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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 Essence of Tibetan BuddhismLama Thubten Yeshe72026-07
The Pickwick PapersCharles Dickens62026-07
Nutrition for DummiesCarol Ann Rinzler42026-06
Bodhisattva AttitudeLama Zopa Rinpoche62026-04
Anna KareninaLeo Tolstoy72026-03
Life as We Know it and Other Stories rln62026-01
Still LifeZoe Wicomb62025-11
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 LifeLama Zopa Rinpoche92025-04
Winnie and Nelson Portrait of a MarriageJonny Steinberg92024-11

20 random books

TitleAuthorScoreDate read
The fallAlbert Camus61997-03
The Word for World is ForestUrsula K. Le Guin61997-01
Blood to PoisonMary Watson52023-05
Moral AmbitionRutger Bregman52025-09
Tranquil MindRob Nairn51994-01
Queen of SorceryDavid Eddings101986-09
Report on Planet Three and other SpeculationsArthur C. Clarke51993-09
The First NamedJonathan Wylie51989-10
Interview with the VampireAnne Rice62000-10
The Rituals of InfinityMichael Moorcock61994-06
Flowers and ShadowsBen Okri61994-04
SkylinePatricia Schonstein Pinnock62001-09
Where do we go from hereDoris Dorrie62007-03
The Tao Te ChingLao Tzu82005-06
The Old Man and the SeaErnest Hemingway82019-09
Bodhichitta: Practice for a Meaningful LifeLama Zopa Rinpoche92025-04
The Wilt AlternativeTom Sharpe72001-02
The Omega Point Trilogy 3George Zebrowski71991-10
Novices: A Study of Poetic ApprenticeshipClayton Ashleman61995-08
The Fall of HyperionDan Simmons61998-01