Six Degrees of Reading

After reading the third chapter, I was struck by the idea of Six Degrees of Reading. I can certainly explain, if pushed, what led me to read some books, but it's not something I have considered too deeply as a "method". I have tried to suggest books to my students before -- usually based on what they like or what they have read, but this goes way deeper. I think if we shared one or two of our degree chains with students, they might be surprised to realize how many books we teachers have read that we wouldn't have just plucked from the shelf.

I wonder if it might work better, in explaining this to kids, to use the internet as the metaphor. We find what we were seeking, but then we click to somewhere else. Before long, we are led so far away from what we sought to begin with, yet we are immersed in an interesting find. This also works as a research skill -- mining the bibliographies of other researchers. But that's another tangent.