Since I can't get the reading room blosxom plugin to work as a static sidebar I've grabbed the contents of my reading list and appended them to this file. I'll try to keep it updated whenever I complete a new book.

Anthony Bourdain - Kitchen Confidential - 5/5

Don't eat the fish on Mondays and never eat the hollandaise sauce. Great insight into the work required to become a professional chef. And an excellent read to boot.

Antony Beevor - Fall of Berlin 1945 - 4/5

Terrifying and very well written account of the last days of the Third Reich. Written from many different perspectives - you get a real feel for what it must have been like if you the misfortune to be on the ground ahead of the Russian advance in the last 6 months of World War II. Antonys book on Stalingrad is meant to be just as good.

Stephen Donaldson - Runes of the Earth - 5/5

I'm a huge fan of his books and this is an excellent followup - his writing style can seem a little overblown but a read of his sci-fi novels show he can write gritty dialog just as easily as flowery-fantasy prose.

Neil Gaiman - Anansi Boys 4/5

Not as good as 'American Gods' but still a very worthwhile read.

Alastair Reynolds - Redemption Ark -4/5

Last in a series - some great ideas but the storys pacing does let it down a little. A good read for fans of 'hard' sci-fi.

Dan Brown - The Da Vinci Code - 3/5

A nice way to spend a day or two - if you like this definitely read Umberto Eco's 'Name of the Rose' and .Focoults Pendulum' which cover similar ground (but better IMHO). Actually Warren Ellis also goes over some of this stuff in his 'Preacher' series too :-)

Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - 5/5

An excellent insight into a childs mind who suffers from a form of Autism. One of the best books I've read all year.

Alastair Reynolds - Revelation Space - 4/5

Second in a trilogy - more good ideas but pacing lets it down. The idea of the 'inhibitors' is definitely an excellent (and realistic) new spin on the 'angry aliens are awoken to destroy humanity' concept.

Charles Stross - Singularity Sky - 4/5

Highly recommended sci-fi - excellent combination of ideas in this 'post-singularity' novel.

Iain Banks, Alastair Reynolds, China Mieville and Charles Stross have pretty much revitalised a stale genre.

Ken MacLeod - Newtons Wake - 3/5

Another 'post-singularity' novel - not quite as good as Charles Stross but still worth reading.

John Pilger - The New Rulers of the World -4/5

One of those books that will really wind you up and make you wonder wtf is going on in the world. John Pilger is in a similar class to Noam Chomsky but has a much more down to earth and humanistic take on some of the worlds problems (he's also much easier to read).

Simon Singh - The Code Book - 5/5

Fascintating look at the evolution of code creation and code breaking - right up to PGP and Quantum encryption.

Iain M Banks - The Algebraist - 5/5

I love his Culture novels - this isn't one of those but it is just as good (also definitely better than his recent non sci-fi output).

PS - how cool is google ? You can query 'amazon 0670030414' (eg a books ISBN number) and get results returned on the book at Amazon.