Books
I didn't write these books. I simply read them and passed judgement.
Slash
by Slash ()
My rating: 4/5
The memoir from the legendary Guns N Roses guitarist reveals, with raw-edged candor, his life and times. As raucous and edgy as his music, this book sets the record straight and tells the real story a...
When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin
by Mick Wall (2009)
My rating: 5/5
Veteran rock journalist Mick Wall unflinchingly tells the story of the band that pushed the envelope on both creativity and excess, even by rock ‘n’ roll standards. Led Zeppelin was the la...
Paradoxical Undressing
by Kristin Hersh (2010)
My rating: 5/5
In 1985, Kristin Hersh was just starting to find her place in the <br/>world. After leaving home at the age of fifteen, the precocious child of unconventional hippies had enrolled in college while her...
Making 'Black Harvest': Warfare, Film Making And Living Dangerously In The Highlands Of Papua New Guinea
by Bob Connolly ()
My rating: 5/5
...
The Best American Noir of the Century
by James Ellroy (2010)
My rating: 5/5
In his introduction to the The Best American Noir of the Century, James Ellroy writes, and its post-war heyday boasts giants like Mickey Spillane and Evan Hunter. Packing an undeniable punch, diverse...
In Bruges
by Martin McDonagh (2008)
My rating: 5/5
<br/><DIV><DIV>After a shooting in London goes hideously wrong, two hitmen, Ray and Ken, are sent to hide out in the strange, Gothic, medieval town of Bruges, Belgium, by their volatile an...
Life
by Keith Richards (2009)
My rating: 4/5
A true and towering original, he has always walked his own path, spoken his own mind, and done his own thing. <br/> <br/>Reluctant outlaw, rock 'n' roll's unparalleled hellraiser, and one of the great...- Tolstoy: A Russian Life
by Rosamund Bartlett (2010)
My rating: 4/5
The first new biography in twenty years of the literary colossus, spiritual leader, and icon of the nineteenth century<p> <p> "Conveys Tolstoy to me more vividly than any biography I have read.&q... 
My Booky Wook 2: This Time it's Personal
by Russell Brand (2010)
My rating: 4/5
So begins Russell Brand's electrifying memoir of his rapid ascent into the upper realms of fame. Rarely has a sequel delivered on the promise of the original with such literary and comic gusto. <br/>...
The Cowards
by Josef Skvoreck (1958)
My rating: 4/5
Girls, jazz, politics, the golden dreams and black comedy of youth--these are the compelling ingredients of The Cowards.<p>May 1945, a small town in Czechoslovakia.  The Germans are withdraw...- Let the Right One In
by John Ajvide Lindqvist (2004)
My rating: 4/5
Oskar, de doce años, vive con su madre en un suburbio de Estocolmo. Es un niño solitario, adicto a las golosinas, y con una curiosa afición: colecciona recortes de prensa sobre casos de asesinatos ... 
Why Does E=mc2?
by Brian Cox ()
My rating: 5/5
This is an engaging and accessible explanation of Einstein's equation that explores the principles of physics through everyday life. In this riveting, deeply informative exploration of Einstein's famo...
The Pillowman
by Martin McDonagh (2003)
My rating: 5/5
<br/><div>While still in his twenties, the Anglo-Irish playwright Martin McDonagh has filled houses in New York and London, been showered with the theatre world's most prestigious accolades, and...- Superfreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, And Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance
by Steven D. Levitt (2008)
My rating: 2/5
Here at last is the long awaited sequel to the international bestselling phenomenon, Freakonomics. Steven Levitt, the original rogue economist, and Stephen Dubner have been working hard, uncovering th... 
The Death Of Bunny Munro
by Nick Cave (2008)
My rating: 4/5
Bunny is a salesman in search of a soul. He is soon to discover his days are numbered ... <br/> <br/>'Nick Cave will obviously live forever, just because the Devil's scared of him.' Rolling Stone...
Just Kids
by Patti Smith (2010)
My rating: 3/5
It was the summer Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, and the summer when a chance encounter in Brooklyn led two young people on a path of art, devotion, and initiation. <br/> <br/>Patti Smit...
Kingdom Come
by J.G. Ballard (2006)
My rating: 4/5
Richard Pearson, quarantaduenne pubblicitario, si reca a Brooklands, una cittadina come tante tra Londra e l'aeroporto di Heathrow. Alcune settimane prima suo padre, ex aviatore, è stato ucciso da un...
