Six Degrees of Separation: The Call Me Ishmael Phone Book to To Be or Not To Be

 

Here is my first post for the Six Degrees of Separation meme that book bloggers do on their blogs on the first Saturday of the month. I first heard about this from a comment Joy from Joy's Book Blog wrote on one of my posts in August and thought it sounded right up my alley.

 

The meme was first created by Annabel Smith and Emma Chapman and then was taken over by Kate on her blog: booksaremyfavouriteandbest in 2016. Each month, a book is selected and then bloggers link it to six other books. If you would like more information about creating your chain or the meme, here is a link: 6 Degrees of Separation Meme

 

For this month, we were supposed to start with a book we are reading in a book group or use our current read. None of the book groups I'm in are reading books for this month, so I decided to do the book I'm reading for Kayla from @Booksandlala's Title Buzzword Reading Challenge. September's Title Challenge is to have "Me" or My" in the title. 

 

 

 

The Call Me Ishmael Phone Book: An Interactive Guide to Life-Changing Books by Stephanie Kent and Logan Smalley 

For the start of my chain, I decided to pick this book that has been on my TBR for a few years now. I have read some of the voicemails in this book since I bought it but I never read the whole thing through. It was one of the books I had picked out to do for the Buzzword Title Challenge when I first did my goals post early in the year. 

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

There was an obvious book I could have went with for the next connection: Moby Dick by Herman Melville but I decided to go in a completely different direction. I chose 84, Charing Cross Road because of the common theme of the love of books between both of them. Also, they both are written with unique formats. The Call Me Ishmael Phone Book is written like a phone book and 84, Charing Cross Road is epistolary (written in letters.) I highly recommend this wonderful little book. 

  

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

One of the most recent of my reads on this list. Similarly to Helene Hanff's book, this is also written in an epistolary format. This book is one of my top favorites of the year and I cannot recommend it enough. It is told entirely through letters and emails, correspondences between Sybil and many different people. She writes letters to family, friends, authors whose books she has read, customer service people, etc. Sybil's story was one that touched my heart in so many different ways. It was also one of the only books that had me full on crying in quite a while. I cannot recommend it enough. 

 

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

The connection between this book and the previous for me is how much they both touched my heart. Part memoir, part insights into the seemingly random, part review; John Green's first nonfiction book hit me a lot harder than I could have ever expected. I have been following John for a very long time along with his brother Hank. Whether that be from his Youtube videos or his novels. 

He has been one of my favorite authors for years and I was excited when he said that he was coming out with a book like this. I have always loved John's insight into the world around him. His antidotes in his videos have so much of himself in them along with so much information. I loved how he put so much of himself and his life in each of these essays. 

 

A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes 

I picked this book next because I loved listening to the audiobook for this which is read by the author herself, similarly to John's book. The audiobook for A Thousand Ships is excellent. Natalie Haynes always does a wonderful job reading her own books and this is probably the one I recommend the most, at least out of the ones I have listened to/read. This is a book told from the perspectives of the women in the Trojan War. I enjoy how there is a large mix of voices such as mortals, muses, queens, princesses, and the goddesses. 

 

Follow This Thread by Henry Eliot 

Another recent read for me. Follow This Thread also deals with Greek Mythology similarly to A Thousand Ships. It is one of the most unique books I have ever read and I highly recommend it to fans of mazes and labyrinths. This book is quite literally a maze book. You follow the red thread throughout the book as Theseus followed the thread throughout the Labyrinth. Also, you move the book along with it and the words. Many of the pages are upside-down or sideways.  

The book's prose goes between talking about mazes from literature and history. The framing device is the Greek myth about Theseus and the Minotaur. Henry Eliot weaves the story throughout the entire book and scatters in various information about the other stories and historical people. It was an intriguing way of relaying the information.

The red thread creates illustrations such as various different mazes and creatures like the Minotaur. If you like an interactive read that will literally have you turning the book upside-down, you should check out Follow This Thread.  

 

To Be or Not To Be: A Chooseable-Path Adventure by Ryan North 

It's funny that almost every book in this list is a bit unconventional and this one definitely fits that description. I grew up with a deep love for choose-your-own adventure stories. It might have been because of my natural affinity for telling stories. I loved being able to choose what happened in the books I was reading and the interactive aspects of these types of stories. This one is based on Shakespeare's Hamlet.  Definitely one of the books I come back to when I need a good laugh. I hope one day Ryan North will do Macbeth. He's also done one for Romeo and Juliet.