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These pages are all about the books I've read. In 1985 I started recording and rating the books I read, perhaps to remind myself not to reread some forgettable trash, or perhaps to honour my first '10', The Lord of the Rings.

I've kept it going more or less continually since then, first on paper, then on Access, and now, more usefully, with a MySQL database. No obsessive compulsive comments please.

You can do all the things the statistician part of me finds exciting - rank books and authors, view average scores for a particular month etc. Use the menu options at the top. I've included a few of the more interesting options below and to the right as a 'front page'. If you don't find them exciting, hit that back button now.

Top authors (at least 2 books)

AvgAuthorNo. Books
9.76J.R.R Tolkien25
9.50John Boyd2
8.86David Zindell7
8.83Philip Jose Farmer6
8.75Stephen Donaldson4
8.50Nicholas Mosley2
8.50Leonard Q. Ross2
8.25David Eddings20
8.25Philip Pullman4
8.25Charles Dickens4
8.14Raymond E. Feist7
8.00Hermann Hesse6
8.00"Margaret, Tracy" "Weis, Hickman"6
8.00Robert M. Pirsig3
8.00Vladimir Nabokov3
8.00Barry Miles3
8.00Tatamkhulu Afrika3
8.00Robert Holdstock2
8.00Kazuo Ishiguro2
8.00Thomas More2

Top authors (quantity)

AvgAuthorNo. Books
5.87 Various30
9.76J.R.R Tolkien25
7.64Ursula K. Le Guin25
8.25David Eddings20
6.45Tom Sharpe11
7.40Frank Herbert10
6.89Isaac Asimov9
6.56Robert Heinlein9
6.38Mongane Wally Serote8
8.86David Zindell7
8.14Raymond E. Feist7
6.86Kim Stanley Robinson7
6.71Jack Kerouac7
6.00William Shakespeare7
5.00L. Ron Hubbard7
8.83Philip Jose Farmer6
8.00Hermann Hesse6
8.00"Margaret, Tracy" "Weis, Hickman"6
7.67Ben Okri6
7.17A.A. Attanasio6

20 most recent books

TitleAuthorScoreDate read
When We Were OrphansKazuo Ishiguro82012/1
Guns, Germs and SteelJared Diamond72012/1
Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic Osho52012/1
The Griqua's ApprenticeAntoinette Pienaar42012/1
A Monk SwimmingMalachy McCourt52012/1
Joy Osho82012/1
Blind FaithBen Elton42011/12
Doomsday BookConnie Willis52011/12
FlyleafFinuala Dowling72011/11
The Return of the KingJ.R.R Tolkien102011/11
The Death if Ivan IlyichLeo Tolstoy92011/11
Googled: The End of the World as We Know ItKen Auletta42011/10
The Two TowersJ.R.R Tolkien102011/10
The Fellowship of the RingJ.R.R Tolkien102011/9
Three Letter PlagueJonny Steinberg82011/8
Eastern Standard TribeCory Doctorow52011/7
Sons of the MoonHenry Shukman42011/7
Charles BukowskiBarry Miles72011/7
The White CastleOrhan Pamuk62011/7
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel ChristPhilip Pullman62011/7

20 random books

TitleAuthorScoreDate read
The Pseudo people Various61988/9
Fingerprints of the godsGraham Hancock72001/2
A Rock and a Hard PlaceAnthony Godby Johnson61995/7
"Through a glass, clearly"Isaac Asimov71992/7
Luciano's LuckJack Higgins51993/7
"PHI 108F: Moral and Political Values, First quarter 1994" Various61994/4
Dragonlance Legends 2"Margaret, Tracy" "Weis, Hickman"81988/2
inward moon outward sunShabbir Banoobhai62002/4
A Star Called HenryRoddy Doyle72008/4
The Soul of the ApeEugene Marais62003/6
BelindaAnne Rice62002/12
An Introduction to Zen BuddhismD.T. Suzuki51994/12
An Unpopular WarJH Thompson72007/12
Summer GrammarKen Barns52005/5
Father FrankPaul Burke62003/1
Cloud Dwellers of the HimalayasWindsor "Charlton, and Time"71993/2
PossessionA.S. Byatt81997/11
The Cancer YearsLynne Bryer62005/2
The Soft Book of Martial Arts Unsure51997/4
Dragonlance Chronicles 1"Margaret, Tracy" "Weis, Hickman"81987/7