Life of Pi - pre-read

[Sarah]

Rachel, hang in there!! I was ready to give up as well, but ended up giving the book 5 stars.

[Rachel]

Oh wow, I think I will stick it out then!

[Sarah]

I'm curious to see how you end up liking it!

[Rachel]

Well I'm still chapter 8 now and I think I'm falling in love with this book...

[Jessica]

Rachel wrote: "Well I'm still chapter 8 now and I think I'm falling in love with this book..."

I remember feeling just ‘meh’ about the movie when I first watched it. I think I felt that way until the very end, and then I ended up loving the movie. I figure the book will be the same. I'm about half way through the book right now.

[Courtney]

I am also about halfway through, if not a bit more. I'm excited to see that others love the ending. The audiobook is fantastic as far as narration goes!

[Mare]

Just joined this group yesterday, but Life of Pi has been sitting on my shelf for at least 2 years. I plan to finish I Am Malala tonight and open Life of Pi tomorrow. Don't know if I'll be able to finish it before the week/month is up, but I'm giving it a shot.

[Kaseadillla]

No worries - discussions are open indefinitely and I know a lot of people will be reading the book after the month is up!

[[deleted user]]

Trying to catch up with proficient readers! Did read the thread with the spoilers for this one and it made me want to read the book even more, so have just downloaded it. It sounds exciting and, although I haven't watched the film, the movie clips from there were magnificently portrayed. If it can create images like that in my mind, it will surely be doing the tale justice...?

[Christine]

LH wrote: "Trying to catch up with proficient readers! Did read the thread with the spoilers for this one and it made me want to read the book even more, so have just downloaded it. It sounds exciting and, al..."

I think y'all will like it LH. I didn't see the movie, but I have a feeling that if I had, the animals on the lifeboat would seem much more real to me. Which would affect how I read the book.

I'm interested to hear your rating!

[[deleted user]]

Just starting the book now! Looking forward to trying to untangle all the allogories involved, and no doubt, myths and lygends too. Wow! To have a mind, and writing ability, to think and write like that!? Amazing! Lucky authors who possess such skills. Brilliant DNA structures...

[Rachel]

Okay I'm at chapter 11 (slow reading!!) and struggling again. There just seems to be no story, he's just constantly telling us about zoos. Which I find very interesting, but I wanted to read a story!! When does the story start?!

[Sarah]

Hang in there Rachel! The story starts in Part 2: The Pacific Ocean. It was page 97 in the edition I read.

[Kandice]

Sarah wrote: "Ulya, the zoo defense did stick out in my mind. I definitely felt like it was an attempt to defend zoos from the mouth of someone who fully supports them and doesn't like when people bash them. I s..."

My family has been a huge supporter of the zoo since we had children and I console myself with your final sentence. I grew up going to see Ivan the Gorilla on a weekly basis during summers and very closely followed his story as an adult. When well-intention-ed activists had him moved to an actual zoo, I was so sad to see how that worked out, but it did make me feel better about rescued animals or those actually born in a zoo.

Ivan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_(g... (Wikipedioa, so a grain of salt is required)

[Sarah]

Kandice, it makes me so sick when people keep wild animals as pets just for the novelty of it! That poor gorilla.

There's a zoo in Austin that is solely made up of rescued animals found in the area that were too damaged to return to the wild. I feel better about that type of zoo, but once again, the enclosures are VERY small. Basically kennels. There was a coyote that just paced back and forth in his small enclosure the whole time I was there. Good intentions... but we can only provide so much and what kind of life is that to live for the animal?

I'm very passionate about this kind of stuff, but just emotionally, not judgmental in most scenarios. It's so hard to tell if we are helping or intruding on a natural process. It's a moral battle in my mind. I do call wildlife rescue when I see an injured animal, and am friends with a lady who rehabilitates and releases for the wildlife program here.

Examples of my passion and empathy for animals:

A lot of people keep their cats inside for safety and long lives. I am a firm believer in indoor/outdoor cats, my cats come and go as they please. What is life without sunshine, rain drops, and the feel of grass and the wind? Isn't the point of life to explore and experience without constantly worrying about danger and preventing it by doing nothing at all?

I used to have 2 pet rats, Karma and Mia. I could not stand the sight of them locked up in their cage all day, so soon after I adopted them I decided to leave the cage door open permanently. They lived full lives running around my apartment! They are incredibly intelligent, too intelligent to live a sane healthy life confined to a small space and without proper attention. You can even litter train them. :) Imagine walking through your door after work and having 2 cutie rats run up to greet you! I miss that, they were the best!

