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Reading
I read a lot. Not as much as I'd like, mind you. It all comes of there being too few hours in the day, or more precisely, too few hours until I have to get up for work . . .I don't own all these books. The list includes those I've borrowed and felt were worth a mention.
This list is now quite out of date, and fails to include anything from our last two trips to Hay on Wye. I may, at some point, update it with a complete listing of the works in the house, but that might take a while.
As you can probably tell, my main reading interests are in Science Fiction / Fantasy . . .
The rating system is:
Firstly, as I've done on the Music page, here's the ones that came out with a ***** rating:
| Author | Title | Rating | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arthur C Clarke | 2001 | ***** | |
| Arthur C Clarke | The City And The Stars | ***** | |
| Bill Bryson | Notes From A Small Island | ***** | |
| Douglas Adams | Life, The Universe And Everything | ***** | |
| Douglas Coupland | Generation X | ***** | |
| Frank Herbert | Dune | ***** | |
| Greg Egan | Axiomatic | ***** | |
| Greg Egan | Permutation City | ***** | |
| Iain Banks | Complicity | ***** | |
| Iain Banks | The Bridge | ***** | |
| Iain Banks | The Crow Road | ***** | |
| Iain M Banks | Against A Dark Background | ***** | |
| Iain M Banks | Use Of Weapons | ***** | |
| Jeff Noon | Vurt | ***** | |
| John Varley | Demon | ***** | |
| Joseph Heller | Catch 22 | ***** | |
| JRR Tolkein | The Lord Of The Rings | ***** | |
| Mary Doria Russell | The Sparrow | ***** | |
| Michael Marshall Smith | One Of Us | ***** | |
| Neal Stephenson | Cryptonomicon | ***** | |
| Neal Stephenson | Snow Crash | ***** | |
| Neil Gaiman | Smoke and Mirrors | ***** | |
| Neil Gaiman | The Sandman - A Game Of You | ***** | |
| Nick Hornby | High Fidelity | ***** | |
| Scott Adams | The Dilbert Principle | ***** | |
| Simon Singh | Fermat's Last Theorem | ***** | |
| Stephen Fry | The Liar | ***** | |
| Stephen Hawking | A Brief History Of Time | ***** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Interesting Times | ***** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Jingo | ***** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Small Gods | ***** | |
| Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman | Good Omens | ***** | |
| Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen | The Science of Discworld | ***** | |
| Umberto Eco | Foucaults Pendulum | ***** | |
| Vernor Vinge | A Deepness In The Sky | ***** |
And here's the rest
| Author | Title | Rating | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Garland | The Beach | **** | |
| Alex Garland | The Tesseract | *** | |
| Alfred Bester | The Stars My Destination | **** | |
| Arthur C Clarke | 2010 | **** | |
| Arthur C Clarke | 2061 | *** | |
| Arthur C Clarke | 3001 | *** | |
| Arthur C Clarke | A Fall Of Moondust | **** | |
| Arthur C Clarke | Childhood's End | ** | |
| Arthur C Clarke | Expedition To Earth | *** | |
| Arthur C Clarke | Rama II | **** | |
| Arthur C Clarke | Rama Revealed | **** | |
| Arthur C Clarke | Rendevous With Rama | **** | |
| Arthur C Clarke | The Deep Range | **** | |
| Arthur C Clarke | The Fountains Of Paradise | *** | |
| Arthur C Clarke | The Garden Of Rama | **** | |
| Arthur C Clarke | The Other Side Of The Sky | *** | |
| Arthur Conan Doyle | The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes | *** | |
| Ben Elton | Popcorn | **** | |
| Ben Elton | This Other Eden | *** | |
| Bill Bryson | I'm A Stranger Here Myself | **** | |
| Bret Easton Ellis | American Psycho | **** | |
| Carl Sagan | Contact | **** | |
| Charles Higson | Happy Now | * | |
| Christopher Brookmyre | Not The End Of The World | **** | |
| Clifford Stoll | The Cuckoo's Egg | **** | |
