Journal Entry 1 by Iojima from Nyons, Rhône-Alpes France on Saturday, February 23, 2008

Temple Grandin, an autistic and a successful animal behaviour consultant who designs systems for feedlots and abbatoirs, believes that autistics often think the same way that animals do. This book is an educational and entertaining account of some of her work with animals and how how we humans can frequently drive them nuts. 

Journal Entry 2 by Iojima from Nyons, Rhône-Alpes France on Saturday, February 23, 2008

Going on loan to CaterinaAnna. 

Journal Entry 3 by Caterinaanna from Coventry, West Midlands United Kingdom on Thursday, March 06, 2008

Arrived at school yesterday.
Number 3 on Mount Toobie.
Many thanks Iojima. 

Journal Entry 4 by Caterinaanna from Coventry, West Midlands United Kingdom on Sunday, March 30, 2008

Another absolutely fascinating book which I read in one go, staying up far too late to finish it.

Grandin draws not only on her own observations and work, but those of others to generate a hypothesis about how animals percieve the world and offer advice about how to treat them. She demonstrates affection and respect for animals which obviously makes many wonder how she has been able to carry out her work in abbatoirs making the process of sending animals to their deaths. She answers this point clearly and cogently in her book wioth a very interesting discussion on the difference between how much pain something causes and how much it hurts. The sometimes simplistic, very personal style of Thinking in Pictures is more refined here but her voice comes through - for example in her habit of always awarding people their titles where many would refer to them by surname alone - which is one of the things which makes it so easy to read.

Thank you Iojima. 

Journal Entry 5 by Caterinaanna at Loan in By hand, to another bookcrosser -- Controlled Releases on Sunday, March 30, 2008

Released 4 yrs ago (3/30/2008 UTC) at Loan in By hand, to another bookcrosser -- Controlled Releases

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

With the permission of Iojima, I'm leaving this one with Spike because he has been intrigued by the bits I've told him about it. 

Journal Entry 6 by spike1972 from Cardiff, Wales United Kingdom on Monday, April 14, 2008

Sorry, CaterinaAnna gave me this a while ago, and then I was offline for a week or so, which is why - along with being a useless git - I haven't journalled until now. 

Journal Entry 7 by spike1972 from Cardiff, Wales United Kingdom on Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Oopsy, I've been reading this for at least a week now. 

Journal Entry 8 by spike1972 from Cardiff, Wales United Kingdom on Wednesday, June 11, 2008

I really enjoyed this book, and agree with a lot of the things CaterinaAnna has said.

One of the things that really came through was Temple Grandin's honesty. If she wasn't sure about something, she'd say so. Or she'd make it clear that it was just a theory. Also, and I don't know why this pleased me but it did, she didn't bother with "he/she" all the time. She just said/wrote "he", when it's obvious that yes it could easily have been a "she".

The one thing I wasn't comfortable with was the fact that, even if she hasn't personally carried out experiments on animals, obviously someone else has. I'm a bit of a fence-sitter on this subject. Generally speaking I don't like the idea of people experimenting on animals, but at the same time if it turns out that some of the information gained help people, especially people who are ill, then... As I said, I'm a bit of a fence-sitter.

There was an awful lot of information in this book, way too much for the likes of me to take in and, more importantly, retain, but I do feel as if I've learnt a few things and will probably think differently about both animals and autistic people in future.

Thank you Iojima for letting me read this. I'll send it back 'home' soon. 

Journal Entry 9 by Iojima from Nyons, Rhône-Alpes France on Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Safely home. Thank you for reading; I'm so glad you enjoyed it.