spiral tribe

I thought the worlds shortest book was "French/Italian war heroes".

OzTennis

I've read quite a few other books set in Tasmania which are worth reading although many relate to the convict origins!

For the term of his natural life by Marcus Clarke;
Out of Ireland by Christopher Koch;
Australian Trilogy by Bryce Courtenay - Potato Factory, Tommo & Hawk and Solomon's Song;
Morgan's Run by Colleen McCullough (also set on Norfolk Island where she comes from) etc.

Courtenay and Koch are my 'top reads' from the above.

Has anyone read Courtenay's latest offering? (Whitethorn, released last November)

I can vouch for the beauty of the eastern side of Tasmania (white sands and turquoise seas stick out in my memory).

OzTennis

Clippy

I'm currently reading Lonely Planet Western Australia

Together with the very exciting Booklet 6

michellemac

Another Tazzie book is English Passengers by Matthew Kneale, which was shortlisted for the Mann Booker prize in 2001(ish?). i really enjoyed it.

Michelle

possoms

thanks for all the info on tassie books

I've ordered fatal shores and got the playmaker (fictional story about the convicts) chucked in at a bargain price. from Amazon

webgum

These look good, I'm off to the library tomorrow to find a selection.

On the topic of good ozzie writers, I liked Kate Grenville 'An idea of Perfection'; Tim Winton 'Dirt Music'''; and I'm also re-dipping into Albert Facey's 'A Fortunate Life' which I bought back in 1990 on my working holiday in Australia. As I'm now living in WA, this one is very emotive.

OzTennis

Tim Winton has written a lot of good books (comes from Perth); Thomas Keneally likewise (best known for Schindler's List which the film was based on but written a lot of good ones based in Oz); if you like Australian history Geoffrey Blainey is hard to beat (really inspired me at Uni of Melb as my Aust'n hist lecturer for a couple of years).

OzTennis

Polyphemus

Hope you've all read 'Illywhacker' by Peter Carey

gedge

I read the full "Brief" some years back and thoroughly enjoyed it. Then someone bought me the hardback of "Universe in a Nutshell". Talk about brain strain, I gave up after my fourth attempt as it's not exactly light reading.
Even with all the colour illustrations I struggled to understand curved spacetime theory.

Right, I'll get me coat too!

gedge

No one has mentioned any scifi.
Anybody enjoy the likes of Asimov, Orwell, Clarke, Gibson, PK Dick...?

232Bar

I enjoyed the Bill Bryson book on the history of everything - don't remember it's proper title right now - but I liked his other books as well - I like his sardonic style.

gedge

Brief History of Everything... that wasn't a bad first attempt at "popular science". He did regurgitate a lot of facts that have been done to death in dozens of other books, but at least tried to make them his. I like his style too.

232Bar

Which isn't a bad idea - a lot of people who don't read the 'highbrow' stuff will most likely have found this one more 'digestible' (he says without trying to sound condescending )

gedge

What do you call the 'highbrow' stuff and do you read it?

232Bar

Now there's a question I can't win with LOL No matter what I say now someone will take issue with it. I don't particularly class the likes of Stephen Hawking as highbrow, but some do. Similarly I find the 'pure physics' versions too 'dry' to read whereas some will devour these. I worked with another manager in the UK who considered Tom Clancy to be 'posh reading, not for him' - to each their own.

That's why I initially put highbrow in ' ' as it's individual tastes which determine where it lies.