Antipodean reading

I'm going to Australia and New Zealand for a month or so in March and right now we're in the middle of quite a large and complex operation of sorting out where to go, booking flights and finding accommodation. Anyway, to the point. I always like to try to read a couple of books that originate from, or are about, the country I'm visiting. So has anyone got any suggestions for Antipodean reading? It could be fiction or non-fiction and food-related or history books are always good.

Also if anyone has any suggestions for places to stay in the Hunter Valley or Blue Mountains then that would be most helpful.

Update: And, of course, I should have thought of the wonderful Daunt Books on Marylebone who include guides, novels and non-fiction arranged by country. They had the not-available-at-Amazon "The Future Eaters", as recommended by Angus

Reading in 2007

A list, in no particular order, of what I read in 2007. Mainly for my own future reference I think.

Empire, Niall Ferguson
History of the British empire, was it beneficial or not?

Virtual History, Niall Ferguson
Not-so-good collection of things that didn't actually happen. Only edited by Mr Ferguson.

War of the World, Niall Ferguson
Conflict in the 20th century. Excellent.

The Perfect Heresy, Stephen O'Shea
On the crusade against the Cathars in southern France. Not as good as...

Sea of Faith, Stephen O'Shea
The history of Christianity and Islam around the Mediterranean. Best read in the Mediterranean sun.

Six Memos for the Next Millennium, Italo Calvino
Short essays on literary themes.

The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb
How to deal with highly improbable events and why stockmarkets are pretty random really.

The Undercover Economist, Tim Harford
Easy guide to economics. Including why Starbucks make you feel special whilst you spend more money and anti-sales. Very appropriate at this time of year.

Mediated, Thomas de Zengotita
On media and contemporary culture. I remember thinking "wow" a lot.

Everyware, Adam Greenfield
On embedded computing. Didn't finish it, sorry

In The Bubble, John Thackara
On sustainable design and how to rely on less stuff.

Net, Blogs and Rock 'n' Roll, David Jennings
Good overview of music discovery on the web, though you might know it already.

Programming Collective Intelligence
The title's a bit more exciting than the contents but loads of useful stuff on collaborative filtering, recommendations and data mining. For future reference.

Achtung Schweinhund!, Harry Pearson
Reminiscing on wargames.

Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain
What it's really like to be a chef.

Atonement, Ian McEwan
Good. Wasn't going to see the film before I read it. Still haven't seen it though.

Arthur & George, Julian Barnes
Arthur Conan Doyle takes on a case. I was a bit sceptical at first but it's good.

Spies, Michael Frayn
One of my favourite authors.

The Fall of Troy, Peter Ackroyd.
Very atmospheric.

Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
I couldn't finish this. I really like his essays but this was just too dense and footnoted.

Hetty Dorval, Ethel Wilson
A present. Hadn't heard of the author but short and sweet.

JPod, Douglas Coupland
OK, not up to Microserfs standard.

Northern Lights/The Subtle Knife/The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman
I enjoyed these. The ending was slightly disappointing but the build-up was good.

Virtual Light, William Gibson
Good, another author to start reading through.

Always Coming Home, Ursula K. Le Guin
As recommended by Mr Webb. Very interesting concept of a future anthropology, not easy to read though.

Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Good to read in Barcelona, as managed by A.

Restless, William Boyd
Nice little spy thriller.

Silence of the Grave, Arnaldur Indriðason
Ah, Icelandic detective fiction. There's a genre.

The Lighthouse, P.D.James
Never actually read any before this, only seen on TV, but enjoyed it.

The Thing on the Doorstep, H.P. Lovecraft
I remember reading about these stories while at school and eventually got round to reading (most of) them.

Watchmen, Alan Moore
One of the best graphic novels ever. And there's a film coming.

Global Frequency: Planet Ablaze, Warren Ellis
Another graphic novel. Bit short for me. I like them wordier.


15 non-fiction and 19 fiction. Not a bad balance.

Achtung Schweinehund!

A bit of an admission, in my youth I was a wargamer. That's historical wargaming, not the Orcs and Space Marine type, which is quite different - as Harry Pearson says in his book Achtung Schweinehund!. It's reminiscences and anecdotes from his life as a gamer mixed with the history of wargaming - from Louis XIV to Martin Scorsese, HG Wells to Jerome K Jerome. If you were once, or still are, a wargamer then read this book. It's a bit unstructured and never quite gives enough detail, but it gets to the core. Like in this passage...

In my view, the aspect of wargaming that was most like real war was that it was never quite as thrilling as you hoped and imagined it would be. The little men looked splendid, the terrain was lovely, the strategic planning was great fun, but once the fighting started it all descended into a chaotic slogging match.

<snip>

The aspect of wargaming that still excited me as much as it had done when I clapped eyes on those figures in Malcolm's loft when I was twelve was the sight of the figures on the table before the action commenced. But if you skipped the battle, what was the point of the figures? If you took the wargame out of wargaming, what you were left with was a collection. And I couldn't do with that.

Quite right. Used to spend hours setting up the scenery and troops.