Library Book Club 

Well a lively group and who would have thought earth worms could be so enthralling? Alex said he thought this was one of our best meetings yet! And we had a fire drill in the midst of a howling gale

As JoJo had been sewing masks she used the time to listen to audio books  and found a great way of multi tasking. The Misunderstanding of Glenco  by Alexander McColl Smith ( amongst others} filled in the time spent at her sewing machine. And of course this Scottish story had all the ingredients for entertainment like revenge . She has other books on order.

But it was ‘The Call of the Reed Warbler’ by Charles Massey that caught our attention. Did we know we had an expert on earthworms in our midst? This book is the story of regenerative farming in Australia and the way that the damage done to ecosystems can be repaired. So what are we trying to achieve? To return to the original state of the land or to work with what we have now  to bring about regeneration? And yes we have our own earthworms in NZ, but the native species do not like the Ph of the soils on our farms ( they were created to live in the undergrowth of our forests) so the ones we see are mainly European. The earthworms in our compost are different again and will not survive being incorporated into our gardens. Then we had another book on the same theme entitled ‘Dirt into Soil’ which again was about transforming our land by working with nature not against her.

And we are on a nature roll as the next book by Edward Abbey was ‘Desert Solitaire’ and described wonderfully the amazing parks we have, but he’s all about: no camper vans, no car parks, get out and explore, don’t just drive to experience these wonders.

Lastly ‘Group Think’ exercised our brains with it’s focus on how groups of people influence our society and how we all become almost brain washed into proclaiming the same message and rejecting anyone with a different view point.

I think this group practises critical thinking! And we don’t always agree.

Next meeting Thursday 15^th Oct 10.30 am at the library

Glenys Hansen