Here is a list of books I've read in recent years. It doesn't include non-fiction books which I partially read - of which there are many. (Mostly these are science-related textbooks/papers etc. about whatever has piqued my interest at the time.)

I also maintain a list of books I intend to read in my infinite spare time.

Key: fiction, non-fiction & biography.

2009

• The Road Cormac McCarthy
• Krakatoa: The day the world exploded Simon Winchester
• How Life Imitates Chess Garry Kasparov
• Metamorphosis Franz Kafka
• Fantastic Mr Fox Roald Dahl
• Romeo & Juliet William Shakespeare
• The Boat Nam Le
• Norwegian Wood Haruki Murakami
• The Painted Veil W. Somerset Maugham
• Man Walks Into A Room Nicole Krauss
• Little Children Tom Perrotta
  "Most people just fell in line like obedient little children, doing exactly what society expected of them at any given moment, all the while pretending that they'd actually made some sort of choice."
• Revolutionary Road Richard Yates
  A young couple feeling trapped and disillusioned with their lives struggle to break free from social expectations and the conformity of their everyday world.
• The curious incident of the dog in the night-time Mark Haddon
• Yes Man Danny Wallace
  The true story of a man who turns his life around by saying "Yes" more.
• Stories of Manhood Steve Biddulph
  2nd reading.
• Belly dancing for beginners Liz Byrski
  I would like to point out that this is a fiction book! It's a novel, not a non-fiction instructional work! Even the Librarian at the local library gave me a hard time when I borrowed this book. :)

2008

• The Coral Island R. M. Ballantyne
• Extremely loud & incredibly close Jonathan Safran Foer
  (2nd reading)
• A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini
• Tunnel in the Sky Robert A. Heinlein
  A group of young students on an Advanced Survival course are teleported to a remote uninhabited planet for a week-long test. When they are unable to be teleported home, they have to colonise their foreign world and begin building new lives. Eventually they are rescued, but not everyone wants to go back to Earth.
• Wit : a play Margaret Edson
  A middle-aged Professor of English undergoing chemotherapy treatment in a hospital reflects on the clinical, insensitive care given by her Doctors - and the uncompassionate demeanour she afforded students in her own poetry lectures. Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize.
• The Stranger Albert Camus
  Kafkaesque. A favourite book of my brother.
• The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society Mary Ann Shaffer
• Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
• The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini
• The History of Love : a novel Nicole Krauss
  "Almost unbearably beautiful."
• Ape and Essence : a novel Aldous Huxley
  100 years after World War III, a group of scientists from New Zealand investigates the strange culture of a civilisation living in a part of the world that was previously radiated by nuclear fallout. Satire of the human race.
• Chronicle of a death foretold Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Perfume: the story of a murderer Patrick Suskind
• Shakespeare Bill Bryson
  Very little is known about the world's most famous Playwright & Poet.
• Bel Canto Ann Patchett
  Hostages & terrorists living together in peaceful coexistence. Lots of falling in love & other beautiful things.
• Extremely loud & incredibly close Jonathan Safran Foer
  Beautiful sad.
• Capsized: the true story of 4 men lost at sea for 119 days James Nalepka & Steven Callahan
• The Inner Game of Tennis: a guide to the mental side of peak performance W. Timothy Gallwey
• The Beach Alex Garland
  A young backpacker stumbles across a map revealing the location of a small secret community living on a secluded island with an idyllic beach.
• Cryptonomicon Neal Stephenson
  Very good. Difficult to summarise.
• 117 days adrift Maurice & Maralyn Bailey
  
• South: the Endurance expedition to Antarctica Ernest Shackleton
  4 survival stories in 1!
• Danny, The Champion Of The World Roald Dahl
  The father I never had. (5th reading?)
• Adrift: 76 days lost at sea Steven Callahan
  After his self-built yacht capsizes, a man drifts ~2900 km across the Atlantic ocean in an inflatible raft. After 76 days he sees an island. A couple of kilometres off-shore he meets 3 fishermen. He encourages them to keep fishing & waits patiently until they're finished before returning to land with them.
• Bamboo rediscovered Victor Cusack
  