Rat Girl: A Memoir
by Kristin Hersh (2010)
My rating: 5/5
In 1985, Kristin Hersh was just beginning to find her place in the world. After beginning her music career at the age of fourteen, the precocious child of unconventional hippies was enrolled in colleg...- Losing The Plot
by Paul Wheeler ()
My rating: 4/5
Scriptwriter Alan Tate, down on his luck, meets Andree, a German producer, who invites him to "string a few words together" for a film. Alan's life begins to liven up, with girls on tap, a r... 
A Brief Guide to the Great Equations: The Hunt for Cosmic Beauty in Numbers
by Robert Crease (2009)
My rating: 4/5
Here are the stories of the ten most popular equations of all time as voted for by readers of "Physics World", including - accessibly described here for the first time - the favourite equati...
Status Anxiety
by Alain de Botton (2004)
My rating: 3/5
"This is a book about an almost universal anxiety that rarely gets mentioned directly: an anxiety about what others think of us; about whether we're judged a success or a failure, a winner or a l...
The Decadent Cookbook (Literary Cookbooks)
by Medlar Lucan ()
My rating: 3/5
<div>The spirits of Caligula and the Marquis de Sade haunt this viciously witty send-up of "la grande bouffe." The morbid minded and the terminally degenerate will especially enjoy suc...
The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria," the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction
by Rachel P. Maines (1998)
My rating: 5/5
<p>From the time of Hippocrates until the 1920s, massaging female patients to orgasm was a staple of medical practice among Western physicians in the treatment of "hysteria," an ailment once...
Snuff
by Chuck Palahniuk (2008)
My rating: 2/5
From the master of literary mayhem and provocation, a full-frontal Triple X novel that goes where no American work of fiction has gone before. <br/> <br/>Cassie Wright, porn priestess, intends to cap ...
The Official Punk Rock Book of Lists
by Amy Wallace (2007)
My rating: 4/5
The Official Punk Rock Book of Lists features over 200 of the funniest, craziest lists - from the Most Offensive Songs to Stupidest Band Names, from Punk Sell-Outs to Fashion Don'ts - culled from hist...
Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America
by Tom Lutz (2006)
My rating: 4/5
<br/><div><div><div><div>Couch potatoes, goof-offs, freeloaders, good-for-nothings, loafers, and loungers: ever since the Industrial Revolution, when the work ethic as we know ...
Time: A User's Guide
by Stefan Klein (2007)
My rating: 3/5
<div>• <strong>Popular science at its very best:</strong> <em>The Secret Pulse of Time</em> spans a wide array of disciplines — brain physiology, social psychology, philosophy, and E...
Watchmen
by Alan Moore (1986)
My rating: 5/5
Has any comic been as lauded as Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' <em>Watchmen</em>? Possibly only Frank Miller's <em>The Dark Knight Returns</em> but <em>Watchmen</em> remains the critics' favourite. Why?...
Death in Midsummer & Other Stories
by Yukio Mishima (1966)
My rating: 4/5
Recognized throughout the world for his brilliance as a novelist and playwright, Yukio Mishima is also noted as a master of the short story in his native Japan. Here nine of his finest stories, select...
Devil's Playground
by Nan Goldin (2003)
My rating: 0/5
- A major collection of work by Nan Goldin, one of the leading chroniclers of our time- An intimate and compelling photographic portrait which tells personal stories of relationships, friendships and ...
The Logic of Life
by Tim Harford (2006)
My rating: 3/5
Life sometimes seems illogical. Individuals do strange things: take drugs, have unprotected sex, mug each other. Love seems irrational, and so does divorce. On a larger scale, life seems no fairer or ...
Man's Search For Meaning
by Viktor E. Frankl (1946)
My rating: 0/5
A prominent Viennese psychiatrist before the war, Viktor Frankl was uniquely able to observe the way that both he and others in Auschwitz coped (or didn't) with the experience. <br/> <br/>He noticed ...
The Consolations Of Philosophy
by Alain de Botton (2000)
My rating: 4/5
From the internationally heralded author of How Proust Can Change Your Life comes this remarkable new book that presents the wisdom of some of the greatest thinkers of the ages as advice for our day t...
