Member: gunung

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for the note, and apologies for the late reply; I was away on vacation when it arrived. I haven't yet read Jill Blee but her work was recommended to me by another blogger, and I hope to read it soon. I enjoyed reading your review of Nerys Jones's Godiva and am glad to hear it's good. Now I'm going to have to check my LT catalog because I do own a copy... and I'm wondering if I missed cataloging it after it arrived. It's another one on my to-be-read shelf as I got it earlier this year.
I've enjoyed browsing through the Must Read section on your ANZLL blog. It's a great list, with many titles I haven't read yet (and some that I have).
Actually I have a barcode scanner and it's very helpful. My problem is that many of my older books don't have ISBNs or barcodes so there's no easy way to get them into LT - I'm a lazy typist :)

Sarah

posted by ariadne02 at 10:30 am (EST) on Oct 25, 2009

Hi Lisa

I didn't know about the LitBlog option, thanks for telling me :) It's definitely something I'd be interested in, as I'm starting to write more reviews now.

However, I don't actually read that much South African literature, so my reviews won't be too informative in that respect. My tastes veer toward sci fi and non-realist works, of which there aren't that much here. I've never read Brink or Gordimer - not something I'm proud of, but I'm not that keen on trying them out either. There's a really cool sci fi novel by Lauren Beukes that I plan to buy and review sometime soon though.

I think I suffer from the prejudice that a lot of South Africans my age still have, which is that SA lit is all about race, and not particularly enjoyable to read. Whenever we read prescribed SA novels at school or varsity it was about race and apartheid and although it was relevant it's not the only thing we think about and live with. Many people seem a bit averse to SA lit as a result. That stereotype about our novels was once fairly accurate and it's been debated in literary circles, but I think things have changed somewhat now, so this is a good opportunity for me to start exploring my country's literature.

Thanks for the friend invite!

posted by inkspot at 3:04 am (EST) on Sep 30, 2009

Hi Lisa

Thanks very much for you comment on my review of Disgrace! It's the first review I've posted here and your words were very encouraging. Because Disgrace is a book that evokes such strong personal reactions I thought it necessary to include my own. I felt that any review short of a small book would not do the novel justice, but selected the themes I felt were most important. I'm glad you liked it and I hope others will too - it's the kind of book that deserves to be discussed.

posted by inkspot at 6:37 am (EST) on Sep 28, 2009