• And I alone survived Lauren Elder (with Shirley Streshinsky)
  A young woman is the sole survivor of a light aircraft flight that crashes into the Sierra Nevada mountain range (in California) at 14,000 feet. After a freezing cold night, she descends 8,000 feet in extremely harsh terrain to rescue herself.
• Garnaut Climate Change Review: Interim report Ross Garnaut
  Australia is more susceptible to climate change than most other countries. Climate change is occuring more rapidly than the A1FI (extreme) scenario calculated by IPCC in 2001.
• One straw revolution Masanobu Fukuoka
  Good farmers don't necessarily make good philosophers.
• Cradle to cradle: remaking the way we make things William McDonough & Michael Braungart
  
• One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey Sam Keith (from the journals & photographs of Richard Proenneke)
  A man builds a log cabin in the wilderness all by himself. Then lives in it for 30 years, comfortable during -50°C winters.
• Deep survival: who lives, who dies & why Laurence Gonzales
  "One of the toughest steps a survivor has to take is to discard the hope of rescue ... there is no other way for his mind to settle down."
• Walden Henry D. Thoreau
  "for I was rich, if not in money, in sunny hours and summer days."
• Bee AgSkills NSW Department of Primary Industries
  Basic beekeeping skills.
• Into the wild Jon Krakauer
  Biography of Christopher J. McCandless (aka Alexander Supertramp) who donates his entire life savings to charity, burns all the cash in his wallet, hitchhikes to Alaska & walks alone into the wilderness with minimal supplies, living off the land.
• Stranger in a strange land Robert A. Heinlein
  Grok is good.

2007

• Tony Takitani Haruki Murakami
  Short story that inspired a Japanese film I like.
• Harvest: a year in the life of an Organic Farm Nicola Smith
• Survive the savage sea Dougal Robertson
  A family on a 'round-the-world sailing trip are attacked by Killer Whales & end up abandoned in a dinghy & inflatible raft in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. With very minimal supplies, they decide to sail/drift 1,000 miles to land. 37 days later, they are picked up by a Japanese fishing boat.
• An Inconvenient Truth Al Gore
• Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut
  My favorite Kurt Vonnegut novel, to date.
• Frankenstein Mary Shelley
  3rd reading - one of my all-time favorite books. If you haven't read Frankenstein then you probably have many misconceptions about it - like I had before I read it. Don't let any conjured images of B-grade black-&-white sci-fi flicks deter you - this is a very well written novel.
• The $64 Tomato William Alexander
• The Human Experiment: 2 years & 20 minutes inside Biosphere 2 Jane Poynter
• Z for Zachariah Robert O'Brien
  3rd reading?
• The Hydroponic Hot House James B. DeKorne
  Very good. Focuses more on growing vegetables in a hot house than Hydroponics. Lots of useful information.
• A House of Straw Carolyn Roberts
• Permaculture in the Bush David Holmgren
  The design & development of a homestead on the far south coast of NSW.
• Buying your bush block Allan Windust
• Grand Theft: Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief Bill Mason
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera
  2nd reading.
• Miracle in the Andes Nando Parrado
• This way to the Sea Gillian Nicholson
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: our year of seasonal eating Barbara Kingsolver
  Very good! (Best of class.)
• Permaculture: a Practical Guide for a Sustainable Future Bill Mollison
  The Permaculture "bible".
• Backyard Aquaponics Joel Malcolm
  A guide to building an aquaponic system.
• A Goat in my Bedroom Liz Sinnamon
• Poetry for Dummies John Timpane
• Living the Good Life Linda Cockburn
  One family's adventure in domestic sustainability - to go 6 months without spending a dollar.
• Rogue Trader Nick Leeson
  How to lose £827 million ($US1.4 billion), bankrupt one of the oldest Banks in England & blame it on your supervisors.
• The End of Oil Paul Roberts
  Covers a breadth of topics related to oil geo-politics & the next energy economy. Very good.
• Girl, Interrupted Sussana Kaysen
  The story of a teenage girl consigned to a psychiatric hospital.
• Forrest Gump Winston Groom
• Brainwashing - the Science of Thought Control Kathleen Taylor
• We need to talk about Kevin Lionel Shriver
  The mother of a high-school mass-murderer analyses her life & how she raised her son in an attempt to determine if she is responsible for his actions. Very well written. Disturbingly good.
• Bringing down the house : How 6 students took Vegas for millions Ben Mezrich
  A group of students from MIT University find a mathematical way to beat the casinos at BlackJack. For a while at-least.
• Chook Wisdom Earth Garden