| Compilations | 100 Best Short Short SF Stories | *** | |
| Compilations | CyberKillers | *** | |
| Compilations | Hugo And Nebula Award Winners From Asimov's Science Fiction | **** | |
| Compilations | Mammoth Book Of Comic Fantasy | *** | |
| Compilations | Penguin SF Omnibus | *** | |
| Compilations | The Sandman Book Of Dreams | **** | |
| Dan Simmons | Hyperion | **** | |
| Daniel Keyes | Flowers for Algernon | **** | |
| David Baddiel | Time For Bed | **** | |
| Douglas Adams | Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency | *** | |
| Douglas Adams | Last Chance To See . . . | **** | |
| Douglas Adams | Mostly Harmless | *** | |
| Douglas Adams | So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish | *** | |
| Douglas Adams | The Hitch-Hikers Guide To The Galaxy | **** | |
| Douglas Adams | The Long Dark Teatime Of The Soul | **** | |
| Douglas Adams | The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe | **** | |
| Douglas Adams & John Lloyd | The Meaning Of Liff | *** | |
| Douglas Coupland | Girlfriend In A Coma | *** | |
| Douglas Coupland | Life After God | *** | |
| Douglas Coupland | Microserfs | **** | |
| Fritz Leiber | Ill Met In Lankmahr | **** | |
| Greg Bear | Eon | *** | |
| Greg Bear | The Forge Of God | *** | |
| Greg Egan | Diaspora | **** | |
| Gregory Benford | Furious Gulf | ** | |
| Hugh Laurie | The Gun Seller | **** | |
| Iain Banks | A Song Of Stone | *** | |
| Iain Banks | Canal Dreams | * | |
| Iain Banks | Espedair Street | **** | |
| Iain Banks | The Business | **** | |
| Iain Banks | The Wasp Factory | *** | |
| Iain Banks | Walking On Glass | *** | |
| Iain Banks | Whit | **** | |
| Iain M Banks | Consider Phlebas | **** | |
| Iain M Banks | Excession | **** | |
| Iain M Banks | Feersum Endjinn | ** | |
| Iain M Banks | Inversions | *** | |
| Iain M Banks | Look To Windward | **** | |
| Iain M Banks | Player Of Games | **** | |
| Iain M Banks | The State Of The Art | **** | |
| Irvine Welsh | Ecstasy | *** | |
| Irvine Welsh | Omnibus (Trainspotting, The Acid House, Marabou Stork Nightmares) | *** | |
| Isaac Asimov | Azazel | *** | |
| Isaac Asimov | Best of | *** | |
| Isaac Asimov | Forward The Foundation | *** | |
| Isaac Asimov | Foundation | **** | |
| Isaac Asimov | Foundation And Earth | *** | |
| Isaac Asimov | Foundation And Empire | *** | |
| Isaac Asimov | Foundation's Edge | **** | |
| Isaac Asimov | Gold | *** | |
| Isaac Asimov | Mysteries | *** | |
| Isaac Asimov | Pebble In The Sky | *** | |
| Isaac Asimov | Prelude To Foundation | *** | |
| Isaac Asimov | Puzzles Of The Black Widowers | *** | |
| Isaac Asimov | Robots And Empire | **** | |
| Isaac Asimov | Second Foundation | **** | |
| Isaac Asimov | The Bicentennial Man | *** | |
| Isaac Asimov | The Caves Of Steel | *** | |
| Isaac Asimov | The Complete Robot | *** | |
| Isaac Asimov | The Currents Of Space | *** | |
| Isaac Asimov | The Naked Sun | *** | |
| Isaac Asimov | The Robots Of Dawn | *** | |
| Isaac Asimov | The Stars Like Dust | *** | |
| Isaac Asimov & Robert Silverberg | Nightfall | **** | |
| James Blish | Cities In Flight | **** | |
| James Thurber | The Thirteen Clocks & The Wonderful 'O' | **** | |
| Jeff Noon | Automated Alice | **** | |
| Jeff Noon | Nymphomation | *** | |
| Jeff Noon | Pixel Juice | **** | |
| Jeff Noon | Pollen | **** | |
| John M Cabe | Stickleback | * | |
| John Varley | Titan | **** | |
| John Varley | Wizard | **** | |
| JRR Tolkein | The Book Of Lost Tales Vol 1 | ** | |
| JRR Tolkein | The Hobbit | **** | |
| JRR Tolkein | The Silmarillion | ** | |
| Ken MacLeod | The Star Fraction | ** | |
| Kim Stanley Robinson | Blue Mars | **** | |
| Kim Stanley Robinson | Green Mars | **** | |
| Kim Stanley Robinson | Red Mars | **** | |
| Kurt Vonnegut | Slaughterhouse 5 | **** | |
| Kurt Vonnegut | The Sirens Of Titan | *** | |
