Bookshelf

Currently reading:
Seeing Voices - Oliver Sacks.

Recently read:
Naval Warfare In The Age Of Sail - Bernard Ireland.  Arrrrr.  3/5
The Pianist - Władysław Szpilman.  Harrowing reality. 4/5
The Ode Less Travelled - Stephen Fry.  Swamped by detail yet strangely enjoyable. 3/5
We Were Soldiers Once, And Young - Hal Moore and Joe Galloway.  Feats of endurance and courage.  4/5
Flags Of Our Fathers - James Bradley.  Tragic rediscover of a father as icon.  4/5
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro.  Haunting and sinister chick-lit. 5/5
Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars - David Chandler.  Can you really "read" a dictionary? 4/5
Rifles - Six Years With Wellington's Legendary Sharpshooters - Mark Urban.  Like a Napoleonic Peter FitzSimons. 3/5
Welcome To The Monkey House - Kurt Vonnegut.  Assertively off-kilter.  3/5
Blind - Matthew Farrer.  Confusingly creative non-genre genre sci-fi.  3/5
Open - Andre Agassi.  Inside the tennis racket.  5/5
How To Make Gravy - Paul Kelly.  This is what blogs should be.  5/5
Into Thin Air - John Krakauer.  Tragic personality clashes at altitude.  5/5
Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino.  Hallucinatory travelogue.  5/5
Brighton Rock - Graham Greene.  Queen's song is better.  2/5
The Book Of Sand + Shakespeare's Memory - Jorge Luis Borges.  Betrayed by elevated expectations.  3/5
The Gospel According To Jesus Christ - José Saramago.  A cynical epiphany.  3/5
The Happiest Refugee - Anh Do.  A dull comedian from a fascinating family.  2/5
Eisenhorn Trilogy - Dan Abnett. Batman in the 40K-verse.  4/5
Titanicus - Dan Abnett.  Kill! Crush! Destroy!  3/5
The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson.  Worth every ha'penny.  4/5
Choice Theory - A Very Short Introduction.  Dry.  2/5
We Can Build You - Philip K. Dick. Something quite like a novel. 2/5
Psychiatry - A Very Short Introduction. 3/5
The Call Of Cthulhu And Other Stories - H.P. Lovecraft. Classic Weird Fiction.  4/5 
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson. Was this Dan Brown under a pseudonym? 2/5 
A Clockword Orange - Anthony Burgess. Tolchocked my brain. 5/5
Books - Larry McMurtry. Random bookmans gossip. 2/5
Ashenden - W. Somerset Maugham. Noel Coward-esque espionage. 5/5
Valis - Philip K. Dick. Hilariously, tragically bizarre. 3/5Spycatcher - Peter Wright. Very naughty boy. 3/5
Matter - Iain M. Banks. He's lost his mojo. 2/5
If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him! - Sheldon Kopp. Deep. Meaningful. 4/5 
Best Australian Short Stories 2008. Tops. 4/5 
The Godfather - Mario Puzo. Gripping, though oddly obsessed with gynaecological surgery. 4/5
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey. Crazy. 4/5
Extro - Alfred Bester. Yay! 3/5 
Authentic Happiness - Martin Seligmann. Glad I read it. 3/5 
American Journeys - Don Watson. Marvellous. 4/5 
A Room Of One's Own - Virginia Woolf. Surprising! 3/5
The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula Le Guin. Provocative. 4/5
Time and the Gods - Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett (Lord Dunsany). Inspiring. 5/5
Musicophilia - Oliver Sacks. Below par. 3/5 
No Country For Old Men - Cormac McCarthy. Glass half empty. 4/5
Rope Burns - F.X. Toole. Fightin' words. 4/5
Diaspora - Greg Egan. Crunchy sci-fi. 3/5 
Waterland - Graham Swift. Fantastic. 4/5
Luminous - Greg Egan. Masterful short Australian sci-fi. 5/5
Axiomatic - Greg Egan. Brilliant short Australian sci-fi. 5/5
Look to Windward - Iain M. Banks. Still tops. 5/5
Dracula - Bram Stoker. Gets better every time. 4/5
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold. Still incredible the 3rd time around. 5/5
Dissection - Jacinta Halloran. Should have written in the 1st person. 3/5
The Book Of Frank Herbert - Frank Herbert. Surprisingly mediocre short stories. 2/5
Faith and Fire - James Swallow. Nuns with guns. 2/5

Never finished
Titus Groan - Mervyn Peake. The Tolstoy of baroque fantasy.
For whom the bell tolls - Ernest Hemingway. The schinkenbrot of literature.
Twilight in the Forbidden City - Reginald Johnson. Academic.
Crimes Against Humanity - Geoffrey Robertson. Maybe when I retire. The Men Inside - Barry Malzburg. Bewildering.