2006

• The making of love Steve & Shaaron Biddulph
• The man who invented the 20th century Robert Lomas
  Biography of Nikola Tesla, who invented AC electricity, the radio, turbines & many other devices. Thomas Edison may have invented the lightbulb, but Nikola Tesla pretty much invented everything else!
• Attila the Hen Paddy Mounter
• Raising Boys Steve Biddulph
  Being male sucks.
• Backyard Poultry - Naturally Alanna Moore
• The seed savers' handbook Michel & Jude Fanton
• Chook Book Jackie French
  I love chooks.
• The Teach Your Chicken To Fly Manual Trevor Weekes
• The Art of Fiction: a guide for writers & readers Ayn Rand
• Introduction to Permaculture Bill Mollison
• Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett
  " ... he's a kind of acquaintance."
  2 characters spend the entire play waiting for Godot & he doesn't even arrive! Nothing really happens. Clever. Lots of existential themes.
• Tuesdays with Morrie Mitch Albom
• The Consolations of Philosophy Alain de Botton
  "What need is there to cry over parts of life? The whole of it deserves tears."
• The Chrysalids John Wyndham
• Organic Vegetable Gardening Annette McFarlane
• Morpho Eugenia A. S. Byatt
  Set in England in the late 1800s. A naturalist returning from an expedition in the Amazon with no posessions & no fortune is warmly accepted into the wealthy family of Harold Alabaster - an amateur zoologist for whom he was collecting specimens. He can't believe his luck when he marries Harold's beautiful daughter, Eugenia. But "things are not what they seem". With a clever metaphor of the insect world, we soon learn the truth about the Alabaster family. Beautiful prose & allegory.
• Minority Report Philip K. Dick
  Short story that spawned the movie of the same name.
• The Cider House Rules John Irving
  (second reading)
  It's difficult to say why I liked this book. More than liked. I really liked it, which makes my inability to articulate it's qualities all the more peculiar. This book is captivating from its first page. So I suggest that anyone who might be considering purchasing this book merely read the first half-dozen pages or so. That should give you a better idea about whether you'd like this book - much better than if I gave a cursory description of the plot.
  As a side note, I've noticed that people who see the movie of this book before they read the book (of which I am one) tend to like this book more than those that reverse this order. So, unlike most novels, watching the movie to decide if you want to read the book will probably ameliorate your reading experience.
  Undescribably good.
• The Permaculture Home Garden Linda Woodrow
  Organic vegetable gardening!
• The Giver Lois Lowry
  Dystopian fiction.
• Ender's Shadow Orson Scott Card
  Ender's Game, part II.
• Wonderboys Michael Chabon
  One of my favourite movies is based on this book. A bizarre sequence of events during one weekend in the life of a middle-aged, pot-smoking Professor of Literature. Funny & well written.
• Brave New World Revisited Aldous Huxley
  27 years after writing Brave New World, the author analyses the relevance of his novel & the current state of western society. Brilliant! I wish there were more books like this.
• The Hours Michael Cunningham
  If I didn't know this book won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction I probably would have given up after 40 pages - waffle, waffle, stream-of-conciousness bullsh*t that I dislike. I persisted, the prose improved (or perhaps I acclimatised/desensitised/warmed to it?) & I ended up quite enjoying it. The movie of this book is very good too.
• The Day of the Trifids John Wyndham
• The 27th Annual African Hippopotamus Race Morris Lurie
• The Story of O Pauline Reage