| L Sprague De Camp | Lest Darkness Fall | **** | |
| Larry Niven | Ringworld | **** | |
| Larry Niven | The Ringworld Engineers | ** | |
| Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle | The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye | **** | |
| Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle | The Mote In God's Eye | **** | |
| Matthew Thomas | Before And After | ** | |
| Mervyn Peake | Gormenghast | ** | |
| Mervyn Peake | Titus Alone | **** | |
| Mervyn Peake | Titus Groan | *** | |
| Michael Marshall Smith | Only Forward | **** | |
| Michael Marshall Smith | Spares | **** | |
| Michael Marshall Smith | What You Make It | **** | |
| Monty Python | The Complete Scripts | **** | |
| Neal Stephenson | The Diamond Age | **** | |
| Neal Stephenson | Zodiac | *** | |
| Neil Gaiman | Death - The High Cost of Living | **** | |
| Neil Gaiman | Midnight Days | *** | |
| Neil Gaiman | Neverwhere | *** | |
| Neil Gaiman | The Sandman - Dream Country | **** | |
| Neil Gaiman | The Sandman - Fables And Reflections | **** | |
| Neil Gaiman | The Sandman - Preludes and Nocturnes | *** | |
| Neil Gaiman | The Sandman - The Kindly Ones | **** | |
| Neil Gaiman | The Sandman - The Wake | **** | |
| Nick Hornby | Fever Pitch | *** | |
| Orson Scott Card | Ender's Game | *** | |
| Robert A Heinlein | Glory Road | **** | |
| Robert A Heinlein | Have Space Suit Will Travel | **** | |
| Robert A Heinlein | Red Planet | *** | |
| Robert A Heinlein | Stranger In A Strange Land | **** | |
| Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson | The Illuminatus Trilogy | **** | |
| Robert Silverberg | Dying Inside | *** | |
| Robert Silverberg | The Book of Skulls | **** | |
| Robert Westall | The Cats Of Seroster | *** | |
| Samuel R Delaney | Dhalgren | *** | |
| Scott Adams | Shave The Whales | ** | |
| Simon Singh | The Code Book | **** | |
| Stephen Donaldson | Daughter Of Regals | **** | |
| Stephen Donaldson | Lord Foul's Bane | *** | |
| Stephen Donaldson | The Gap into Conflict: The Real Story | * | |
| Stephen Donaldson | The Ilearth War | **** | |
| Stephen Donaldson | The One Tree | *** | |
| Stephen Donaldson | The Power That Preserves | **** | |
| Stephen Donaldson | The Wounded Land | **** | |
| Stephen Donaldson | White Gold Weilder | ** | |
| Stephen Fry | Making History | **** | |
| Stephen Fry | Moab Is My Washpot | **** | |
| Stephen Fry | Paperweight | *** | |
| Stephen Fry | The Hippopotamus | **** | |
| Steven Brust | Jhereg | **** | |
| Tad Williams | Otherland Vol I - The City of Golden Shadow | *** | |
| Tad Williams | Otherland Vol II - The River Of Blue Fire | **** | |
| Terry Pratchett | *** | ||
| Terry Pratchett | Carpe Jugulum | *** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Dark Side Of The Sun | *** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Discworld Companion | *** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Equal Rites | ** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Feet Of Clay | **** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Guards Guards | **** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Hogfather | *** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Johnny And The Bomb | **** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Johnny And The Dead | **** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Lords and Ladies | **** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Maskerade | ** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Men At Arms | **** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Mort | **** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Moving Pictures | ** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Only You Can Save Mankind | **** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Pyramids | *** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Reaper Man | **** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Soul Music | **** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Sourcery | *** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Strata | *** | |