Papillon (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
by Henri Charrière (1969)
My rating: 0/5
<p> Henri Charrière, called "Papillon," for the butterfly tattoo on his chest, was convicted in Paris in 1931 of a murder he did not commit. Sentenced to life imprisonment in the penal colo...
Wetlands
by Charlotte Roche (2008)
My rating: 0/5
Een 18-jarig meisje vertelt openhartig over haar uitbundige seksleven en over haar problemen met het vrouwelijk schoonheidsideaal....
The Liar
by Stephen Fry (1991)
My rating: 0/5
A chronic liar with few friends meets Professor Trefusis -- academic, broadcaster, polyglot and admirer of Elvis Costello -- and is led through an adventure that takes in Piccadilly rent-boys, a lost ...- In Bed With...: Jessica Adams, Imogen Edwards Jones, Maggie Alderson, Kathy Lette
by Imogen Edwards-Jones ()
My rating: 0/5
Designed to tantalise and tease, these quirky adult-only tales are sensual and surprising, always imaginative and unashamedly risqué. Featuring a sex addict, a Spanish percussionist, a topless garden... 
You Are Here: A Portable History of the Universe
by Christopher Potter (2008)
My rating: 3/5
A thrilling biography of the universe, as seen through the lens of today's most cutting-edge scientific thinking. Here's the book that explains the universe. <br/>You Are Here is an exhilarating journ...
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
by Steven D. Levitt (2005)
My rating: 5/5
Economics is not widely considered to be one of the sexier sciences. The annual Nobel Prize winner in that field never receives as much publicity as his or her compatriots in peace, literature, or phy...
On the Road
by Jack Kerouac (1957)
My rating: 4/5
Sal Paradise, young and innocent, joins the slightly crazed Dean Moriarty on a breathless, exuberant ride back and forth across the United States. Their hedonistic search for release or fulfilment thr...
Scum Manifesto
by Valerie Solanas (1967)
My rating: 2/5
Despite its vitriol, this radical feminist tract--written by the woman who tried to kill Andy Warhol--has indisputable prescience, regarding artificial insemination and ATMs, among other things. This ...
The Female Brain
by Louann Brizendine (2006)
My rating: 4/5
Every brain begins as a female brain. It only becomes male eight weeks after conception, when excess testosterone shrinks the communications center, reduces the hearing cortex and makes the part of th...
Bad Seed
by Ian Johnston ()
My rating: 3/5
A widely acclaimed biography of one of rock's most compelling, uncompromising and influential singer-songwriters. Bad Seed offers a superb overview of Nick Cave's career to date....
Atomised
by Michel Houellebecq (1998)
My rating: 1/5
Bruno and Michel are half-brothers, born to a hippie mother who believed in following her bliss. As boys they live in ignorance of each other--at one point attending the same school without knowing o...
My Booky Wook
by Russell Brand ()
My rating: 4/5
In 2006 Russell Brand exploded onto the international comedy scene. He has been named Time Out’s Comedian of the Year, Best Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards, and Most Stylish Man by GQ’s Men....
The Truth About Hormones
by Vivienne Parry (2005)
My rating: 0/5
What exactly is going on when we're tetchy, spotty, fearful, tearful, or just plain awful? Hormones rule our internal world: they control our growth, our metabolism, weight, waterbalance, body clocks,...
A Lover's Discourse
by Roland Barthes (1977)
My rating: 3/5
"Barthes's most popular and unusual performance as a writer is <em>A Lover's Discourse,</em> a writing out of the discourse of love. This language, primarily the complaints and reflections of the...- No One Belongs Here More Than You
by Miranda July (2007)
My rating: 5/5
In her remarkable stories of seemingly ordinary people living extraordinary lives Miranda July reveals how a single moment can change everything. Whether writing about a middle-aged woman's obsession ... 
Scar Tissue
by Anthony Kiedis (2004)
My rating: 3/5
Now in paperback, the New York Times bestseller by one of rocks most provocative figures Scar Tissue is Anthony Kiediss searingly honest memoir of a life spent in the fast lane. In 1983, four self-des...
A World Without Time
by Palle Yourgrau (2004)
My rating: 4/5
In 1942, the logician Kurt Godel and Albert Einstein became close friends; they walked to and from their offices every day, exchanging ideas about science, philosophy, politics, and the lost world of ...
