They say every person on the planet is linked to any other in six or fewer steps BUT what about books?'Books can be linked in obvious ways - for example, books by the same author, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal or esoteric ways: books you read on the same holiday, boos given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge'
Yeah! Its time for the 6 Degrees of Separation #2.
Hosted by Emma and Annabel who would love for you to join in the fun (for more information/to post a link to your choices click HERE) this month's book is ......
'Esther Greenwood is at college and is fighting two battles, one against her own desire for perfection in all things - grades, boyfriend, looks, career - and the other against remorseless mental illness. As her depression deepens she finds herself encased in it, bell-jarred away from the rest of the world. This is the story of her journey back into reality'.
Like last months book, Burial Rights by Hannah Kent, this is another novel I haven't actually read but for me it brought to mind ...
#1 ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST by Ken Kesey. One of the most touching novels I've ever read (and a wonderful film to boot). Set in a hospital for the mentally ill, it doesn't shy away from issues of mental illness.
#2 CHOCOLAT by Joanne Harris. A book read pre-blogging days. Movie adaptations are rarely as good as the book but every now and again along comes a movie that proves just as good as the book from which it originated. Both One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and Chocolat are two such books.
#3 THE NIGHT FLOWER by Sarah Stovell. Another story set largely in an institution. The Night Flower is the story of two women who having been transported find themselves working in a nursery for the babies of fellow convicts and like One Flew Over THe Cuckoos Nest's Nurse Ratched is not without its 'evil' carer.
#4 PAPILLON by Henri Charriere. Read more times than I care to remember, alas all before Pen and Paper. The real life story of brutal penal colonies, daring prison breaks and shark-infested seas, Papillon is one of if not the greatest convict memoirs of all time.
#5 MOBY DICK by Herman Melville. A book I've started several times in the past but have never finished. Not the story of a shark but that of another giant sea creature. Moby Dick is the story of Captain Ahab's quest to avenge the whale that ‘reaped’ his leg.
#6 TREASURE ISLAND by Robert Louis Stevenson. A childhood favourite of mine. 'Aha my hearties', perhaps the most famous 'peg leg' of them all is Treasure Island's Long John Silver.
Please note: Unless otherwise stated all the links are to books reviewed on Pen and Paper.
Please note: Unless otherwise stated all the links are to books reviewed on Pen and Paper.
Copyright: Tracy Terry @ Pen and Paper. All original content on http://pettywitter.blogspot.co.uk/ is created by the website owner, including but not limited to text, design, code, images, photographs and videos are considered to be the Intellectual Property of the website owner, whether copyrighted or not, and are protected by DMCA Protection Services using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act Title 17 Chapter 512 (c)(3). Reproduction or re-publication of this content is prohibited without permission. In addition I would also urge that if you are reading this on any other page you contact the original blog owner/reviewer.
13 comments:
I have only read one and six. One flew over the cuckcoos nest I borrowed off of one of the RISI girls and then watched the movie. I feel to say I liked it wouldn't be right due to how it plays out but I did. I hated Moby Dick, took me 1 week to read and I was on holiday so that is unheard of for me. I was slated by a professer for my review, he suggested I was uneducated and uncultured which may be why I didn't enjoy the book lol. I haven't read the others.
Lainy http://www.alwaysreading.net
happy to be here.I haven't read any of these books . You know, I find time only to read dailies and some comics which is only light reading. now as election heat is on I am very much catching up with news for regular updates.
What a clever meme and post! From your list, I have only read #6 (while in middle school), but I've seen #1 and #2 as movies, both of which I thought were wonderful.
I love seeing the direction your mind takes as you work through this meme. Always fun!
I love this blog posting theme. In a way it reminds me of the game devised in Hermann Hesse's "The Glass Bead Game" where players attempted to connect various intellectual and artistic ideas in a similar fashion.
I have only read one of your six, it being Moby Dick.
Isn't it funny how books can remind you of a particular time in your life?
I want to read The Cuckoo's Nest, that film was really good.
I agree, Chocolat was another good one, as was the film version.
I have to read Moby Dick one day also.
Hi Tracy,
This sounds like a great meme and one which I shall have to join in one of these weeks, although not until I have given it much more serious consideration and have arranged both my books and thoughts in to some kind of logical order.
I loved your selection of books and Annabel did a very nifty link between her selection, which was quite impressive.
I read a short study thesis about Sylvia Plath, which was donated into the shop just a few weeks ago and decided then, that her writing really needed to be on my own TBR list.
However for now, the only one of your books I have read is 'Treasure Island', for me also, a childhood favourite. Although I haven't read the book of 'Papillon', I have watched the film several times, but none of them recently ... back in the days when as a teenager, I considered Steve McQueen to be something of a heart throb!
Memories are made of this kind of stuff, aren't they? So keep it coming!!
Yvonne
I love this exercise. It's tough to read a novel without comparisons...and most of us want to know those comparisons. It's one of those, "If you liked Chocolat, you'll love The Bell Jar" kind of things!
I have tried to make it through Moby Dick many times. I even tried in Cape Cod hoping the atmosphere would help. I am glad I am not alone. :)
What a fun post! I have been wanting to read The Bell Jar! Thanks for the reminder.
Here are several books I've been meaning to read but haven't got the time to get to yet. I'll bump them up my list for sure: The Bell Jar, One Flew Over, and Chocolat. I'm glad to learn about The Night Flower. Even the title sounds like something I'd love to pick up.
I have only read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest from your list.
I love how you connect everything together for the meme, each book leading to the other.
Ooh...sounds like a fun post! My first time seeing/reading it but I love the connections/remembrances aspect of it all.
Lovely reading your choices for this one this month, I didn't manage to do it this time as I was away. Great to see what you came up with. I'd like to read The Bell Jar one day but it's a bit close to home, and I'd like ot read Cuckoo's Nest.
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