great reading
‘To go out and buy a book on the subject [of cod] is to invite glances of suspicion. While a few eccentrics might think this is a good reason to purchase several copies, for the rest of us it requires a certain leap of faith. Cod ... amply rewards such a leap.’ The Mail on Sunday
Recommended to me, Cod sounded like a really dull subject. But after reading this review, I took the suggested leap and thoroughly enjoyed the compulsive read that is ‘A biography of the fish that changed the world’.
I highly recommend it and these other literary wonders. To get the book, just quote the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) and your bookseller will be able to trace it.
Cod The fish that changed the world
by Mark Kurlansky
Published by Vintage 1999
ISBN 0 09 926870 1
“After each chapter there’s a recipe and at the end of the book there’s a chapter on six centuries of cod recipes.”
Salt A World History
by Mark Kurlansky
Published by Vintage 2003
ISBN 0 09 928199 6
“A compulsive and totally fascinating read.”
The Alphabet Unravelling the mystery of the
alphabet from A to Z (letter by letter)
by David Sacks
Published by Arrow Books 2004
ISBN 0 09 943682 5
“The most interesting, absorbing book I’ve ever read.”
For example: “Why isn't Z the unknown?”. X was chosen because “… the printer still had plenty of Xs, a letter that in French-language print is used far less than Y or Z.”
The Island of Lost Maps A true story of cartographic crime (in the 1990s)
by Miles Harvey
Published by Phoenix 2001
ISBN 0 75381 315 7
“A story of a kleptomaniac who cut maps out of original atlases in private libraries, folded them up and stuffed them down his shirt!”
The Map that Changed the World A Tale of Rocks, Ruin and Redemption
by Simon Winchester
Published by Penguin 2002
ISBN 0 140 28039 1
“A story of the man and, through his endeavours, the birth of a science, namely Geology.”
Yarra A diverting history of Melbourne’s murky river
by Kristen Otto
Published by Vintage 1999
ISBN 1 920885 78 1
“Too thin to plough … to thick to drink …”
The Year 1000
by Robert Lacey & Danny Danziger
Published by Abacus 1999
ISBN 0 349 113068
“In every shire (or county), there was a shire court that administered the king’s law, and it was in the reign of Ethelred, that the ’shire reeve’ or ’sheriff’ first came into view as the CEO of local government.”
Mother Tongue The English Language
by Bill Bryson
“Writing about the history of the English language in Mother Tongue, American English in Made in America, and science in The Body and in A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson does not only delight with his travel adventures but also brings other subjects to light, in easy-to-read prose.
“For me, if ‘Bill Bryson’ was on the front of one of his books—no title—I’d read it. His prose and subject matter are that enjoyable.
“I strongly recommend reading any of Bill’s books.”
Published by Random House
Mutants On the Form, Varieties and Errors of the
Human Body
by Armand Marie Leroi
Published by Harper Perennial 2005
ISBN 0 00 653164 4
‘We are all mutants. But some of us are more mutant than others.’
‘A Dutch child born in 1995 had the remains of twenty-one [parasitic twin] foetuses (as determined by the leg count) embedded in its brain.’
Raising the Dead The men who
created Frankenstein
by Andy Dougan
Published by Birlinn Limited 2008
ISBN 978 1 84158 670 0
“Mary Shelley’s concept of Dr Frankenstein was based onjher husband, Percy Shelley, who had a love of experimenting with electricity.”
Champagne How the world’s most glamorous Wine triumphed over War & Hard Times
by Don & Petie Kladstrup
Published by Harper Perennial 2005
ISBNs 10 0 06 073793 X / 13 978 0 06 073793 1
“Le champagne, which is masculine in the French language, seemed to be the ideal complement to the harsh la Champagne, the province, which is feminine … ajperfect couple inseparable and joined in a union of strength, gaiety and elegance.”
Put what where? Over 2000 years of
bizarre sex advice
by John Naish
Published by Harper Element 2005
ISBN 0 00 721423 5
“JH Kellogg, MD,—of cornflakes fame—was about as qualified to compose a sex guide (Plain Facts about Sexual Life) as the Dalai Lama is to write books on hand-to-hand combat. Not only was Kellogg a virgin, but he believed sex was debilitating. He never consummated his own marriage and preferred instead to receive an enema from an orderly every morning after breakfast—which beats trying to clip a small plastic toy together.”
The Lost Art of Sleep A wise and funny exploration of quite possibly the best third of your life …
by Michael McGirr
Published by Picador—Pan Macmillan Australia 2009
ISBN 978 0 330 42491 2
“Bed is the most dangerous place on earth. More people die there than anywhere else. Maybe that’s why each passing generation spends less time in bed than the one before.”
Scurvy How a Surgeon, a Mariner and a Gentleman solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail
by Stephen R Bown
Published by Penguin Books 2003
ISBN 0 14 300264 3
“During the Age of Sail, more sailors died from scurvy than from injuries caused in battle.”
Coal A Human History
by Barbara Freese
Published by Penguin Books 2003
ISBN 0 14 200098 1
“Prized as “the best stone in England" by Roman invaders, who carved jewellery out of it … coal has transformed societies, expanded frontiers, sparked social movements, and still powers our electric grid. Coal, AjHuman History is a captivating narrative about an ordinary substance with an extraordinary impact on human civilisation.”
Swooning A classical music guide to life, love, lust and other follies
by Christopher Lawrence
Published by Random House Australia 2001
ISBN 1 74051 059 3
Percy Grainger “… when old, liked to sleep at home under his piano.
“ … lived in the same house in White Plains, New York for forty years but only mowed his front lawn once.”
Where Underpants Come From From Checkout to Cotton Field—Travels through the New China
by Joe Bennett
Published by Simon & Schuster UK 2008
ISBN 978 1 84737 001 3
“When buying [men’s] underpants in a pack of 3 for $10, Ijwonder—after all the procedures and handling—who makes any money on them.”
Longitude* The True Story of a Lone Genius who solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his time
by Dava Sobel
Published by Harper Perennial 2005
ISBN 0 00 721422 7
“A fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation and horology.”
*Also available is a fully illustrated edition of this book: The Illustrated Longitude (ISBN-13 978 0802713445)
The Planets
by Dava Sobel
Published by Fourth Estate 2005
ISBN 1 85702 850 3
“Dava Sobel has an extraordinary gift of making difficult ideas clear.”
The Link Uncovering our Earliest Ancestor
by Colin Tudge
Published by Little, Brown 2009
ISBN 978 1 4087 0221 5
“An astonishing new discovery that could change everything.”
Zero The biography of a dangerous idea
by Charles Seife
Published by Penguin Books 2000
ISBN 978 0140296471
“The Babylonians invented it, the Greeks banned it, the Hindus worshipped it, and the Church used it to fend off heretics. Now, it threatens the foundations of modern physics. For centuries, the power of zero savoured of the demonic; once harnessed, it became the most important tool in mathematics. For zero, infinity’s twin, is not like other numbers. It is both nothing and everything.”
