Dear Editor

I agree with S Flynn (gr June ’07) that it is hard to share a library copy of Good Reading. Our library (Geelong Regional Libraries) also has a subscription and even though I’m a librarian and work with books all day I too had to get my own. I just felt too guilty having the latest copy out for more than a few days and always having to give it back.
 I love having my own copy and being able to scribble on it, make notes, turn the pages back, turn the corners down, and highlight all over it! I’m still amazed at the thrill it is to see the latest copy in my mailbox each month after all this time – both in the book world and as a subscriber. I read the Foreword first, then a quick look through to the ‘Book bite’ next. I really look forward to reading the rest from cover to cover, a cup of coffee and a biro at hand.
I just wanted to comment that I do like the reviews and the star ratings but that I am disappointed that I cannot put a title given a one star only rating on my reading list very often. Some of the titles reviewed I have read and am surprised at the rating. Some others given a five star rating I later wonder at. I am reminded to read just whatever appeals, challenges or is of interest to me and not what I think I should be reading. I read for the sheer pleasure of it, the private conversation of it, and the connection I get from it.
Book clubs are great but thank you also for not devoting quite so much space to them now, even though every one is unique and special to it members. Thank you also for your new classics series to be continued. Also I want to say thank you for no longer stapling in the titles and subscription details card. I always found this a bit of a nuisance and it is much better now

Yours sincerely
Faye Munro
Geelong, Vic

You can’t get around the fact that every review is simply the opinion of one reader – and that one reader’s meat may very well be another’s poison. I hope our reviews are helpful, informed and informative, but you do have to bear that fact in mind. I agree, Faye, that a one-star review should not put you off reading something that appeals to you or is by an author you admire and enjoy. – Ed

Hello,

I have recently subscribed and am thrilled to get the magazine so early each month. I normally used to wait for the library copy and usually ended up waiting literally months to read it. Anyway, as a poetry lover I am a bit disappointed that there isn’t a poetry page maybe every second month or so. I know there are a lot of poetry people out there, I belong to a group myself who meet and discuss various poets. Well, it’s a suggestion for an otherwise great reading magazine.

Thanking you

Susan

Dear Editor
I groaned when I read your blurb in the May issue of gr that ‘as a bonus, we’ve run a soup recipe from the book to warm everyone up as winter approaches.’ (The book being Winter in the Alps.) Your magazine is a cultural magazine, as in the refinement or improvement of minds, not taste buds. Leave that to domestic books. We want your magazine to feed our minds, not our tummies.
gr is a brilliant magazine, it has helped me to expand my horizons, and continues to do so, but please ... no recipes.

Kindest egards

Glenda Thomson

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