The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes

This book began as one of the most interesting books that I have read. The conflagration of factors leading to the founding of European settlement in Australia makes for an interesting read. I thoroughly enjoyed the first few hundred pages.

But then, Hughes indulges his taste for minutiae. I can't really deal with pages and pages of descriptions of the farms of individual settlers and their affairs. I trudged on for another hundred pages, and then finally gave in. I recommend the first 200 pages, and reject the rest.