#6degrees is a monthly meme hosted by Kate @Books Are My Favourite and Best.
Oftentimes I haven't read the starting book for this meme, but I can assure you that I only play the next 6 books with ones I have actually read.
If I've read the book during this blogging life, then I include my review, otherwise, you just have to take my word for it!
This month the starting book is a controversial bestseller by a member of the eighties ‘literary Brat Pack’ – Bret Easton Ellis’s Less Than Zero.
Are you game?
This was a tricky starting book for me.
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Old image alert - Kate
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Not only had I never read it, but I had never even heard of it.
Nor do I plan to read it now I know a little more.
Amoral twenty somethings have never appealed to me, in real life or in book form!
So where to go to next?
A quick check of the wikipedia entry for 'Literary Brat Pack' tells me that many of the authors were inspired by Raymond Carver - another author I have never read.
But I have read Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, which is a homage to Carver's well-known book, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.
Phew!
I made the link.
Murakami's memoir was tremendous and has stayed with me for years.
I'm not a runner, but I am a writer and I am someone who seeks out peace & quiet & solitude.
Murakami talks about all three with equal passion.
Another memoir that brims over with shared passion, is Julia Child's My Life in France.
I love a good foodie book. This one also has Paris!
Paris, passion and food make my next link easy.
Jonathan Grimwood's The Last Banquet had all three as well as being a captivating read full of surprises.
It explored taste, texture and smell, just like Perfume by Patrick Suskind.
Both books were also set during the French Revolution.
One of my favourite French Revolution stories is Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities.
Another city; another time brings us to modern day New York for our next link, with Bill Hayes' Insomniac City.
It's not only a love letter to a city but also to a recently deceased lover.
Insomniac City is presented in a gorgeous package - original photography, creative sensory dust jacket and pages with deckled edges.
I started with amoral twenty-somethings but finished with love.
Where did your #6degrees take you?
I started with amoral twenty-somethings but finished with love.
Where did your #6degrees take you?
What a fun meme--I haven't seen this one before! I love how you connected all of these books. I may have to try this one sometime :)
ReplyDelete- Allison @ Mind Joggle www.mindjoggle.com
You'll either love Easton Ellis or hate him. I loved his early stuff and although his later stuff is memorably repulsive, I kind of admire an author who can write in such a powerful way (that said, the last book I read of his, Imperial Bedrooms, I felt was gratuitous).
ReplyDeleteWhen I first did my chain, I jumped from Gentlemen in Moscow to The Leopard to The Last Banquet! I changed it because I realised I'd used The Last Banquet in a chain before. So weird that we both found a way to that book when the staring pont as LA in the 1980s!
I love that you got to Paris from Less than Zero! And I must read What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. I'm glad I found you via Twitter!
ReplyDeleteI'm not planning to read Less Than Zero either and I'd never heard of it before! I've read two of your books - Perfume, which I thought was both fascinating and chilling and also one of my favourites, A Tale of Two Cities.
ReplyDeleteI really liked Murakami's book about running and writing as well. I was running at the time, and of course always am writing, so it made a lot of sense to me.
ReplyDeleteBret Easton Ellis to Dickens is quite a journey! I'd love to know what Dickens would have thought of Ellis' books... ;)
ReplyDeleteSome brilliant lateral thinking here! I loved The Last Banquet and thanks for introducing me to Insomniac City which looks right up my street.
ReplyDeleteMy Life in France is superb! What an interesting chain!
ReplyDeleteLisa @ https://hopewellslibraryoflife.wordpress.com/2017/11/06/six-degrees-of-separation-less-than-zero-by-bret-easton-ellis/
I'm another fan of Tale of Two Cities! I did read Less Than Zero, which is how many stars I rate it. Perfume sounds good though, and I want to ask you NOT to judge Raymond Carver by the Brat Pack. His work has a moral center, even if his characters don't make good choices.
ReplyDelete