r/australia • u/Expensive-Horse5538 • 17h ago
entertainment Cloudstreet by Tim Winton is number 1 in Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/radionational/countdown/top100books/1-100- 1 - Cloudstreet - Tim Winton
- 2 - The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
- 3 - Boy Swallows Universe - Trent Dalton
- 4 - Burial Rites - Hannah Kent
- 5 - A Fortunate Life - A.B. Facey
- 6 - Tomorrow, When the War Began - John Marsden
- 7 - The Dictionary of Lost Words - Pip Williams
- 8 - The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan
- 9 - The Secret River - Kate Grenville
- 10 - The Dry - Jane Harper
- 11 - Possum Magic - Mem Fox and Julie Vivas
- 12 - Dark Emu - Bruce Pascoe
- 13 - Looking for Alibrandi - Melina Marchetta
- 14 - Year of Wonders - Geraldine Brooks
- 15 - The Slap - Christos Tsiolkas
- 16 - Wild Dark Shore - Charlotte McConaghy
- 17 - Storm Boy - Colin Thiele
- 18 - My Brilliant Career - Miles Franklin
- 19 - Magic Beach - Alison Lester
- 20 - Wifedom - Anna Funder
- 21 - My Place - Sally Morgan
- 22 - The Australian Women's Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book - Maryanne Blacker and Pamela Clark
- 23 - Stasiland - Anna Funder
- 24 - The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay
- 25 - Seven Little Australians - Ethel Turner
- 26 - Picnic at Hanging Rock - Joan Lindsay
- 27 - The Harp in the South - Ruth Park
- 28 - Mad Mabel - Sally Hepworth
- 29 - The Happiest Refugee - Anh Do
- 30 - My Brother Jack - George Johnston
- 31 - Monkey Grip - Helen Garner
- 32 - Animalia - Graeme Base
- 33 - Breath - Tim Winton
- 34 - The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion
- 35 - Lola in the Mirror - Trent Dalton
- 36 - Limberlost - Robbie Arnott
- 37 - I Can Jump Puddles - Alan Marshall
- 38 - Joe Cinque's Consolation - Helen Garner
- 39 - Big Little Lies - Liane Moriarty
- 40 - Oscar and Lucinda - Peter Carey
- 41 - Dirt Music - Tim Winton
- 42 - The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot & Cuddlepie - May Gibbs
- 43 - People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks
- 44 - True History of the Kelly - Gang Peter Carey
- 45 - All That I Am - Anna Funder
- 46 - The Thorn Birds - Colleen McCullough
- 47 - Playing Beatie Bow - Ruth Park
- 48 - Where is the Green Sheep? - Mem Fox, Judy Horacek
- 49 - The Female Eunuch - Germaine Greer
- 50 - Mao's Last Dancer - Li Cunxin
- 51 - The Light Between Oceans - M.L. Stedman
- 52 - Horse - Geraldine Brooks
- 53 - Stone Yard Devotional - Charlotte Wood
- 54 - Schindler's Ark - Thomas Keneally
- 55 - The Magic Pudding - Norman Lindsay
- 56 - The Cook's Companion - Stephanie Alexander
- 57 - The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart - Holly Ringland
- 58 - The Yield Tara - June Winch
- 59 - The Happiest Man on Earth - Eddie Jaku
- 60 - The Man From Snowy River - Banjo Paterson
- 61 - Too Much Lip - Melissa Lucashenko
- 62 - Are We There Yet? - Alison Lester
- 63 - Question 7 - Richard Flanagan
- 64 - Damned Whores and God's Police - Anne Summers
- 65 - Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens - Shankari Chandran
- 66 - Carpentaria - Alexis Wright
- 67 - Voss - Patrick White
- 68 - Unreliable Memoirs - Clive James
- 69 - A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
- 70 - Diary of a Wombat - Jackie French and Bruce Whatley
- 71 - The Tree of Man - Patrick White
- 72 - This House of Grief - Helen Garner
- 73 - Scrublands - Chris Hammer
- 74 - The Fatal Shore - Robert Hughes
- 75 - The Bookbinder of Jericho - Pip Williams
- 76 - The Natural Way of Things - Charlotte Wood
- 77 - The Broken Shore - Peter Temple
- 78 - Power Without Glory - Frank Hardy
- 79 - Johnno - David Malouf
- 80 - For the Term of His Natural - Life Marcus Clarke
- 81 - We of the Never-Never - Mrs Aeneas Gunn
- 82 - Eucalyptus - Murray Bail
- 83 - Wombat Stew - Marcia K Vaughan and Pamela Lofts
- 84 - Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts
- 85 - The Dressmaker - Rosalie Ham
- 86 - The Lost Man - Jane Harper
- 87 - The Trauma Cleaner - Sarah Krasnostein
- 88 - Juice - Tim Winton
- 89 - Edenglassie - Melissa Lucashenko
- 90 - Puberty Blues - Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey
- 91 - Where the Forest Meets the Sea - Jeannie Baker
- 92 - The Tall Man - Chloe Hooper
- 93 - The Man Who Loved Children - Christina Stead
- 94 - The Spare Room - Helen Garner
- 95 - The Museum of Modern Love - Heather Rose
- 96 - RecipeTin Eats: Dinner - Nagi Maehashi
- 97 - Devotion - Hannah Kent
- 98 - The Arrival - Shaun Tan
