NHJ! reader Catherine writes with a truly beautiful idea:

I would like to suggest that once you have read Not Happy, John! that you release it into the wild through Bookcrossing. The more people that read this book before the election the better! Wouldn't it be great if we knew numerous copies were roaming Australia over the next few months.

Fly, NHJ!, fly...

As a resident of Canberra my orange ACTION bus trundles past the house on the hill twice a day, after burying my nose in Not Happy John for the last few days, I now seem unable to look at the Parliament House in quite the same way. Friends who are staffers and staffers who are friends have given me a long standing BS-detector in the political game but to read the background to events such as the Bush visit opened my eyes yet further. Well done Margo, your insightful and witty take on our great Prime Miniature should be required reading in all schools.

His systematic destruction of what constitutes core democracy (or is that currently non-core democracy?) will be a blight on the history of this nation for many years. If we are ever rid of the bloke the legacy he leaves will be one of mistrust, greed, ambivalence and intolerance. It is a shame that a book such as yours will all too easily be overlooked as a partisan work of self-serving denigration, which it certainly is

NHJ! reader Sean Brady fires in a ripper which might - just might, mind you - give us all a bit of a hint as to where Tony Abbott gets his dazzling political ideas from. In Chapter 16 (Australians for Honest Politicians), MK asks Mr A: 'How did the [Australians for Honest Politics] trust get its name? Answer: I chose it.

Ah, but did he? Sean writes:

I think I may have the answer to where Tony Abbott and friends came up with the idea for their group 'Australians For Honest Politics'. Follow the link...and you'll see what I mean - sounds very Abbottesque to me!

NHJ! reports, you decide!

With just over two weeks since the release of NHJ, we're starting to get a pretty accurate view of the reaction it's been creating around Australia. Penguin Marketing Director, Daniel Ruffino, emailed me this afternoon telling me that after originally printing 10K (nearly all sold), then 3K more, now 6K in the last days, that's 19K total. We're understandably rapt and entry onto many number of top-ten charts will only help the message get even further. Word of mouth is key for NHJ so thanks for all your help in reading, writing and thinking about the aims of the book. As ever, this is a book for people to connect, work together and bring positive change to our democratic system.

So what else has been happening? Where to begin, really. After mentioning Bookcrossing yesterday (the idea of buying and reading a book, posting a comment online, leaving the book somewhere, and waiting for the next person to comment and so on), we've already got our here

AND

Richard Walsham, from the NSW Teachers Federation, says Marcus Einfeld used a speech to attack the Federation over a resolution calling for a just, comprehensive and lasting settlement of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict: go here

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, well written, well presented. Thanks!

I think though, that this book could have been written about a leader of any stripe or party. There appears to be a real movement towards 'de-democratising' democracies. Perhaps the Iraqis will end up with a democracy while the rest of us drift off elsewhere. I think the big value of your work is in exposing JH as being a non-conservative. I remember Paul Keating speaking to this same subject last year (?). I'm glad you have expanded his comments in the way you have done. I look forward to 'Not Happy Mark (Tony, Peter....?)'

We really need to keep the report cards going on these guys. Thanks Margo.

Seems that NHJ! has snuck onto the Dymock's 'Top Ten' bestsellers list for this week. The other good news is that Penguin have already cranked up the presses for the first re-print.

Not a bad effort for a book on politics in this joint, we're told. Thanks to all buyers for your support from MK and the Penguin team.

I can't begin to tell you how this book made me feel. I thought I knew a bit about how things are in this country and have been getting more and more despairing by the day. But Margo, you have opened my eyes a lot wider to the truth. I have to thank you for showing me Brian Harradine and Pauline Hanson in a new light. I don't know when I have read anything that is so balanced, but at the same time so passionate. It was a privilege to meet you in Bungendore last Saturday, and I hope your book will be read by many, many people.

I have long agonised over the way so many Australians seem to be disconnected from our political process. Margo's excellent book will hopefully shake people out of their complacency and leave them more demanding of our elected representitives from all sides of politics. Let's regain control of our democracy and put the pollies on notice that we won't stand for their spin any longer.

This is a great book. Read it, lend it to others, give it as a gift, make sure that people know how we are being abused by people who want to control us instead of represent us.

