Having thought it over since I wrote my review, I think my big objection to the ending was that it felt a little rushed. Somewhat appropriate, given the events that happened, but I found myself wondering more about the society. Exactly how did it form? What were the people really like and how did they express their fear?

Still, only a very minor detraction from a good story.

I caught a glimpse of this on television a few weeks ago—the book had been turned into a documentary, as the cover gleefully announces. Shortly after catching that glimpse, my dad was loaned the book and I couldn’t resist finding out what the full story was. I love a good adventure.

The first thing that struck me about this book was the gorgeous photography. The book is really well presented, clearly laid out and lots for the eye to dwell on without being distracted from the text. It immediately made me suspicious that it was covering up for bad writing.

Not so. The style is very engaging; witty, yet down to earth. It sucked me right in and kept me hooked for the entire story. I particularly loved the details included that made the trip come to life, just small things about people they saw in passing and that sort of thing.

The affection between Pamela and her husband Billy Connolly was very evident. The foreword written by Billy made me smile.

All in all, it was a very entertaining read and definitely worth it. After all, there are very few modern adventurers these days.

A thought-provoking book. Matheson obviously considered the psychology behind it long and hard because it’s very realistic. It had the potential to be quite a boring book (same routine over and over), but I think that realism saved it.

I don’t read a lot of horror because I have an overactive imagination. I know technically this is more like science fiction, however I’d argue it had horror elements in it. Yet even so, I didn’t find it scary and I liked it all the more for that. The style flowed well, even without a lot of dialogue and I can certainly see why Matheson is well respected in the field of speculative fiction.

I found the ending (the last two parts) a little unexpected, but overall quite apt. I felt it revealed even more than what came before of the ideas underlying this. I suppose the best speculative fiction (or at least a lot of the early-ish stuff) are always parables, just like this one could be considered to be.

This is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays. Like so many others before me, the characters of Beatrice and Benadick have always fascinated me. The one quibble I had about it was the flashbacks to Kenneth Branagh that I kept getting.

I found the essays included on the play fascinating. A few shed some interesting light and made me see the play in a different way. Lewis Carol in particular asks some pertinent questions.

After reading this little book, I feel that society has lost the knack of reading myths. I didn’t find this at all exciting. It seemed to gloss over the most interesting details and the long list of names (“son of…”) reminded me of the Bible.

Perhaps there is some deeper meaning in these stories somewhere, but I didn’t see it, nor am I interested enough to search for it.

What a fascinating book! For someone without a whole lot of environmental awareness it was truly eye-opening and has made me think a lot about the way things are around me and the way I do things. I think that is one of the greatest things any book-fiction or non-fiction-can do.

I found the facts of it a little dry at times. It’s quite a large book and there’s lots to get through. Yet at the same time those facts paint a terribly compelling picture. The authors talk a lot about the Australian public needing greater awareness about the issues they are tackling and through this book I feel they have certainly generated this awareness in me.

My greatest frustration was that once I had this awareness, I wanted to do something about it. Yet many of the changes they’d like to see involve farmers, researchers, government and local council. Only the very last chapter was devoted to city-dwellers, despite the fact they acknowledge city-dwellers are the majority of the Australian population, and even there I was left with the feeling that there was nothing simple and effective I could do.

I guess finding something to do about it all is my responsability though, and not the authors’. They have achieved their aim just by instilling that within me.

This is a book that will stay with you long after you have finished reading it. I really enjoyed it’s down-to-earth, yet unusual descriptions and the little side-trips it takes to explain the behaviour of the animals, sea and sky. In the beginning particularly, it has a meandering pace, but these little tidbits help maintain interest. Throughout the entire story it brings home the wonder and the horror of what’s going on.

SPOILER ALERT
I found his meeting with the other boat to be particularly surreal. Pi’s final story I found particularly horrific. It really stuck with me and made me reconsider the entire novel. And I liked that. I thought it was interesting the way my mind seized on this as being the most plausible explanation for the events, rather like the Japanese businessmen. I started comparing the two stories and thought the callous way he treated the meercats (which at the time didn’t seem so callous) was good evidence that the second story was the truer one. I suddenly became wary of Pi, as if he really was the tiger. I thought it asked some interesting questions about morals vs survival, particularly since I am also a vegetarian. It’s amazing what the mind will do to protect itself.

I stayed up until midnight to finish this page turner. One of the best books I’ve read all year.

I’ve always thought that the worth of a non-fiction book was in the application of its ideas. As I was reading this book I found myself very resistant to its ideas, which was a bit strange, since the ideas that underlie it correspond with what I’ve been taught through Tai Chi. I quickly came to realise it was because the techniques the book describes are actually quite advanced ones. In order to make practical use of them, other techniques have to be mastered first.

It seemed the level of bodily control it assumed was way beyond my league and therefore it was easy to be cynical about the techniques it was trying to convey. I found myself skimming through it, bored with the constant repetition as it described ways of doing things. Perhaps it will be worth coming back to after I’ve become more advanced in my Tai Chi practice.

I’m in two minds about this book. On one hand, the book can seem like just so many words, and trite ones at that. There’s no real order to the information—it’s just vomitted out. The silver text can be difficult to read and although it’s apparently “designed to be toted around” it is quite a large, heavy book. Despite being strong on individual style and claiming that the girls photographed are not models, said girls are pretty much all tanned and fairly slim, while they all are wearing similar kinds of clothes and jewellry, have a similar kind of style.

Nevertheless I tried to keep an open mind, as asked. I found that the book did raise some interesting questions for me and it seemed to come just at the right time—I had a wonderful sense of peace as I sat down to read it in the evenings with a good cup of tea. I was also pleased to see the photographer credited on the title page. He richly deserved it, as the photos are really what makes the book.

I don’t normally read crime novels and I think that’s why I enjoyed this one. I found the start a little rocky—the sentences were convoluted and it was a little hard to get a grasp on all the characters, but it quickly settled down. I’m pleased to say that I never guessed the ending, despite giving it my best.