DATE TITLE AUTHOR COUNTRY COMMENTS OUT OF 10
12/99 The Collector Fowles, John �Brit 10.0
1/00 The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald,   F.Scott USA 7.0
1/00 Le Grande Meaulnes Fournier Alain France 9.0
3/00 The Guardians Christopher   John Brit 7.0
3/00 Blood Meridian McCarthy,   Cormac USA
4/00 Slapstick Vonnegut, Kirk USA 6.0
5/00 Portrait of the Artist Joyce James Ireland
6/00 The Fat Man In History Carey, Peter Aust 8.0
7/00 The Dead Joyce, James Ireland 10.0
7/00 Zigzag Street Earls, Nick Aust 4.0
8/00 Moon Palace Auster, Paul USA 9.5
9/00 Things Perec, Georges France 9.0
10/00 Portrait of the Artist Joyce, James 10.0
11/00 The Dispossessed Le Guin, Urulsa USA 8.5
11/00 The World Waiting To Be Made Lazaroo, Simone Aust 6.0
11/00 The Music of Chance Auster, Paul USA 9.5
12/00 The Catcher In The Rye Salinger, JD �USA 10.0
12/00 Ulysses Joyce, James Ireland
1/01 Cities of the Plain �McCarthy Cormac USA 7.5
1/01 liv Yasbincek, Morgan Aust 7.0
1/01 Mr Vertigo Auster, Paul USA 7.0
1/01 Fight Club �Palahniuk, Chuck USA 8.5
2/01 Leviathan �Auster, Paul USA 9.0
2/01 White Noise De Lillo, Don USA 8.5
3/01 Invisible Man �Ellison, Ralph �USA 8.0
3/01 In The Country of Last Things Auster, Paul USA 8.0
4/01 Fictions Borges, Jorge   Luis �Argentinia 9.5
5/01 The Favourite Game �Cohen Leonard Canada 9.5
6/01 The MD Disch, Thomas USA 8.0
6/01 The Book of Lights �Potok, Chaim �USA 8.0
7/01 Great Expectations �Dickens, Charles Brit 8.5
7/01 Breakfast at Tiffany's Capote, Truman USA 8.5
7/01 Lazarillo De Tomes (Anonymous) �Spain 7.0
8/01 Les Liasons Dangereuses �Laclos, Choderlos De �France 8.5
8/01 Blood and Guts in High School �Acker, Kathy USA
9/01 Jane Eyre �Bronte, Charlotte Brit 8.0
9/01 New York Trilogy �Auster, Paul USA 9.0
10/01 Billy Budd Mellvile,   Herman �USA 6.0
10/01 Mrs Dalloway Woolf, Virginia Brit 9.5
10/01 A Passage To India Forster, E.M. �Brit 8.5
11/01 Wide Sargasso Sea Rhys, Jean Brit 7.0
11/01 Hearts of Darkness �Conrad, Joseph Poland/ Brit [Top   of the Document] 6.0
11/01 Midnight's Children �Rushdie, Salman India 8.0
12/01 Wild Jack �Christopher, John Brit 4.5
12/01 The Businessman �Disch, Thomas USA 6.0
12/01 The Virgin Suicides Jeffrey   Eugenides USA 8.5
12/01 Virtual Light Gibson, William Canada 6.0
1/02 Mavis �Vecchio, Zenda �Aust 3.0
1/02 Sad Bastard Hamilton, Hugo �Ireland 6.0
1/02 The Business Banks, Iain Brit 6.0
1/02 Guitar, Highway, Rose �Lowry, Brigid Aust 6.0
1/02 Emily and other stories Vecchio, Zendo Aust 3.0
2/02 Lolita �Nabakov, Vladimir Russ/ USA 9.0
2/02 The Infernal �Wilkins, Kim �Aust 4.0
2/02 The Puppies of Terra �Disch, Thomas USA 4.0
2/02 The Chocolate War �Cormier, Robert Brit 6.5
2/02 To the Lighthouse Woolf Virginia
3/02 Oscar and Lucinda Carey Peter �Aust 7
3/02 Martian Time Slip �Dick, Philip K. �Usa 7
3/02 Puttering About in a Small Land �Dick, Philip K Usa 6
4/02 Go Tell It On The Mountain �Baldwin James Usa 7.5
4/02 The Magus �Fowles, John Brit 9
5/02 The Gentle Spirit �Dostoevesky, Fydor Russ 7
5/02 Waiting for Einstein Cox, Nigel NZ Yes bearing   comparison to The Magus - both first novels, both flawed and yet both deeply   engaging and important.� It was the   ending alone which was flawed - a disparity in tone and Peter Cave left an   unresolved character.� The sort of   book which is a joy to read. 8
