Six Degrees of Separation is hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. It goes like this:
“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.”
Then you head on over to Kate’s blog and link up. Easy.
This month’s chain [which accidentally turned out to be one filled with unread books and similar titles] starts with Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I’ve had a digital edition of this book sitting on my iPad for approximately forever and I’m yet to read it. Another book that I’ve had sitting around forever and haven’t read (one of many), is The Railway Man’s Wife by Ashley Hay.
I have the suspicion that I purchased this book thinking that it was actually The Railway Man by Eric Lomax; that’ll teach me to not pay attention when going on a spending spree.
I’ve wanted to read The Railway Man for a while now, probably ever since the movie was first on at the cinema – I wanted to see the movie too but didn’t because I hadn’t read the book yet (and we all know you should watch the movie first). But since making that promise to myself I’ve seen the film but not read the book. Whoops. The last book I did this with was Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.
Why haven’t I read this yet? Too much hype, you guys (but I did cave to the hype and watched the adaptation at the cinema). Another too much hype film/book combo is another “Girl” – this time The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.
One book that I reaaaaalllly want to read but haven’t yet, also features a train: Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith. And since I want to stretch the final link of this chain to breaking point, I’m going to link this book to George RR Martin’s A Game of Thrones (the only book in this chain I’ve actually read).
Some of you may or may not know that I catch the train to and from work every day. A couple of weeks ago the lady I was sitting next to was reading A Game of Thrones while I was reading War and Peace. Just two strangers on a train reading hefty books.
Bits & Books 
The Railway Mans Wife was one of my favourite books of 2014, but I do also want to read the Lomax book one day.
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I don’t think I’ve spoken to anyone who’s actually read it (The Railwayman’s Wife, that is), so I’m glad to see one person has had a positive experience with it!
Have you seen the film adaptation of the Lomax book? It’s so good, but gut-wrenching.
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No I didn’t see the movie, but I’d like to one day.
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Gone Girl is sitting unread on my shelf too. I’m sure I’ll get around to it eventually, but I’m in no hurry. Luckily, the copy I have was free so I don’t need to feel guilty about buying something and then not reading it 😀
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I unfortunately paid for min. Even though I know I’ll probably like it when I read it, I’m not really looking forward to it.
We’ll get there one day!
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Great chain!
You really should read Extremely Loud (although I do recommend you get your hands on a hard copy because of some of the very clever printing) – anyway, it’s an amazing book.
I have just finished Girl on the Train. It was okay. Pretty much matched my feelings about Gone Girl – meh. Read both because going to/ have been to see them at movies (first book, then film). I’ve read very few thrillers that have kept me guessing until the last page (The Other Typist was probably the last) – I seem to spend my whole time trying to work out how dunnit.
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If Six Degrees has taught me anything (this month especially), it’s that I’m missing out on some excellent books – and maybe some not so excellent ones.
The last thriller I read was Local Girl Missing by Clare Douglas. I basically inhaled it in a couple of days.I had no idea whodunnit for nearly the whole thing, so that was good.
Douglas has another book called The Sisters which I’ve heard is good as well, but I haven’t read it. I think it’s a thriller too.
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Okay, will hunt down Local Girl. I like the idea of thrillers – it’s good to have a book that is a true page-turner and although my preference is contemporary lit and ‘relationship’ stories, they’re rarely gripping in the way that thrillers are.
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Agreed – but it can be so hard to find an unpredictable thriller. I hope Local Girl Missing is ok for you – it wasn’t perfect by any means, but there were so many options for the whodunnit that I just couldn’t piece things together.
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