#6degrees – from The Outsiders to His Sombre Rivals

Bookwyrm Knits did this association thing this month and I figured I’d try my hand at it. It was pretty fun making the connections.

 

 

I read the Outsiders, along with Rumblefish, back in my middleschool days. I don’t remember much about the books except thinking what a bunch of sad people the stories revolved around.  The local library, where I volunteered in highschool had several of her books.

The local library was where I found Way-Farer, one of my favorite books of all time and one I still rave about today. That cover, with that sword, that was just pure teen boy magnet. I’ve written quite a few posts on Way-Farer, so no need to go on here.

A sword on the cover leads to the next book, King’s Dragon by Kate Elliott. That was the first of seven in her Crown of Stars series. A 7  books series was not the longest series I had read, nor would it be the last, but it was the one that I realized that a long series isn’t always a good series. I finished it but ended up selling the hardcovers soon afterwards.

The opposite of a long series is not a short series. No, the opposite is the Standalone. A standalone that I really enjoyed in 2006 was Tim Powers’ The Anubis Gates.  Dealing with time travel, history and time paradoxes that aren’t time paradoxes, The Anubis Gates was fun, interesting  and had just enough history to show that Powers was a fan of history but not afraid to play around behind the scenes. He’s writing like history isn’t real.

What is real though, is war. What It Is Like To Go To War by Karl Marlantes was one of the few non-fiction books I read in 2011, if not the ONLY non-fiction book of that year.  Getting a soldier’s perspective is a good thing for civilians, as we just don’t know jack-squat about what they are dealing with. Marlantes being a Rhodes scholar as well as a Vietnam vet upped his credibility in my eyes.

The American Civil War was vastly different from the Vietnam War. His Sombre Rivals by Edward Payson Roe is set during that time.  A bromance where 2 guys both love the same woman but the unsuccessful one doesn’t whine or allow his feelings to destroy the friendship he has with both his friend and the woman. True Manliness. Probably the best book I read in 2015.

 

 

There you have it, 6 book associations from the early 90’s up until 2015.  You can see all the rules and blabberywhatnot the creators/hosters of this association thing put up (seems like almost everyone who starts something like this can’t resist making everyone else goosestep to their tune). I’ll probably check in at the original place every couple of months and see what another starting book is. It is fun to make these links 🙂