2005

• The Orchid Thief Susan Orleans
  All about an Orchid hunters on the Fakahatchee strand in Florida. Apparently many Orchid hunters seek Ghost Orchids which are extremely rare & difficult to find. Orchids are a whole other world.
• Foundation & Empire Isaac Asimov
• Galapagos Kurt Vonnegut
  After an apocalypse, a group of tourists on the "Nature cruise of the century" around the Galapagos islands become the sole ancestors of all humankind. Written from the perspective of 1,000,000 years after the apocalypse - weird.
• Rare Earth : Why complex life is uncommon in the universe Peter Ward & Donald Brownlee
  The authors of this book postulate that intelligent life is rare in the universe. Only a number of freak occurances allowed it to form on Earth. (ie. plate tectonics, the moon, a stable gas-giant planet, etc.)
• The Pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman
  The autobiography of a Holocaust survivor is never going to be an enjoyable read, but that doesn't mean it's not worth reading. The lack of hatred is striking.
• Joe Cinque's Consolation Helen Garner
  A journalist's perspective on the Australian Supreme Court trial of Anu Singh who planned & murdered her boyfriend in 1997. Disturbing. There's no such thing as "justice".
• The Art of Intrusion Kevin D. Mitnick
  A collection of stories about some cool hacking exploits!
• The Old Man Who Read Love Stories Luis Sepulveda
  I was expecting good things after having enjoyed the movie of this novel. The movie has a whole extra layer where the Old Man hunting the Jaguar is a metaphor for the Old Man trying to keep from losing his mind - it just isn't in the book!
• Ender's Game Orson Scott Card
  Widely regarded as one of the best sci-fi novels ever written. Perhaps that goes a little too far (in my opinion) but it's certainly deserving of high accolades.
• The Terminal Man Alfred Mehran
  The autobiography of a man who has been living in the departure lounge of an airport in Paris for 16 years. (Inspired the movie The Terminal with Tom Hanks.) The story is intriguing but at the end I thought the guy was a loser because he finally got his chance to leave (legally) & he turned it down. He's still there.
• The Great Escape Paul Brickhill
  You've seen the movie with Steve McQueen. With the exception of the famous motorcycle scene it's a surprisingly accurate depiction of this book.
• Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe
  Defoe's famous novel tells the story of a man shipwrecked on an uninhabited island & his endless adventures thereon.
  The prose is exceptional - a fact all the more remarkable given that it was published in 1719.
• War of the Worlds H. G. Wells
  This was my 3rd reading of H. G. Well's classic tale of Martians invading Earth. Within days of their arrival (in the centre of London) the Martians proceed to eliminate the human race with their superior intellect & technological-savvy.
  H. G. Well's prose is, of course, superb - the opening paragraph is sublime.
• Player Piano Kurt Vonnegut
  Another dystopian novel about a world where technology has advanced to a point where machines have replaced many of the working-class in their jobs. I didn't think a novel with an anti-technology theme would be to my liking, but I found it to be quite a good read.
• Electric Universe : the shocking true story of electricity David Bodanis
• Death Sentence : the decay of public language Don Watson
  An insightful essay into the use & abuse of language. After reading it, one can't help but look for euphemisms & pretentious use of modern language that is so prevalent in the media & workplace.
• Oil : anatomy of an Industry Matthew Yeoman
  Want to know how the world works? Read this book. So much information - hard to remember - I should probably read it again.
• Chaos James Gleick
  A very accessible introduction to Chaos Theory. One of those very rare books that actually change the way you perceive the world. This was my 2nd reading. Didn't have the same wow! factor as the 1st reading.
• The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas
  Ah, sweet revenge.

