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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
8.50Leonard Q. Ross2
8.50Nicholas Mosley2
8.50Mark Twain2
8.25David Eddings20
8.25Kazuo Ishiguro4
8.14Raymond E. Feist7
8.00Hermann Hesse8
8.00"Margaret, Tracy" "Weis, Hickman"6
8.00Tatamkhulu Afrika3
8.00Barry Miles3
8.00Vladimir Nabokov3
8.00Nnedi Okorafor3

Top authors (quantity)

AvgAuthorNo. Books
7.57Ursula K. Le Guin49
5.81 Various36
9.76J.R.R Tolkien25
7.14Frank Herbert22
8.25David Eddings20
7.69Margaret Atwood13
7.08Isaac Asimov12
6.45Tom Sharpe11
6.90Kim Stanley Robinson10
7.89Isabel Allende9
6.89J.M. Coetzee9
6.56Robert Heinlein9
9.63Ken Wilber8
8.00Hermann Hesse8
6.38Iain M. Banks8
6.38Mongane Wally Serote8
6.13Arthur Conan Doyle8
6.00William Shakespeare8
8.86David Zindell7
8.14Raymond E. Feist7

20 most recent books

TitleAuthorScoreDate read
Portrait in SepiaIsabel Allende92026-10
From Drug Mule to Drug BossMeg Rickards62026-10
A Different Kind of PowerJacinda Arden62026-09
Best of British Science Fiction 2025 Various42026-08
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

20 random books

TitleAuthorScoreDate read
Too Late the PhalaropeAlan Paton62010-12
Jitterbug PerfumeTom Robbins51997-11
Nine LivesTatamkhulu Afrika82003-09
Funny Money: In Search of Alternative CashDavid Boyle72005-10
WanderingHermann Hesse82000-06
Bad ScienceBen Goldacre72010-04
The Te of PigletBenjamin Hoffe71994-07
A Long Walk to FreedomNelson Mandela71998-06
Best of British Science Fiction 2025 Various42026-08
David CopperfieldCharles Dickens91993-02
The RevenantsSheri S. Tepper21990-12
The Worm Ouroboros E.R. Eddison52013-02
Cloud Dwellers of the HimalayasWindsor "Charlton, and Time"71993-02
The Omega Point Trilogy 2George Zebrowski71991-10
Underground PeopleLewis Nkosi62004-08
In the Days of the CometH.G. Wells71993-07
In the Heart of the CountryJ.M. Coetzee82022-04
The Night Keeps WinkingMongane Wally Serote81994-10
MaverickRicardo Semler62008-07
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's StoneJ.K. Rowling42002-01