| Terry Pratchett | The Colour Of Magic | *** | |
| Terry Pratchett | The Last Continent | *** | |
| Terry Pratchett | The Light Fantastic | *** | |
| Terry Pratchett | The Unadulterated Cat | *** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Unseen University Challenge | *** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Witches Abroad | **** | |
| Terry Pratchett | Wyrd Sisters | **** | |
| Umberto Eco | Kant & The Platypus | **** | |
| Umberto Eco | The Island Of The Day Before | **** | |
| Umberto Eco | The Name Of The Rose | **** | |
| William Gibson | Idoru | **** | |
| William Gibson | Neuromancer | **** | |
| William Gibson & Bruce Sterling | The Difference Engine | *** | |
| Philip K Dick | Ubik | *** | |
| John Brunner | Stand On Zanzibar | **** | |
| Douglas Coupland | Miss Wyoming | *** |
The Stuff Read Recently (ish):
| Author | Title | Rating | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Angus Oblong | Creepy Susie | **** | |
| Bill Bryson | Mother Tongue - English and how it got that way. | ***** | |
| Christopher Hinz | Leige-Killer | **** | |
| David Brin | Startide Rising | n | In Progress |
| Jack Chalker | Midnight at the Well of Souls | **** | |
| Neil Gaiman | The Sandman - A Season Of Mists | **** | |
| Stephen Fry | The Star's Tennis Balls | **** | |
| Terry Pratchett | The Fifth Elephant | *** | |
| Terry Pratchett | The Truth | *** |
The Reading Queue:
| Author | Title | Rating | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alastair Reynolds | Revelation Space | n | |
| Ben Elton | Blast From The Past | n | |
| Bob Shaw | The Fugitive Worlds | n | |
| C J Cherryh | Cyteen | n | |
| Daniel Dennett | Brainchildren | n | |
| Daniel Dennett | Consciousness Explained | n | |
| Douglas R Hofstader | Gödel, Escher, Bach | n | |
| Gene Wolfe | Shadow & Claw | n | |
| Gene Wolfe | Sword & Citadel | n | |
| Gene Wolfe | The Fifth Head of Cerberus | n | |
| Greg Egan | Quarantine | n | |
| Jeff Noon | Needle in the groove | n | |
| John Gibbin | Schrödinger's Kittens | n | |
| John Varley | The Golden Globe | n | |
| Jon Grisham | A Time to Kill | n | |
| Jon Grisham | The Testament | n | |
| Kurt Vonnegut | Welcome To The Monkey House | n | |
| Michael Swanwick | Stations of the Tide | n | |
| Michael White | Leonardo - The First Scientist | n | |
| Neil Gaiman | Stardust | n | |
| Neil Gaiman | The Sandman - Brief Lives | n | |
| Neil Gaiman | The Sandman - World's End | n | |
| Patrick O'Leary | Door Number Three | n | |
| Phillip Josè Farmer | The Cache | n | |
| Poul Anderson | The Shield Of Time | n | |
| Ray Bradbury | The Illustrated Man | n | |
| Richard Dawkins | The Blind Watchmaker | n | |
| Richard Matheson | I Am Legend | n | |
| Robert M Pirsig | Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance | n | |
| Roger Penrose | The Emperor's New Mind | n | |
| Shermer | Why People Believe Weird Things | n | |
| Steven Brust | To Reign in Hell | n | |
| Steven Brust & Emma Bull | Freedom and Necessity | n | |
| Steve Jones | Almost Like a Whale | n | |
| William Goldman | The Princess Bride | n | |
| Tad Williams | Otherland Vol III - Mountain of Black Glass | n |
Stuff that was started but never finished, for whatever reason:
| Author | Title | Rating | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nick Hornby | About A Boy | n | Started, and stalled . . . |
| Robin Hobb | The Liveship Traders - The Ship of Magic | n | Started, and stalled . . . |
| Stephen Baxter | Flux | n | Started, and stalled . . . |
| Thomas Pynchon | Gravity's Rainbow | n | Started, and stalled . . . |
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