Reading
The books and authors featured here link to the relevant pages at Amazon (UK and US), Indigo (CAN), and Collins (AUS), where you can read in-depth reviews and spend your hard earned money. Use the form below to select your vendor of choice.
Recommended books
These are a collection of one- or two-off books I’ve particularly enjoyed. Authors whose work I consistently like are listed in the next section: Recommended authors.
- The curious incident of the dog in the night-time
- Mark Haddon
- Fiction
- Vernon God Little
- DBC Pierre
- Fiction
- The Princess Bride
- William Goldman
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
- Jung Chang
- Biography, History
- American Psycho
- Bret Easton Ellis
- Fiction
- Glamorama
- Bret Easton Ellis
- Fiction
- Lord of the Flies
- William Golding
- Fiction
- Catch 22
- Joseph Heller
- Fiction, Crime, Thrillers & Mystery
- About a Boy
- Nick Hornby
- Fiction
- High Fidelity
- Nick Hornby
- Fiction
- Three Men in a Boat
- Jerome K. Jerome
- Fiction
- The Gun Seller
- Hugh Laurie
- Fiction
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Harper Lee
- Fiction, Children’s Books
- Life of Pi
- Yann Martel
- Fiction
- All the Pretty Horses (The Border Trilogy)
- Cormac McCarthy
- Fiction
- Angela’s Ashes
- Frank McCourt
- Biography
- A Monk Swimming
- Malachy McCourt
- Biography
- Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About
- Mil Millington
- Fiction
- The Deed of Paksenarrion
- Elizabeth Moon
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Holes
- Louis Sachar
- Children’s Books
- The Catcher in the Rye
- J.D. Salinger
- Fiction
- Cryptonomicon
- Neal Stephenson
- Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy
- The Diamond Age
- Neal Stephenson
- Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy
- The Lord of the Rings
- J.R.R. Tolkien
- Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy
- The Hobbit
- J.R.R. Tolkien
- Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy
- A Confederacy of Dunces
- John Kennedy Toole
- Fiction
- Slaughter House Five
- Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
- Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Recommended authors
I’ve pretty much enjoyed anything written by the following people. In many cases their works are part of an on-going series; if that's true for the author you select I’d strongly recommend reading their books in the order in which they were written.
If you’re looking for a quick book recommendation then see the previous section: Recommended books.
- George MacDonald Fraser
- Fiction
- Scott Adams
- Humour
- Mark Billingham
- Crime, Suspense, Thriller
- Bill Bryson
- Travel writing
- James Lee Burke
- Crime, Mystery, Thriller
- Lee Child
- Adventure, Thriller
- Michael Connelly
- Crime, Mystery, Thriller
- John Connolly
- Crime, Mystery, Thriller
- Robert Crais
- Crime, Mystery, Thriller
- Louis de Bernieres
- Fiction
- Carl Hiaasen
- Fiction, Mystery
- Tami Hoag
- Crime, Mystery, Thriller
- Joe R. Lansdale
- Crime, Mystery, Thriller
- Elmore Leonard
- Crime, Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
- Henning Mankell
- Crime, Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
- Ed McBain
- Crime, Mystery, Thriller
- Val McDermid
- Crime, Mystery, Thriller
- Terry Pratchett
- Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction
- Philip Pullman
- Children’s Books, Religion & Spirituality, Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Ian Rankin
- Crime, Mystery, Thriller
- John Sanford
- Crime, Mystery, Thriller
- Wilbur Smith
- Fiction
- P.G. Wodehouse
- Fiction, Humour
Blogmarks
A collection of miscellaneous links that don't merit a main blog posting, but which are interesting none-the-less.
Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.
— George W Bush (9)- What WordPress is doing to combat comment spam. (1)
- Mobile web tools, from Pukupi. (1)
- Pukupi’s top 10 hints for building interoperable mobile Web sites. (3)
- The photography of E.J. Peiker. (4)
Stuff from the intersection of design, culture and technology.
(3)- Some handy tips for advanced Google use. (35)
- Make your own church signs, or view some real ones. (8)
- Michael Heilemann is doing a great job with his new WordPress theme; Kubrick. (1)
- I’m late to the party, but Dan has a book out. (1)
- What a crazy concept for laying out housing estates. (3)
- In San Francisco, I live here. (Try the zoom feature.) (1)
- Spider-Man reviews crayons. [Via] (3)
- Some beautiful images from photographer Greg Downing. (2)
- Lots of links, from the Link Bunnies. (1)
- Nice “when I was a child” sort of post from Stuart. (1)
- How much does SafariSorter cost? (4)
- Some handy maintenance tips for Mac owners running Panther. (2)
- Alex King launches Use Tasks: a hosted service for Tasks and Tasks Pro™. (2)
- Min Jung, Anil Dash, and I get interviewed for HBO’s Real Sex. (10)
Blog-roll
A selection of blogs I read on a regular basis.
- Hmm, the blog-roll seems to be a little bit broken right now (it may be that the blo.gs service is having problems). I’ve sent myself an email about this problem, and will try to fix it ASAP.
Weather conditions
These are the current weather conditions at my parents’ house (in Dorset), and where I live (in San Francisco).
| Variable | Value |
|---|---|
| Current conditions | Day, Mostly Cloudy |
| Local time | 2:28 PM |
| Sunrise and Sunset | 6:29 AM, 6:12 PM |
| Moon phase tonight | Waning gibbous |
| Air temperature | 11.1°C (52°F) |
| Feels like | 8.9°C (48°F) |
| Humidity | 62% |
| Dew point | 3.9°C (39°F) |
| UV index | 1, Low danger |
| Pressure | 30.45 inches and steady |
| Wind | 13 mph from the West North West |
| Visibility | 6.2 miles |
| Latitude and Longitude | 50.875056 N, -2.529427 W |
| Variable | Value |
|---|---|
| Current conditions | Day, Partly Cloudy |
| Local time | 6:28 AM |
| Sunrise and Sunset | 6:23 AM, 6:15 PM |
| Moon phase tonight | Waning gibbous |
| Air temperature | 6.7°C (44°F) |
| Feels like | 5°C (41°F) |
| Humidity | 73% |
| Dew point | 2.2°C (36°F) |
| UV index | 0, Low danger |
| Pressure | 30.21 inches and ↑ rising |
| Wind | 5 mph from the North West |
| Visibility | 10.0 miles |
| Latitude and Longitude | 37.7600 N, -122.4181 W |