Six Degrees Challenge
When a certain theme in a book makes your eyes light up with joy, there's nothing better than to follow that theme to another book that will expand upon that same concept.
One way of doing this is to take the idea of "six degrees of separation" and apply it to books by noting the connections between six books (or books and movies) that you have read. This exercise helps you discover new connections between books and think about the types of stories that you like to read. Then you can go out and find more of what you enjoy--or challenge your friends to suggest connections based on your list.
Here's a sample list:
- I recently read The Eighty Dollar Champion: Snowman-The Horse That Inspired a Nation by Elizabeth Letts and greatly enjoyed it. This inspiring true story is about a horse that goes from being sent to the slaughterhouse to becoming a national show jumping champion through the intervention of horse trainer Harry De Leyer.
The first related book that comes to mind is Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand. Obviously, it's also about a horse but is also a similar "rags to riches story" as that horse goes from being written off as a crooked legged nag to an American celebrity as he won race after race.- Hmmm, speaking of rags to riches stories about athletes, I remember enjoying that type of storyline in the movie The Blind Side and also enjoying the book The Blind Side: The Evolution of a
Game by Michael Lewis, despite skimming over some of the technical details about football. I didn't enjoy those, but I loved the rags to riches story. - Thinking about rags to riches stories makes me think about J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter. I remember when I read the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I loved seeing how Harry went from living under the stairs at the Dursley's to enjoying the splendors that awaited him at Hogwarts.
That reminds me of how the book Aunt Dimity's Death by Nancy Atherton reminded me of Harry Potter. At the beginning of the book Lori's life is absolutely dismal--her mother just died, she's recently divorced, she has no money, etc. And then she gets a letter saying her Aunt has died and left her something in her will. Except Lori always thought her Aunt Dimity was an imaginary person that her mother made up. But it turns out she wasn't and Lori is suddenly whisked into a whole new existence as the heiress to a rather unusual fortune.
Speaking of being whisked into a whole new existence, isn't that what happened to Claire from the Outlander series? Ah yes, I loved that part of the story, when she was suddenly transported to 18th century Scotland. Wait...how did I get from a book about a show jumper and his horse to a time traveling romance?
Now I see that I love stories that show have a "rags to riches" theme, where a once plain, ordinary, bored, or 
lonely individual is transported--through hard work or magic--to a whole new existence as a victor or an adventurer. Now that I've seen the connections between these books...do you have any other suggestions for me?
The credit for this idea goes to Lucy Lockley from the St. Charles City-County Library District (MO) who presented a session on it at the Public Library Association's 2014 conference. Check out their blog for more Six Degree lists.
