Varla Fiona’s Comments (group member since Mar 26, 2012)

Varla Fiona’s comments from the SA Book & Challenge Lovers group.

Personally, I don't like Johannesburg and I don't really know Durban. I love Port Elizabeth, which is why I live here. My favourite city in SA to visit for holidays is Cape Town, partly because of the drive there and back through the Garden Route. My advice to international tourists is to come to Cape Town and travel up to Port Elizabeth via either the coastal route or inland via Oudshoorn. Just outside of PE you have Addo National Park which has big five with no malaria. From there you can either travel back to Cape Town the way you didn't come or fly to Durban or Johannesburg if you really want to see those places. PE gets a bit cold in winter (even though our temps are not as low as Europe we have no central heating so it is felt more) so best time to visit is October to April.

If you come to PE I will be happy to show you around and give to tips, connect you with people or places. As others have mentioned, there are various different kinds of things to do. Are you interested in seeing cultural type stuff, museums, history or nature or sport or something completely different? If you are interested, PE hosts the Iron man in April.

I don't think we are too far away from producing meat in a lab. While it may take a while for the general population to become used to the idea and ensure it is financially viable, it will solve a large number of the environmental problems farming can cause. I'm not taking about growing animals with no limbs or inhumane things like that, literally just growing a piece of meat in a Petri dish.

I made it by scrapping in at the last moment!

Completed every word so far this year, I couldn't miss this one

I'm keen

I'll join you

Ok, finished. Anyone else read it?

Thanks. I will check them out.

I read it earlier this year. I liked it but then I do enjoy kids books so am used to the childish quality. It definitely wasn't my favourite book of the year but I will probably carry on with the series. I haven't read any of her others, which would you say is the best?

Oh the science, I am a zoologist so not sure exactly about the fields they talk about but it does not seem to far fetched to me based on the little I know. Of we haven't already got to this point in some secret labs I'm sure we are not too far away. I say secret because I think there are ethical issues to some of it. I do often find that scientists involved in work can have a different perspective on the ethics of their work than the general public. I'm not sure who would be right in that case, the scientist who has a clearer and more detailed understanding of what is being done or someone with a less biased outside perspective.

Snowman does irritate me a bit as I would find the survival stuff interesting but his reminiscing gives background that helps the story make sense.

I agree the world they were in was scary. I want to know what was so bad outside those communities if they had to be protected yet inside they were exposed to stuff which we consider terrible. But the world Snowman is in seems to be worse because he is all alone.

Enjoy. I also just read the Australia chapter. Want to try and finish the book this week

Finished until the end of Brainfrizz.

Yeah, Crake would totally weird me out if I met him in real life. I don't trust him at all.

I would definitely take an organ from a pigoon, but then I would be happy taking an organ from anything as long as it had been proven viable. I would probably even go with the trial if it was a case of try this or die.

I would eat them, but I am pretty open to trying most things. I wasn't even freaked out by the whole horse meat saga recently. As long as out is not an actual human (of course then we get to the issue of eating humans of it is the only food source, which I would probably do as a last resort) I will try anything. It is just meat.

Oh, Gotta run. Will comment more later.

Finished tasks 4, 6, 17, 20, 25

starting this today

Oh, the short stories aren't released yet. I will join in the discussions though.

B - Flood by Stephen Baxter
L - The Warlords of Nin by Stephen R. Lawhead
I - Into the Wild
K - The Search for Truth by Kaza Kingsley
S - Uninvited by Sophie Jordan
E - Enemy of the Fae
M - Doctor Who: The Nightmare of Black Island by Mike Tucker

I've read divergent 1-3 but see there is a collection of short stories so I want to see if I can get hold of that.Four: A Divergent Story Collection

I don't know.It is one thing to talk theoretical (if I was in a dire state, there was no other food and the other person was dead but not from an illness, then maybe) but if I was really in that situation I can't say how I would react. It might also play a role in who the dead person was. If I knew them alive, it would be harder I think.

Sorry, have been busy. I have reread until end of Chapter 8 so far.

I find the various different stories so interesting and love the way they figure out what probably happened from weird and wonderful methods.

I want a canoe, but not sure I want one that I need to wear and I don't plan on going out of Algoa Bay in it...

Titles Tell Stories: +0 (0/25)
Bookclub Monthlies: +0 (0/25)
Discover Bookshelves: +4 (4/25)
Know Author: +5 (5/25)
Location: +4 (4/25)
Rebellion: +1 (1/25)

Total: 14/150