It’s time again for my favourite meme. Based on the concept of six degrees of separation, Emma Chapman and Annabel Smith have created #6DEGREES, where bloggers share links between books in six moves. Check out the rules if you want to play along.
This month’s starting point is Gillian Flynn’s bestselling psychological thriller, Gone Girl. I only read this book a few months ago, long after hearing all the hype and having friends recommend it. Unfortunately it didn’t meet my expectations (but I didn’t hate it, either).
On the basis of hype alone, my first link is to Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. Stay with me, I haven’t turned this into a YA blog.
Honestly, Twilight was rubbish but I did read it in one sitting. And the rest of the series. A momentary leave of senses? Perhaps. But I found the themes interesting, particularly because of the fact that there’s a whole generation of teens and young adults who are completely obsessed by the story. Which brings me to my second link – Flowers in the Attic by V. C. Andrews. Flowers was the ‘Twilight‘ of the eighties. Trashy, ridiculous, addictive, so bad and yet so good.
Flowers in the Attic was passed around between my friends, somewhat secretly. Another book that did the rounds at school was Judith Krantz’s I’ll Take Manhattan – I think we thought it was racy! I have strong memories of a bunch of authors who wrote these mammoth ‘blockbusters’ in the eighties – Krantz, Conran, Collins, Steele and Cooper.
New York and the world of magazine publishing is the basis of my next link. Like Flowers and Twilight being similar but decades apart, so is I’ll Take Manhattan and Lauren Weisberger’s The Devil Wears Prada. Geez this book was a fun beach read, in all its glorious, bitchy detail. And the film?! Brilliant. Of course the star of the film was Meryl Streep, who also played the role of Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke in Isak Dinesen’s memoir, Out of Africa.
Although I’ve only read Out of Africa once, I’ve watched the movie dozens of times. The same year I saw Out of Africa (1985), I also saw A Room With a View. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen A Room With a View, but importantly, the film introduced me to the writing of E. M. Forster, which I still enjoy decades later.
Hmmm… Not sure how so much trash led me to one of my favourite books but that’s the brilliance of #6DEGREES.
I was definitely a Flowers in the Attic fan! I churned through all the VC Andrews in our local library but I always thought the original was the best.
Pretty sure I read them all as well – considering a re-read of Flowers, just to see how terrible it really was.
Hahaha….from trash to treasure???
Here’s my chain.
http://mytime2read.blogspot.com/2014/08/six-degrees-of-separation-gone-girl-by.html?showComment=1407105056056#c3508627320600780164
Exactly!
I managed to get Out of Africa into my 6 degrees too!
Flowers in the Attic – OMG! Did I love that series or what…those books were passed around my friends until they were battered, tattered and torn.
And A Room With a View is a wonderful book and movie that could have fit one of my degrees as well…I also read everything by EM Forster during this phase.
http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/six-degrees-of-separation.html
I love what you said about Flowers in the Attic being the Twilight of the 80’s! I remember when I was in high school and addicted to all V.C. Andrews’ books. Such rubbish!
I never made it past the first book in the Flowers in the Attic series. I remember my friends and I all sharing a single copy when we were about 13. So trashy, but so excellent! Did you see the TV movie that came out last year?
http://kfmurphy.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/6-degrees-of-separation-gone-girl.html