2004

• Life on air David Attenborough
• Crossing the Line: the autobiography of a Thief Bruce Reynolds
  The mastermind of The Great Train Robbery. A good read. It's interesting to read how a criminal justifies his behaviour.
• We Yevgeny Zamyatin
  Set in a world where people's daily routines are timetabled to the minute (set times for work/sex/worship/etc.), We chronicles the story of a man called D-503 (people are known by identifiers instead of names) & his experiences living in a rigid state-controlled society.
  This dystopian novel predates all classics of the genre (ie. 1984, Brave New World).
• Letters of Ayn Rand Michael Berliner (Ed.)
  Yep, she really rejects altruism.
• We the Living Ayn Rand
  A dystopian world where there is no concept of the individual. Pretty average, even for an Ayn Rand fan like me.
• Just for fun Linus Torvalds
  Mr Linux.
• Free as in Freedom Richard Stallman
• Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger
  I loved this novel when I read it in high school. This was my 2nd reading, but I just couldn't finish it. I don't know what I saw in it really.

pre-2004

• 1984 George Orwell
  Of all the novels I was forced to read at school there were only 2 that I didn't end up disliking intensely. George Orwell's 1984 was one of them. (William Golding's The Lord of the Flies was the other.) It has been one of my favorite novels ever since I first read it (over 10 years ago now).
• 2001 Arthur C. Clarke
  The classic sci-fi novel about man's place in the universe. Clarke's book & Kubrick's movie are as brilliant as each other.
• Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand
  I had a love/hate relationship with this novel while I was reading it. I was constantly vascillating between states of elation, euphoria and .. "ok already! I get the point! You said that before!" There are soporific passages that drone on for dozens of pages (John Galt's epic television speech springs to mind) expounding the virtues of Ayn's philosopy of Objectivism which readers may or may not agree with.
  After contemplating much of Ayn's philosophy I'm comfortable with accepting some of it but I find many fundamental flaws. Interestingly, I visited www.aynrandinfo.org afterwards and was surprised that most other readers appear to have interpreted her philosophy quite differently. I suppose it is natural for readers to interpret a novel for their own purposes ("You do not see something unless you have the right metaphor to perceive it", Thomas Kuhn.) but I wonder what Ayn would think about her magnum opus being mis-interpreted by most of its readers.
  Perhaps I am mis-interpreting? It doesn't matter - I still got a lot of enjoyment reading this novel.
• Brave New World Aldous Huxley
  I read Brave New World much more recently than most of the other dystopian novels listed on this page. As a consequence I really appreciated the ending - it was unexpectantly hopeful. An all-time favorite.
• Farenheit 451 Ray Bradbury
  Another novel with a dystopian theme. A small step behind classics of the genre (such as 1984 and Brave New World) but still a great read.
  Ray Bradbury's depiction of an alternate world has the fire brigade instigating fires - using books as the fuel source. In this world, it's illegal to own or read a book. All books are burnt & anyone caught in possession of one is imprisoned. The protagonist doesn't much agree with this indoctrination ...
• The Fountainhead Ayn Rand
  It's difficult to think of any fictional character that has more integrity than Howard Roark - he makes compromise seem like a dirty word.
  This is the first Ayn Rand novel I ever read. If you're thinking of reading an Ayn Rand novel for the first time, start with this one.
• Nightfall Isaac Asimov & Robert Silverberg
  My favorite Asimov novel. Set on a planet with 6 stars/suns there is always daylight. Every 2000-odd years however, the stars align in such a way that the planet is plunged into darkness, creating hysteria amongst the population. Just before this event occurs, a group of Scientists work out what's going on. (Civilisation is destroying itself every 2000 years.) The Scientists try to warn the public with not much success. :)
• The Power Of One Bryce Courtenay
  Great book. Whatever you do, don't see the movie - it's awful!
• Space Ranger Isaac Asimov
  There are 7 books in the Space Ranger series. Light, racy, fun sci-fi.
• The Time Machine H. G. Wells
• The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• Tomorrow When The War Began John Marsden
  All 7 books in this children's fiction series are fantastic.
• A Brief History of Time Stephen W. Hawking
  A classic.
• Crypto Stephen Levy
  A great history & introduction to the field of cryptography.
• The Code Book Simon Singh
  
