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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
8.00Vladimir Nabokov3
8.00Nnedi Okorafor3
8.00Robert M. Pirsig3
8.00Tatamkhulu Afrika3

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
Shark's EggHenrietta Rose-Innes62000-12
Phases of gravityDan Simmons61997-06
Ubu RoiAlfred Jarry51995-08
Rocannon's WorldUrsula K. Le Guin71997-08
New Dubliners: Celebrating 100 Years of Joyce's Dubliners Various62019-02
Stories van die KantlynTheuns Stofberg2023-09
Clan of the Cave BearJean. M. Auel61989-08
PornoIrvine Welsh72008-07
Hitch hikers guide to the galaxyDouglas Adams71987-05
Fire in the AbyssStuart Gordon91992-06
Pawn of ProphecyDavid Eddings101986-09
Journey to IxtlanCarlos Castenada51998-11
Of Love and ShadowsIsabel Allende72005-11
Freedom Lament and SongMongane Wally Serote61998-02
Sibling MischiefMichael Stephens51992-04
Ecology for BeginnersStephen Croall61994-09
Let Sleeping Vets LieJames Herriot61987-11
War in HeavenDavid Zindell101999-11
The Gold CoastKim Stanley Robinson82013-06
The Many Coloured LandJulian May61986-12