I wanted to finish reading these two books but I just couldn’t! So this is not a proper book review but it sort of is because I’m writing how I feel about them. The books in question are:

• The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker
• Why Race Still Mattes by Alana Lentin

I do love the topic and subject of these two books. The Sense of Style is about how to write properly in the English language so that your readers can make sense of the world and see beauty in what you are trying to convey. I actually don’t mind the book and I laughed more than once with some of Pinker’s funny examples of people writing badly (academics are the biggest culprits!). And don’t get me wrong, Pinker’s book is written in a way that could be understood by anyone but at the moment I’m just not ready to read more about writing styles. I will pick this up at another time.

Why Race Still Matters is about how society (especially western society) needs to develop racial literacy. Lentin argues that we need to talk more about race and by doing so we make it less important. But you know what, this book is written in an academic style. Boo hoo! It feels like I’m reading a textbook, which is probably why I’m not enjoying it as much. Unless Lentin re-writes this in a way that could be understood in layman’s (I’m including all genders here – layperson just sounds awkward) terms, I’m not sure I will be picking it up again.