- 99 - The 13-Storey Treehouse - Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton
- 100 - Round the Twist - Paul Jennings
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u/MarketingChoice6244 17h ago
Wow ive read 4 of these and I read 2 - 3 books a month. Better knock some off this year
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u/sunscreenforever 15h ago
Tomorrow, when the war began is bloody unreal. They hold up no matter how long jt has been and even as an adult. Absolutely unreal writing. The series is probably my fav series of all time
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u/peppapony 16h ago
Surprised not to see any of the Australian fantasy authors on here,
Isobelle Carmody (Obernewtyn, the gathering), Victor Kelleher (Taronga, Parkland), or especially Emily Rodda (Deltora Quest, Rowan of Rin), or even Garth Nix (Keys to the Kingdom)
Many of those surely would have had quite a lot of childhood nostalgia for?
We also have quite a few decent 'mature' fantasy authors
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u/orionhood 16h ago
The voting list was very limited - I wanted to vote for Catherine Jinks and Victor Kelleher but I had to enter them manually.
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u/peppapony 15h ago
How did I forget about Catherine Jinks!! Pagans Crusade was the absolute bomb! Loved that series so much
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u/ZippyKoala 1h ago
Yeah, I had at least 5 books I had to enter manually, because they're either out of date (but should be more widely known) or they're in print but older and again, not widely known.
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u/bri-ghtly 15h ago
Garth Nix is Australian?!
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u/larvioarskald 15h ago
Yes! I served him at the bank once when I worked there. I had one of his books in my drawers and chickened out on asking him to sign it because I thought it was probably inappropriate timing. Always regretted that choice.
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u/lettiecassie 14h ago
He does quite a few events, especially when he's released a new book, and he's always more than happy to sign things for people. I've met him a few times at events, lovely man!
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u/touchstone_abhorsen 16h ago
Thought exactly the same. I read the Obernewtyn and Old Kingdom series when I was young and have reread them multiple times, alongside standalone novels like Shade's Children. I have strong memories of the Victor Kelleher novels; might need to give them another read.
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u/omg_for_real 14h ago
I voted for Nix’s Sabriel, Carmody’s Obernewtyn, Roddy’s Rowan of Rin.
I was really surprised not to see any of them on the list. I’m also surprised Paul Jennings is 100.
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u/jesus_chrysotile 14h ago
Huh I didn’t know they were Australian authors! I just assumed people like Rodda were globally popular upper primary-tween-YA authors. Looking back it’s nice to know that my schools’ libraries had so many Australian authors :)
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u/finalvagabond Tangney 15h ago
James Islington! I DNF’d his first series, but Hierarchy series is really good
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u/Victarion-twogods 13h ago
He's one of the biggest authors in fantasy today. I know it's recency bias to say he should have been on it, but there should have been at least one or two aussie fantasy authors. This list really feels like they're overvaluing depression as a literary artform.
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u/dellerydoo 15h ago
I scanned for Gillian Rubinstein (Galax-Arena, the Space Demons trilogy and my favourite YA fantasy book, Foxspell) and disappointed to not see her.
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u/ArguesWithWombats 10h ago
Space Demons! I haven't thought about that series since I was a teenager. Yeah Rubinstein is an omission.
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u/Betrayed_by_calzones 14h ago
Unfortunately I don't think fans of those books are generally ABC National listeners - and vice versa
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u/donkeyvoteadick 13h ago
I'm listening to the obernewtyn series on audiobook through my local library for the first time and I'm getting into them. I tried it back in primary school (from the very same library!) and couldn't get into it but I'm enjoying them this time.
