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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. A partial version of the list exists on my Goodreads profile.

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
9.63Ken Wilber8
9.50John Boyd2
9.00Robert Johnson2
8.86David Zindell7
8.83Philip Jose Farmer6
8.75Stephen Donaldson4
8.50Jonny Steinberg4
8.50Nicholas Mosley2
8.50Mark Twain2
8.50Leonard Q. Ross2
8.25David Eddings20
8.25Kazuo Ishiguro4
8.14Raymond E. Feist7
8.00Hermann Hesse8
8.00"Margaret, Tracy" "Weis, Hickman"6
8.00Nnedi Okorafor3
8.00Robert M. Pirsig3
8.00Tatamkhulu Afrika3
8.00Barry Miles3

Top authors (quantity)

AvgAuthorNo. Books
7.57Ursula K. Le Guin49
5.86 Various35
9.76J.R.R Tolkien25
7.14Frank Herbert22
8.25David Eddings20
7.69Margaret Atwood13
7.08Isaac Asimov12
6.45Tom Sharpe11
6.90Kim Stanley Robinson10
6.89J.M. Coetzee9
6.56Robert Heinlein9
9.63Ken Wilber8
8.00Hermann Hesse8
7.75Isabel Allende8
6.38Mongane Wally Serote8
6.38Iain M. Banks8
6.13Arthur Conan Doyle8
6.00William Shakespeare8
8.86David Zindell7
8.14Raymond E. Feist7

20 most recent books

TitleAuthorScoreDate read
The Birthday of the WorldUrsula K. Le Guin72025-10
Moral AmbitionRutger Bregman52025-09
Shards of HonorLois McMaster Bujold72025-09
The TellingUrsula K. Le Guin82025-08
The Lathe of HeavenUrsula K. Le Guin72025-08
No Time to SpareUrsula K. Le Guin82025-07
Very Far Away From Anywhere ElseUrsula K. Le Guin62025-06
RadixA.A. Attanasio62025-06
The JungleUpton Sinclair72025-05
The Bee StingPaul Murray72025-05
The Unreal and the RealUrsula K. Le Guin72025-04
Bodhichitta: Practice for a Meaningful Life Lama Yeshe Rinpoche92025-04
Winnie and Nelson Portrait of a MarriageJonny Steinberg92024-11
DraculaBram Stoker72024-11
Love Letter to the EarthThich Nhat Hanh42024-11
The Diamond That Cuts Through IllusionThich Nhat Hanh52024-11
Freedom Through UnderstandingLama, Lama Yeshe, Zope Rinpoche72024-11
The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of ComputationCory Doctorow72024-10
The Stars My DestinationAlfred Bester62024-09
Evolution: A novelKen Barris62024-09

20 random books

TitleAuthorScoreDate read
TsetloMongane Wally Serote71995-02
Bodhichitta: Practice for a Meaningful Life Lama Yeshe Rinpoche92025-04
Slaughter House-5Kurt Vonnegut61999-11
Nature's World of Wonders National Geographic51993-07
Rites of PassageWilliam Golding62005-09
The Griqua's ApprenticeAntoinette Pienaar42012-01
The Word for World is ForestUrsula K. Le Guin61997-01
Freedom Lament and SongMongane Wally Serote61998-02
Become Your Own Financial AdviserWarren Ingram52020-07
Things Fall ApartChinua Achebe71997-01
The acts of King Arthur and his noble knightsJohn Steinbeck61997-08
Dancing at the Edge of the WorldUrsula K. Le Guin72019-05
Magician's GambitDavid Eddings91990-01
Grace NotesBernard MacLaverty72024-01
The Quiet Violence of DreamsK Sello Duiker72003-08
The Brothers KaramazovFyodor Dostoyevsky92014-06
The Last Green TreeJim Grimley82012-04
Enhanter's End GameDavid Eddings101986-09
MatrixPatrick Cullinan72009-09
Gooi hom in die slootRoelf Van Rensburg81987-06