6/02 Jesus on Mars Farmer Philip   Jose Usa What if Jesus   came back but was really an alien?� A   rational explanation for everything! Written loosely, with underdeveloped   narrative.� But an impressive   understanding of theology as well as SF conventions led to a story that I had   to find compelling. 6.5
6/02 Blood Meridian McCarthy Cormac Usa The narrative   never falls like I expect it to, even though this is the second time.� The intense poetry periodically grips. 8.5
6/02 Cloudstreet Winton Tim Aust The magic   realism throws me.� The trendiness   also puts me off.� But wow.� The great Perth novel has already been written.� 9
7/02 Portnoy's Complaint Roth Phillip NY lusting   genius Jew in therapy.� What Holden   could become.� Who Woody Allen   became.� Very readable - beyond   crudity, because of the excited witty narrator 8
7/02 Sons and Lovers Lawrence, D.H Brit Acute   observation of humans - of men and women and families.� Unsentimental account of working class   life.� If it is 'naturalism' its not   Hemingwayish but closer to McCarthy or Forster. 8.5
7/02 Robinson Crusoe Defoe, Daniel Brit The   Enlightenment gospel - or acts of its apostle at least.� The imperialist agenda tied to   Christianity and the supremacy of the individual.� Proto-novel - bio/travelogue. 7
7/02 Less Than Zero Easton Ellis,   Bret Usa The Stranger   for the 80s. 8.5
8/02 Herzog Bellow, Saul Usa Like Roth and   yet not quite; a familiar character. 7.5
8/02 To Kill A Mockingbird Lee, Harper Usa I read with   constant wincing, disgust, at Roussea, Abe Lincoln etc: the noble quiet   liberal humanist father; the virtuous 'niggers', the tomboy who learns to be a   lady.�� It was well done, but I didn't   want to like it. 7
8/02 All Quiet on the Western Front Remarque, Erich German An unrelenting   vision of hell; this was my century!�   It is not human 7.5
8/02 The Unbearable Lightness of Being Kundera, Milan Czech Milan is a   soft-hard lyrical writer with great insight. 9.0
8/02 The Crying of Lot 49 Pynchon Thomas Usa I didn't   follow, to be quite honest.
8/02 The Playmaker Keneally Thomas .� So meticulous in   its research, and yet so free in that framework - I admire his craftmanship   and was engaged in the important story of sex and colony.� Some of his writing was bloated 7.0
9/02 The Farewell Party Kundera Milan Czech Such a   brilliant observor of humans!� The   themes are similar to the later Lightness of Being, although here the plot is   tightly arranged over 5 days.� 8.5
9/02 The World In Winter Christopher,   John First half is   compelling.� Second half is TOO   familiar. 7.0
9/02 �Goodbye   Colombus Roth Phillip Usa Lyrical telling   of first love.� The dialogue is often   funny and always convincing.� This is   a head above Portnoy.� It felt so well   honed and crafted as I read. 8.5
9/02 Lockie Leonard, Scumbuster Winton, Tim Aust Language of the   kids down pat. 6.0
9/02 �I was a   teenage fascist Grearson, David Aust Exceptionally   compulsive.� The need to be famous and   different.� His conclusion is that the   left and right both come out of these needs.� 8.5
9/02 Son of God McCarthy Usa Darker than   Blood Meridian;� a sick gem about a necrophiliac   that is accomplished and repulsive. 8.0
9/02 Around the World in 80 Days Verne, Jules France Comic.� Auster's Father.� Technology/ British imperialism. 7.0
9/02 Chicago, Chicago Romaro, John Aust Two levels of   audience; the commentary was interesting, and the characters.
