It’s time for #6degrees. Start at the same place as other wonderful readers, add six books, and see where you end up.
This month we begin with Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. One of the central characters is an accomplished chess player, which links to Tom Vanderbilt’s memoir, Beginners, where he describes his attempts to learn chess (among other things) as an adult.
The most significant and challenging thing I’ve learnt (from scratch) as an adult is scuba diving. The bits about scuba diving were the only thing that interested me in Jennifer Egan’s historical novel, Manhattan Beach.
Another novel about scuba diving is Whalefall by Daniel Kraus – I haven’t read it because it sounds terrifying.
The topic of whalefall has come up in a bunch of books I’ve read, but I first came across it in Rebecca Giggs’s remarkable book, Fathoms.
There are so many books about whales that I could link to but I’ve used them in previous chains, so bear with me for the next (tenuous) link. Fathoms is a thorough investigation of all-things whale; it’s a big book; and it’s by an Australian author. Same but different is Kate Cole-Adams’s look at anaesthetic from every angle in Anaesthesia: The Gift of Oblivion and The Mystery of Consciousness.
I saw Cole-Adams at the Melbourne Writers Festival in 2017, alongside Christine Kenneally, whose book The Invisible History of the Human Race offers a different perspective on DNA.
Where will other chains go? Link up below or post your link in the comments section.
Next month (December 7, 2024), we’ll start with a beach read – Sandwich by Catherine Newman.
