Rowena’s Comments (group member since Aug 06, 2013)

Rowena’s comments from the All About Books group.

Terri wrote: "I've just started The Sixth Extinction, hoping to get some ammunition for the ignorant climate deniers that are my fellow countrymen."

Thant looks like an interesting read, Terri! Enjoy:)

Leslie wrote: "Spurred on by Jean's reading of Gerald Durrell, I decided to read one of his for our Around-the-World challenge. My library hold for the audiobook of his book about his animal colle..."

Enjoy! I bought a Durrell book a while back, can't wait to read it:)

As we were talking about Black History Month, I found this online. A list of 10 inventions by African-Americans. http://www.howtolearn.com/2012/02/bla...

It appears he (I google him and he is indeed a man) has been asking to be removed from several groups. Bizarre.

Charbel wrote: "Rowena wrote: "True, Leslie, but I think every racial group has something unsavoury in their history. I think we're in danger of repeating history if we don't acknowledge it (actually, I think we'v..."

Agreed!

Leslie wrote: "Here is the latest - I just received an email from the GoodReads staff about the message I flagged:

"Hi Leslie,

We wanted to let you know that the comment you flagged recently (Comment 92757911 b..."

That's great! Thanks, Leslie:)

True, Leslie, but I think every racial group has something unsavoury in their history. I think we're in danger of repeating history if we don't acknowledge it (actually, I think we've been repeating history for ages!)

Thanks Amber and Jean! Will have a closer look during my lunchbreak :)

Is the person still in the group, Jean? Can you send me a link to her posts?

Thanks, Gill. Yes, I truly do believe it's important to acknowledge the history of people who have been marginalized or oppressed but spamming people isn't the right way to encourage it:)

Leslie wrote: "Heather wrote: "I agree, it's frustrating to see self promotion in this manner.

Out of interest, what does the USA do for black history month? I have heard of it but don't know much about it! ......"

I'm glad you acknowledge the month, Leslie.

Thanks, Amber:)

I didn't see that post but I agree that it's not right to push books on people. That being said, I do acknowledge Black History Month as I believe Blacks from all across the diaspora rarely have their voices heard, and I would like to acknowledge my ancestor's struggles. I grew up thinking that Black people didn't feature in history, and rarely contributed to modern literature so I am trying to remedy my own ignorance.

Canada Post honours African-Canadians on their stamps every February. I have one book-signing I'm going to at the end of the month for BHM, can't wait:)

I'm still waiting to get my copy from the library.

I've read half of it so far. I really like it as Lessing is a very intelligent writer. As Leslie remarked to me earlier, there's a lot of politics in the book, more than I'd expected. It's interesting to me how much communism was feared back in the day.

I'm about half-way through. I'm enjoying some parts more than others, that's for sure!

Jenny wrote: "I am in the middle of the chapter 'The Silent Reader' and was surprised to find out that the tradition of reading happened used to be a mainly oral tradition, as in: happening out loud, and not jus..."

Yes! That surprised me too. I first heard about that on Stephen Fry's show QI.

Also, I was reading a bit of Anais Nin's diary this morning and she talked about how she went to a party where they read Joyce's Finnegan's Wake out loud. I must say, I do get a different feel of a story when it's read out loud.

Jenny wrote: "I am currently reading the bit (quite close to the beginning) about how our brains decode those symbols on paper and on the the different schools of thought on how perceptions, decoding, imaginatio..."

Yes! That was very interesting.

LauraT wrote: "THat's right: there are parts that are a bit boring; the whole of the book moreover is not tight, if you see what I mean.
But there a re a lot of things to think about and reflect.
For one: the imp..."

I agree with you completely, Laura. I do like the points of reflections a lot.

I am enjoying it so far but like Pink said, there are parts that I'm finding a bit tedious to read.Also, as Laura said, there's not much of a structure. Still, I'm learning a lot.