9/02 People Might Hear You Klein Robin Aust Echoes of The   Collector - surely an influence.� Good   to help me understand the mechanics of writing.� Theology of the cult never explored.� Orphan-ness mystery; quite appropriate.� 6.5
9/02 The Front Room Boys Buzo Alexander Aust Theatrical' a   mode I don't get yet?� Coz it seems   ludicrous to me often reading the scripts as I did here.
9/02 No Exit Sartre   Jean-Paul France Could've been   more interesting.� 6.5
9/02 Death of a Salesman Miller, Arthur Usa The American dream   spirals down into a nightmare. 8.0
10/02 Dirt Music Winton, Tim Aust Compulsive, and   moments of profound observation.� A   good story teller.� The introspective   passages in second person sounded clumsy to my ear. 8.5
10/02 Brothers Karamazov Dostoevesky Russia A crazy empire   of a novel, sprawling and immense, scrappy, spiralling, ever intense and ever   revealing at the madness inherent in everyone, or at least in his world. 9.0
11/02 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Spark Muriel Scot thematically written, not chronologically, although all the   threads lead back toward an explanation of what is being slowly   revealed.� Fascism/ freedom
11/02 The Big Sleep Chandler Usa Stylish as all   hell.� Surely such an influential work   on Lebowski and Salinger 7.0
11/02 The Catcher In The Rye Salinger Usa Too many people   want to die gloriously rather than to live humbly for a good cause.� 10.0
11/02 Ulysses Joyce Ireland Tell me, where   is fancy bread? 10.0
11/02 The Merchant of Venice Shakespeare Brit Tell me, where   is fancy bred? 7.0
11/02 Scoop Waugh, Evelyn Brit This is the   English humour that is latently remembered, perhaps in my collective UC; a   wit old Evelyn, a fine wit. 8.0
12/02 As I Lay Dying Faulkner,   William Usa At last it   gripped me - what a lazy reader I have been.�   Dark.� Addy is the only   brilliant one, and she just has a short voice in the middle. 8.0
30/11/02 Rumble Fish Hinton USA .� 6.0
1/12/02 Count Zero Gibson Canada 5.0
11/12/02 If on a winter night's a traveller? Calvino Italy [Top of the Document] 7.0
5.0
12/12/02 Dead Sexy Jaivin Australia
6.0
16/12/02 snail Dando Australia
6.0
17/12/02 Thanksgiving Dibdin UK
22/12/02 Immortality Kundera Czech An indulgent disappointment coming   as it does from my favourite 'new' writer of 2002
5.0
7.0
2/01/03 Glamorama Ellis USA A compulsive, sordid and surreal   satirical mystery thriller, that verges at times on being 'literary   porn'.� Read this novel and never look   at Hollywood the same - Ellis exposes Hollywood for what it is (cf his   American Psycho) but one senses fondness in his savage portrayal.
7.0
11/01/03 The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Townsend UK Us intellectuals are much misunderstood.� Stopped reading George Eliot to devote extra time to Big n   Bouncy magazine and Amateur Photographer.�   [few books have more deadpan classic lines than this!� Me and Adrian have a certain affinity]
8.5
12/01/03 The Grapes of Wraith Steinbeck USA
Fambly abides.� Cf this   classic-modernity's individualism of looking after your family with the   individualism of consumer-modernity, where the self is elevated above even   family.� The narrative moves from the   country to the family and then back again, framing the Joads as part of the   state of the nation, as a family observed by a sympathetic author-god, who   steps back now and again from the close-up for a long panning shot.�
Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1