Six Degrees of Separation is a meme hosted by Kate over at Books Are My Favourite and Best. It works like this: each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six others to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the titles on the list, only to the one next to it in the chain.
This month we’re starting with Jamie Oliver’s The Naked Chef, the first in a series of cookbooks which made him into a celebrity chef. I have a lot of time for Oliver who has done his best to promote healthy, affordable food, often in the face of abuse.
I’d expected food to be the theme for this chain but the first title that popped into my head was Desmond Morris’ ‘60s bestseller The Naked Ape all about how we humans behave.
Which led me to Jenny Diski’s Monkey’s Uncle in which Freud, Marx and Darwin all appear.
Freud is also a character in Robert Seethaler’s The Tobacconist, giving relationship advice to the shop’s young apprentice.
The translator of The Tobacconist is Charlotte Collins who also translated Benedict Wells’ The End of Loneliness which I enjoyed very much.
Loneliness leads me to Denis Thériault’s The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman which sees a nosy postman falling for a woman who sends haiku to her beloved.
J. Robert Lennon’s Mailman also reads letters he should be delivering, juggling his many problems and neuroses until things get out of control.
This month’s Six Degrees has taken me from a celebrity chef with a conscience to a mailman on the verge of going postal. Part of the fun of this meme is comparing the very different routes other bloggers take from each month’s starting point. If you’re interested, you can follow it on Twitter with the hashtag #6Degrees, check out the links over at Kate’s blog or perhaps even join in.
Ah, I really liked The Tobacconist and that’s a nice shoutout for translators!
Ah, you all deserve it. She’s a favourite of mine.
I loved The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman, and Thériault’s other books too. Also The Tobacconist , and I’m sure I read The Naked Ape back in the day. A nice chain from which I’ll check out your other titles.
Thank you. The Naked Ape wa a bit of a surprise appearance!
Excellent chain Susan, I loved the Lonely Postman and Mailman!
Thanks, Cathy. I couldn’t think of one without the other!
I’ve still got my late mum’s copy of The Naked Ape – the original paperback. A seminal book – and Morris is such a good writer too. I love your translator link too – but must admit, I’m yet to read Seethaler, something to remedy one day I hope.
Like Charlotte Collins, Seethaler’s a favourite of mine. They make a great combination. Lovely that you have your mum’s copy of The Naked Ape.
An interesting chain full of books I haven’t read! I’ve read some of Jenny Diski’s books, but not Monkey’s Uncle. Did you enjoy it?
Thank you! Not nearly as much as her non-fiction, I’m afraid.
Great chain – I particularly like your translator link. I tried to stick with a food/chef theme this month, but abandoned that idea after the second book!
Thank you. Food seemed the obvious route, didn’t it, but somehow didn’t turn out to work that way.
Wait… that Diski book is fiction? I’ve never read any of her fiction. I really should! Lovely chain here.
Thank you. I don’t want to raise your expectations too high – much prefer her non-fiction.
The books with the mailmen sound rather interesting. Must look them up. Great chain. I liked that you didn’t start with a food link.
Thank you. That first link wasn’t what I was expecting at all!
The Naked Ape – gosh that takes me back many years.
I know…
Great chain. A lot of interesting books to follow up on.
The Naked Ape also brings back memories for me. I read it probably 50 years ago, when I was in my first marriage. I read a larger variety of books when I was younger, a good think I guess. Then for decades I read mystery novels almost exclusively. And now I seem to be trying new things again.
Thank you. Always good to widen your reading – I don’t read enough non-fiction, for sure.
This may be the chain getting my vote for most original today! Good work!
Thank you kindly!
Creative chain and that first turn was a doozy! 🙂 Another chain where I haven’t read any of the books!
Terrie @ Bookshelf Journeys
Thank you, Terrie. That first link surprised me!
Hi there Susan!
Very interesting chain you have here! I love how Six Degrees can always lead down so many different paths and one never gets bored of any of the chains.
Have a wonderful November!
Elza Reads
Thank you, Mareli, and you, too!
What an interesting and good content you made, thank you
We will definitely use the contents of these people for the Iranian site https://365book.ir/ where we are active so that people can use the translation and interpretation of these contents
Thanks you – hope it’s useful. Please credit me when you do.