficulty of names in Russian literature: ‘To make matters worse, it seems that our greatest authors … constrained themselves to the use of thirty given names‘. To support this naming tradition, Towles includes Alexander, Sofia, Marina, Mikhail and Helena in his novel, all names which appear in Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya as well (Chekhov’s Sofia is called Sonya though).
2. From Uncle Vanya to The Remains of the Day
I saw Uncle Vanya in the theatre, when I was around 16 years old. It made a huge impression. I don’t remember much about the story, but I remember the feeling of sadness and melancholy, the unfulfilled lives, the resignation. Kazuo Ishiguro is a writer who can evoke similar feelings in me. In The Remains of the Day, the butler Stevens comes to his own conclusions about an unfulfilled life, which could have been so much more.
3. From The Remains of the Day to Life of Pi
In The Remains of the Day, Stevens’ father tells him a story involving a tiger in an Indian restaurant. In Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Pi tells his story, which also involves a tiger, this one being of the metaphysical variety.
4. From Life of Pi to The Humans
Pi in Life of Pi refers to a young boy. In the context of geometry, Pi refers to a number. The Humans by Matt Haig revolves around the life of mathematics professor Andrew Martin, who is the author of American Pi (yes, really).
5. From The Humans to Rivers of London
Professor Andrew Martin’s dog, Newton, plays a key part in The Humans. Likewise, Newton is central in Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. Besides from being one of the founders of modern science and the author of Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Newton has also added structure to the principles behind modern magic in Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Artes Magicis.
6. From Rivers of London to Faceless Killers
In the Rivers of London series, the police is chasing the villain known as the Faceless Man. In the first novel in Henning Mankell’s Wallander series, the police is chasing Faceless Killers. I like the Wallander series, but Faceless Killers is not as good as some of the later instalments in the series.
The chains of July and August combine into one long chain of 13 books. It has been an interesting journey. We started in the place where the wild things are and continued to other wild places including the poles and Mount Everest. Back in civilisation, we visited the US, Korea, Estonia, Russia and the UK and took a quick detour to the Pacific Ocean before ending up in Sweden.
If only I could see that much in two months in real life, my ambition of seeing the world would quickly be fulfilled!
Where did your chain take you?
Goodness… did you know that the next one starts with A Gentleman in Moscow as well? I hope you’ll still join in and see if you can go in another direction. Great chain!
Yes, Kate warned me last month that it could happen. I am sure it should be possible to do two different chains starting with the same book. Thanks!
Sounds like a challenge! I’m sure you’re up to it!
Very fine links and an excellent tour!
Thanks so much and thanks for visiting!
How serendipitous to have your wild card book as the same starting title for next month. What a challenge! I’m sure this will be interesting, seeing where you go with it a second time. Thanks for such an interesting chain.
It will be a challenge, but since there are so many ways to link the books, I am sure it is possible. Thanks Theresa!
How amazing your chain ended with next month’s starting book! I’ve read two of the books in this chain – The Remains of the Day and The Life of Pi – enjoyed both of them. I also have Rivers of London, but haven’t read it yet – did you enjoy it?
I enjoyed Rivers of London very much, in fact the series has become one of my favourites in recent time. The style is very urban and there are lots of references to Londonβs locations, history and myths. The humour is clever, sarcastic and sometimes a bit geeky. Furthermore there is a supernatural element. So I doubt it will be to everyoneβs taste, but if you already own the book, I think you should give it a chance.
The book chain is such an interesting idea! Thank you for sharing where you started and where you went – and all of the book stops in between. Happy to have stumbled across this today!
It is good fun! If you should ever feel like joining in, the meme runs on the first Saturday every month and you can check Kate’s blog (https://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.wordpress.com/6-degrees-of-separation-meme) for the starting book. Thanks for stopping by!
I enjoyed following your links, thanks for sharing
Glad you enjoyed it!
Wow, what a coincidence with your starting point – let’s see how different your two chains will be!
I doubt it is a complete coincidence, both Kate and I got inspiration from Sue (Whisperinggums) who included ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ in a previous chain. It will be interesting though to do a second chain with the same starting point.
I do love your chains – such clever links using the content of the books. What will you come up with next month I wonder! I’m also chuckling because yours is the second chain I’ve read this month – and the second that includes a book that I too have referenced in my chain. (A near-miss for a link.) There I was, assuming with everyone starting from somewhere different that all the chains would be entirely different. Maybe there really is something in this six degrees of association…. π€π
And like Margaret, I’ve read both Life of Pi and Remains of the Day (which is one of my favourite books) π
Thanks, I shall try to do something different next month! Now you are making me curious about your chain, have you posted it already? I guess for very popular books, there will be a reasonable likelihood of them being included in more than one chain in any given month. This is a less fun explanation than yours, but I’ve studied probability theory and just can’t help myself π
Probability theory! Yes, you’re probably right! π My chain is scheduled to be up this evening.
Oh I love books with dogs in them so The Humans sounds interesting! Great chain you have here… this would give me a headache but it looks easy when you do it, so evident, so easy. I can’t wait to see your next one (with the same starting point)!
The Humans is good fun! It is actually not that difficult to come up with the chains. The first one required a bit of brain exercise, but once you get used to think about connections between books, the chains more or less materialise of their own accord.
You have to have read a lot of books though to make these connections! I’ll live them through your posts π
I’ve only read a couple of these – A Gentleman in Moscow and The Remains of the Day, both of which I enjoyed without quite loving them (although it’s a long time since I read Remains so my memory is vague on it). The Life of Pi has been on my TBR for longer than I care to admit, ever since I fell in love with his later book, The High Mountains of Portugal. I’ll be interested to see you take a different route from the same book next month!
I haven’t read The High Mountains of Portugal, I will look into it. Life of Pi is an interesting one, people are still debating how to interpret the ending. The author has some views on religion, I am not sure I agree with all of them, but I enjoyed the store nevertheless.
I always love reading these, and yours is particularly clever! Well-done!
Thanks, I always enjoy doing these chains! I might do something different in next month’s six degrees though.
Ah remains of the day is very melancholic. And I really liked life of pi!
So did I, you can’t go wrong with a tiger! π Thanks for stopping by!