Books, life the universe

Tuesday 13 October 2009

The Secret Shopper Unwrapped

I did enjoy Kate Harrison's The Secret Shopper Unwrapped apart from not particularly liking one of the main characters. Emily is living with Will and Freddie -her small son from her marriage to Duncan. She is one of those silly women who is only able to see things from her own point of view and wants her life to be perfect. She does change slightly by the end of the book and I agree her ex-husband is something of a monster but even so she seems to be not terribly realistic.

The other main characters - Sandie and Grazia are interesting and have a bit more substance to them. If there is a third book in the series I may not bother to read it as I must admit I found myself skim reading it before the end. That's the trouble I think with reading more non fiction some of the lighter women's fiction doesn't hold my attention any more.

I have recently been told on a forum on Amazon that 'I have probably never lifted a finger to help anyone in the whole of my sorry little life' Oh right then - you obviously know all about me. The person concerned made this statement after I said I wasn't too interested in the origins of goods I bought as long as they were legal. I said child labour in other countries or the fate of the Amazon rain forest was not high up on my agenda of concerns. For those remarks I am accused of being sanctimonious. I did ask politely for some evidence of all these evils so that I could assess it for myself but I was told 'It's good to be opinionated but not if you need to be educated on every point you strive to make'. I presume from the vitriolic nature of this response that I have got under someone's skin. To me discussion is all about exchange of views - if you have evidence which will cause me to reconsider my views then I am interested in seeing it. But if all you do is criticise me personally for holding such views, without providing verifiable evidence which will convince me otherwise there is little point in the discussion. It's a real shame there are so many trolls about on the Internet.

4 comments:

NAM said...

Do remind me - just who was being sanctimonious in this instance? I'm a little confused on this point...!!!

Unfortunately, even after all this time, there are still a lot of people who don't seem to realise that you have to be rather more careful how you communicate by e-mail etc - it's just too easy to come over as aggressive or bad-temoered. I still join in a couple of web forums that contain someone who I would say falls into this trap, though it is a case of bark being worse than bite. It's never exactly going to convince anyone to change their mind, though, is it?

NAM said...

Do remind me - just who was being sanctimonious in this instance? I'm a little confused on this point...!!!

Unfortunately, even after all this time, there are still a lot of people who don't seem to realise that you have to be rather more careful how you communicate by e-mail etc - it's just too easy to come over as aggressive or bad-temoered. I still join in a couple of web forums that contain someone who I would say falls into this trap, though it is a case of bark being worse than bite. It's never exactly going to convince anyone to change their mind, though, is it?

NAM said...

Sorry, don't ask about the double posting - no idea how that happened!

Jilly said...

I must admit I felt sanctimonious was the incorrect word!

As you say so many people don't realise how their e-mails come over to other people. I do try to be very careful about how I phrase things having had plenty of experience at work! If two or three people take something a way it wasn't intended I will always try and correct the impression made. Some people get so stroppy about what was after all only a discussion.

So far they haven't responded to my last post so I consider the discussion closed - as does everyone else as no one else has posted either.