[Kandice]

Sarah wrote: "A lot of people keep their cats inside for safety and long lives. I am a firm believer in indoor/outdoor cats, my cats come and go as they please. What is life without sunshine, rain drops, and the feel of grass and the wind? Isn't the point of life to explore and experience without constantly worrying about danger and preventing it by doing nothing at all? .."

That drives me crazy too!

[Rachel]

I've had to put this in the "not finished" pile 🙁 life's too short to force myself to read a book I'm not enjoying! I skipped ahead a bit but just wasn't feeling it. I think I'll watch the film though 🙂

[Synthwaver]

The month is over and I haven't read even to the half of this book :|
I want to participate in monthly read of June but first I need to finish this one.

The only thing that I don't find interesting about the book so far is the "list writing" that comes up sometimes. What I mean by it is when the writer for example starts with the kinds of zoo animals and how dangerous they would be to Pi, one after the other, almost filling 2 pages. I can forget about them since other aspects of the book are interesting for me.

[Synthwaver]

Sarah wrote: "Kandice, it makes me so sick when people keep wild animals as pets just for the novelty of it! That poor gorilla.

There's a zoo in Austin that is solely made up of rescued animals found in the ar..."

I like your idea about pet cats while I also don't mind cats that are mostly indoors as long as humans take care of them well. Like at least they take the cats out regularly for a walk, provide them with as much as items and/or area that exist in their natural habitat, etc.

All my pet cats were stray cats that I befriended by giving treats or temporary shelter. Similarly, I let them to come and go whenever they wanted. I think as stray cats they are more used to that lifestyle than consistently staying at home. Sometimes they refused the food I gave them because they were fed by other people in the neighborhood.

It was all happy for them but tragedy also happened. The most hurting one happened to friendliest of my pet cats. One night she came back home, after one of her regular ventures into the neighborhood, and looked like she was beaten or maybe hit by a car. I couldn't find out what exactly happened. She passed away not long after at that night. It was as if she wanted to see me one last time. :( I'm not sure if it would be better for her if she always stayed at home by my side but I know I wouldn't be able to force her because she clearly wanted to go out regularly and come to see me when she would like.

Pet cats are all over the city I'm living in and I'm glad most of people care about them and treat them well. One day cats might take the city for themselves and ask humans to leave! :P

[Sarah]

Lee, I do have a tragic story when it comes to my method: I had 2 kittens and was keeping them inside until I felt they were old enough. I would take them in the back yard little bits at a time to play in the grass, then around 8 months old I started letting them go out during the day but made them come in at night. The first night I let them stay out, because they REALLY wanted to stay out and were already used to the yard and their territory, one of them went missing. Her name was Allora and she was pure white and cute as hell. Her sister was waiting at the door, but I looked for Allora for a whole month, knocking on doors and posting signs and searching fields and ditches... never found her. :( I did beat myself up over it thinking 10 months was too young, she was still a scrawny thing, and definitely the most adventurous cat I have ever had. I still continue to let my cats out, but I encourage them to come in at night which has become part of their routine. They know when I shut the side door of the garage, it's time to come in or they'll be stuck outside until I wake up. Fortunately we live on a cul-de-sac so getting hit by a car is not likely and the neighbors recognize our cats and don't mind them.

[Kandice]

Lee wrote: "Pet cats are all over the city I'm living in and I'm glad most of people care about them and treat them well. One day cats might take the city for themselves and ask humans to leave! :P ..."

I suspect cats aren't the asking kind. ;-)

[Sarah]

LOL, Kandice, so true!

[Synthwaver]

Sarah wrote: "Lee, I do have a tragic story when it comes to my method: I had 2 kittens and was keeping them inside until I felt they were old enough. I would take them in the back yard little bits at a time to ..."

Sorry to hear your kitten Allora went missing :( That must be really hard. I hope she could find shelter somewhere and fended for herself although she was so young or if she was taken by someone, they took care of her responsibly and well.

[Synthwaver]

Kandice wrote: "Lee wrote: "Pet cats are all over the city I'm living in and I'm glad most of people care about them and treat them well. One day cats might take the city for themselves and ask humans to leave! :P..."

Haha! XD I was wondering whether to continue the joke and:

...we might need to take extra cautions to be on their good side in case "feline uprising", ahem...the peace treaty between humans and "the great fluffy ninja cats" happen in our life time. We will need human agents in their ranks after all. :P