• The Cuckoo's Egg Clifford Stoll
  An Astrophysicist turned Computer Scientist tells the tale of how he lured & caught a hacker. Very readable, even if you aren't computer-literate.
  Computer-literate readers that enjoy this book might also like:
  • Takedown - Tsutomu Shimomura (this is the guy responsible for catching the world's most famous Hacker, Kevin Mitnick)
  • The Fugitive Game - Jonathan Littman (a Mitnick-sympathetic account of Shimomura's capture of Mittnick)
  • Underground - Suelette Dreyfus
  • The Hacker Crackdown - Bruce Sterling
• The Hubble Wars Eric J. Chaisson
  The epic story of the Hubble telescope by a senior scientist on the Space Telescope Science Institute. The politics is almost as interesting as the science!
• The Structure Of Scientific Revolutions Thomas S. Kuhn
  How scientists are taught science works & how science really works are 2 completely different things. Unless you've won a Nobel Prize or read this book you probably only think you know.
  I think the world would be a nicer place if every scientist read this book.
• Zen & the art of motorcycle maintenance : an inquiry into values Robert M. Pirsig
  A very eloquent insight into the mind of a Philosopher. Albeit, one who was diagnosed clinically insane. This book is the antithesis of the airport-novel. Lots of allegory, exceptional prose, clarity of thought & logical reasoning - what more can you ask for in a Philosophical novel?
  As an undergraduate student learning the scientific method, the author struggled with the notion of an hypothesis. Specifically, how science is unable to explain the source of inspiration. As the number of possible hypotheses for any given experiment is effectively infinite, how is it that scientists are able to select a relevant hypothesis? Interwoven with a discussion of metaphysics & a motorcyle journey across the countryside with his son, the author proposes a mysterious concept called "Quality" to solve this dilemma. In the end, I was not compelled to believe in the notion of "Quality", but that didn't distract from a very enjoyable, thought-provoking read.
• Catch Me If You Can Frank W. Abagnale
  The autobiography of Frank Abagnale - forger extrordinaire!
• Genius James Gleick
  If you've heard of Richard Feynman, you'll want to read this biography!
• It's Not About The Bike Lance Armstrong
  Lance Armstrong is the American cyclist who won the gruelling 3-week Tour de France race a record 7 times!
  As the title of his book suggests, Lance's autobiography is less about his cycling accomplishments & more about his battle with testicular cancer & his drive & ambition to succeed.
  This book will likely invoke feelings of awe & amazement in any reader, regardless of their knowledge or appreciation of the sport of cycling.
• Rocket Boys Homer H. Hickam
  The autobiography of Homer Hickam who now works for NASA.
  As a teenager in a dying coal mining town in 1957, Homer Hickam was inspired by the Russian Sputnik satellite to build rockets with his friends. Lots of great bits about blowing stuff up!
  The movie October Sky is based on this book.
• The Long Walk Slavomir Rawicz
  The remarkable autobiography of Slavomir Rawicz - a Polish Officer. Captured by the Russians, tortured & marched in chains to a freezing Siberian labour camp, Slavomir escapes with 6 other prisoners. They walk 4000 miles to freedom in an epic year-long journey through freezing Siberian blizzards, the Gobi desert & finally the Himalayan mountains.
  An astonishing account of one man's will to live.
• The Man Who Loved Only Numbers Paul Hoffman
  "A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems" - so said Paul Erdos, the subject of this biography.
  "Eccentric" doesn't begin to describe the famous Mathematician Paul Erdos. He called children "epsilon" - after the Greek letter meaning "small quantity". He referred to God as the "Supreme Fascist" - because he believed God kept all the elegant solutions to mathematical problems to himself. Perhaps his most famous quote of all is his epitaph (penned by himself): "At last I am getting stupider no more!".
• Touching the Void Joe Simpson
• Wings of Madness Paul Hoffman
  The biography of Alberto Santos-Dumont - a pioneer in controlled lighter-than-air (ie. balloon) & heavier-than-air flight at the turn of the 19th century.
  A very endearing character.
• Yeager Chuck Yeager
  The autobiography of Chuck Yeager - a test pilot in the US Air Force before the space race.
  One of the very few books that actually merits the accolade "breathtaking"!
  Read the 2-page introduction - if that doesn't elevate your heart-rate, nothing will.