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 Samantha Harvey’s Booker Prize winning Orbital which I’ve yet to read by I know is loved by many blogger pals whose opinions I trust.
Ian Sinclair’s London Orbital takes its readers on a walk around the M25 which I gather is not as dull as it sounds.
Sinclair’s name is closely associated with the term ‘psychogeography’ something Dan Rhodes takes a pop at in Sour Grapes, his enjoyable satire on the literary world.
Rhodes has a lot of fun with Wilberforce Selfram, a lanky pedant with an abstruse vocabulary, a barely disguised Will Self who wrote an introduction for a long-ago edition of Russell Hoban’s Riddley Walker. I wrote the reading group guide but I don’t think that was mentioned on the cover…
Hoban’s novel is written in an imagined post-apocalyptic version of English as is Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange.
Leading me to Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson’s fictionalised coming-of-age story about growing up as a lesbian in a strict Pentecostal family.
Naomi Alderman’s Disobedience sees another young woman briefly returning to the strict religious community from which she walked away so that she can attend her ex-girlfriend’s wedding.
This month’s Six Degrees has taken me from a novel set over a day on a spacecraft to another in which a woman revisits her past, finding it more complex than she’d thought. 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.
I haven’t read Orbital yet either, but so many other bloggers have loved it I think I’m going to be tempted to read it soon!
Me, too. It sounds excellent!
Great chain, everyone has such a different way of linking them.
Thank you. It’s so interesting to see what people come up with, isn’t it.
Creative chain as usual. Such imagination. Only book I have read is Oranges are Not the Only Fruit. Absolutely memorable book that led me to read more of her work.
Thank you, Lucy. Once I get started it’s whatever pops into my head. Definitely a memorable book, and heartfelt too.
I think you deserve bonus points for getting the word psychogeography into your post
Thank you. Apparently Sinclair’s trying to distance himself from the term now but I don’t think he’ll be reading my blog any time soon!
Nah, Orbital doesn’t interest me, but a couple of your other books do. I didn’t know about Disobedience, but it reminds me a bit of the very popular book and TV series “Unorthodox” about a woman who leaves that religious world. I haven’t read or seen the series, though.
I read Orthodox some time back. Very insightful regarding cultural and stereotypical views in a particular religious community. Apparently it’s been made into a TV drama. A bit like Westover’s book Educated.
I did see that and was awed by the courage of the young woman. It’s based on her own life, as I recall. Disobedience is much lighter in tone.
Amazingly I’ve read three of your picks (Harvey, Hoban and Burgess), but it’s your first link that’s the most intriguing to me – I’ve been meaning to read it for yonks.
I have to confess to only skimming the Sinclair for work! Interesting idea, though.
I greatly enjoyed Orbital. It’s a beautiful meditation on the world from a unique point of view.
Very much looking florward to reading it.
Congrats on writing a reading group guide!
I realize I have never read Burgess’s book, and that I sould!
My chain: https://wordsandpeace.com/2025/01/04/six-degrees-of-separation-loyal-servants/
Thanks, and for the link. It’s what I once did for a living!
Great phrase: “a lanky pedant with an abstruse vocabulary”
I will look into Naomi Alderman’s Disobedience –thank you for bringing it to my attention.
You’re welcome, and thank you!
I’ve only read Oranges are Not the Only Fruit from your selection but enjoyed following your chain.
Thanks, Joanne.
So interesting. I keep seeing books I have on my list, as well. This time, it’s A Clockwork Orange.
Here is my list:
https://momobookblog.blogspot.com/2025/01/six-degrees-of-separation-orbital.html
Thanks for the link! I love the way we all take different directions but sometimes intersect.
Same here, Susan. I love the interactions.
As ever, a great chain. I’m tempted by London Orbital and Disobedience, and impressed that you have has Book Group notes published.
Thanks you. Writing reading group guides was one of my freelance gigs back in the day.
Very clever links – am now quite intrigued by the idea of a book about the M25 – NOT my favourite motorway by any means…
Thank you. Mine, neither. Best avoided!
You wrote the reading group guide?! I’ve always wanted to do that, it seems like a dream job. 🙂
I did! I used to write them for Bloomsbury and Faber plus a few for Orion. Bloomsbury rolled them up into a book which did quite well. I was asked to write a second edition.
Brilliant! I hope there are many more requests in the wings for you: third, fourth, fifth editions, etc.
Must have been amazing to write that reading group guide and I will check out that book for sure… And adding Sour Grapes to my TBR now..
Am currently reading the starter book and loving it..
My post is here – https://www.ladyinreadwrites.com/two-roads-diverged-in-the-words-with-trivia-twists-too/
It was! I was lucky. Very much looking forward to reading Orbital. Thanks for the link.