On balance I liked the book. Strong compelling arguments, well evidenced, got me in. But, a couple of flaws in the logic I reckon:

There seemed a bit of a tendency to play the man and not the ball. JWH certainly makes a convincing chief villain, but Australian politics has long been too cosy a duopoly and I'm sure it's fair to say that Labour are more than slightly complicit in trashing our democracy. I thought the stream of 'neo-liberal' bashing through the book was a bit mindless, and detracted from the main argument. It confused so-called economic agendas with social and political agendas to my mind, and ignored that the most public failings of the capitalist system in recent years have been human failures - venality of the pocket-lining variety exactly as was rife in socialist regimes of prior decades.

I put the book down after finishing it and thought to myself, 'will this change the world', or is it another introspective effort by the elites, for the elites? I sus

Sydney Uni media n' government student and freelance writer Judith Ireland - who recently did a SMH internship under MK's supervision - has a ripper take on the Sydney launch over at Vibewire. We particularly loved Judith's nod to some useful political anthropology. Here's a sample of her piece:

In 1961, the American political scientist Robert Dahl (no apparent relation to Roald) made the distinction between two kinds of people in democratic society. Most people, more interested in their daily existence than political decision making, fall into the first category of homo civicus or 'civic man'. In our super-busy, post-industrial world, different members of society specialise in different areas. Every voter may have been involved in the golden days of Ancient Greek democracy, but today we are happy to leave political decision making to the experts: the lobbyists, activists and politicians who make up the

Congratulations. Never has a book made me feel so affirmed that my anger towards this current govt. is legitimate. As one of the 'mob' dismissed by John Howard after the march in Sydney I will be passing this book on to many of my peers and encouraging many more to purchase it. I have never put a bumper sticker on my car in my life but the Not Happy John! one has made it to the back of the car and will hopefully encourage many to visit this site and read the book.

I picked up NHJ! at Sydney airport on a return trip to Perth recently, after hearing Tim Webster interview Margo on radio. Several chapters in, a nearby passenger enquired what I was reading, which sparked a debate about Australia's involvement in the invasion of Iraq, the complexities of war, human suffering, former leaders and what the future holds. The passenger believed Howard to be a decent leader, and that the western nations with their democratic free will can improve the quality of life for the fallen and for future generations. As simplistic as it sounds, I talked about the cycle of grief, despair, hatred and revenge a citizen (and a nation) must go through when they witness fellow humans blown to pieces.

My father served in World War II, an Uncle in Changi, a brother called up for Vietnam (thankfully the government changed and with it went conscription), and I work with a 30 year-old son of a Vietnam Vet receiving treatment for a physiological problem related to his

Many thanks to reviewer David Eastwood for his criticisms. (See Review section for the full review). My bold in the extract below shows the bits that pushed my (Lefty's) buttons particularly deftly:

...a couple of flaws in the logic I reckon: There seemed a bit of a tendency to play the man and not the ball. JWH certainly makes a convincing chief villain, but Australian politics has long been too cosy a duopoly and I'm sure it's fair to say that Labor are more than slightly complicit in trashing our democracy....

Score one for the NHJ! sceptics, at least as it applies in my chapter. It can be a battle at times for those long-frustrated types among us who have serious - and imho valid - 'ishoos' (ahem) with the PM to keep in the forefront of our mind that the man isn't actually the root of all evil in the world. And especially that, on a heartfelt matter like refugees (say), the ALP has hardly covered itself in 'bleeding heart' glory over the la

When Andrew Wilkie came to Adelaide at the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, I asked him a question he said I would find the answer to in his book. He understood that I had participated in many of the debates on Webdiary - everything from SIEVX, refugees, the Bakhtyari children's terrible plight (still ongoing), Honest Politics and of course, the Iraqi invasion. It would be a foolish soul who accused me of holding back.

My question was 'did the intelligence over Bali, East Timor, the Solomons, New Guinea and WMD's fail due to an obsession with refugee boats and so-called people smuggling'. I found the answer on pages 49 and 50.

All those who think John Howard is more than Margo has described must read Wilkie's book next and then be afraid, very, very afraid for Australia, for our lost democracy, our lack of security and the blindness of the coalition of the killing.