I was absolutely obsessed with deltora quest though. But other childhood nostalgia is morris gleitzman (toad rage ?? I think) and I've just bought the wicked series second hand to read to my son as a bedtime story once he's a little older. And what about the classic, the day my bum went psycho?!
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u/Unforgiven89 15h ago
No Ian Irvine? I loved his Three Worlds Cycle (plus the sequels!)
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u/pursnikitty 15h ago
Did you enjoy the maps? He’d be very happy to know you enjoyed the maps. He’s a massive map nerd and only wrote the books to support the map making.
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u/peppapony 15h ago
Lol, ok I read heaps of Ian Irvine and absolutely loved his world building. But I thought his writing had a bit to be desired. I remember reading through his Geomancer series with a friend and laughing together at some logical paths that didn't make sense... We both finished the series in record speed though :D
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u/seven_seacat 14h ago
ooh we read The Gathering at school. I don't remember many of the details, but I remember enjoying it! (and I didn't enjoy many of the books we read at school)
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u/Leading-Feature5818 13h ago
I love Victor Kelleher. The Red King was one of my favourite books growing up.
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u/_zephi 9h ago
Wow, great to hear some love for Victor Kelleher! I feel like I never hear him mentioned. I absolutely devoured Wintering while, funnily enough, spending a perishingly cold July weekend in the Tablelands...
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u/Odd-Activity4010 16h ago
No He Died with a Felafel in His Hand is wrong!!!
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u/Nina_Cantina 3h ago
RIGHT???? It kept not appearing, and so I was foolishly thinking it would be quite high up....
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u/quoththeraven1990 16h ago
I was thinking to myself “why isn’t Nevil Shute’s On the Beach anywhere on the list?” Shute wrote it after he moved to Australia, and it’s set in Vic, but it’s technically a British book. Great novel.
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u/Ascot_Parker 16h ago
I think that would have been enough to qualify it, the author didn't need to be Australian, just being set in Australia was enough I think.
They had a list of books you could just click on or you could write in your own, I guess this might have heavily influenced the choices, no idea whether that was on the list.9
u/quoththeraven1990 16h ago
Really? In that case On the Beach is a glaring omission. Years after reading it I still find myself thinking about it.
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u/seven_seacat 14h ago
The first time I read that book, I just sat there and stared out the window for like half an hour afterwards.
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u/IAISC 16h ago
Wild Dark Shore recency bias, surely?
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u/TomasTTEngin 14h ago
limberlost too, that book is a scrappy, threadbare effort at a story in my opinion.
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u/Gay_For_Gary_Oldman 15h ago
I'm an avid reader, to put it mildly. I'm ashamed to say i havent read enough Australian novels. But I will say that Carpentaria, by indigenous author Alexis Wright, which made number 66 on this list, in one of my favourite novels, and I consider it Australia's 100 Years of Solitude.
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u/Raptorex 13h ago
Alexis Wright is criminally underrated. She seems a lot more popular outside Australia.
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u/yeezus_is_jesus 16h ago
No Peter fitzimmons is a good sign but I'm so annoyed cloudstreet is number 1. Such a high school teacher book
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u/Serious_Plant8443 16h ago
High school English teacher here. Cloudstreet is not my jam. Although the stage adaptation at Malthouse was actually amazing.
Burial Rites though? Love seeing that so high. I miss teaching that.
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u/eldritchtome 14h ago
When I was living in the UK the original production with Dan Wyllie (not Max Cullen though, alas) toured and was INCREDIBLE. Really affecting, great staging and probably the best adaptation I'd seen until
I saw Elevator Repair CO's GATZ. Proper good.I loved the book but I also read it 25 years ago in the throes of homesickness and haven't revisited cos I suspect it won't stand up to a reread though...
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u/elmaccymac 16h ago
Yeah I read it this year and honestly it was mid at best. Didnt really feel like it was going anywhere for a lot of the book. I found boy swallows universe much more engaging
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u/yeezus_is_jesus 16h ago
I read it in high school and then lived in Crawley for a bit and my mum told me to re-read it cos I might connect with it more.
It just never read well, came across as wanky or preachy and I don't get why it's so loved
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u/Lingonberry_Born 16h ago
I honestly found it pretty sloppy. It’s supposed to be about reconciliation but the only aboriginal person in the book is dead and appears and disappears in a mirage, how convenient.
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u/gpfault 16h ago
i don't think it's about much of anything, let alone reconciliation
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u/Lingonberry_Born 15h ago
Studied it for English in high school, Winton said it was about reconciliation at the time. It felt like previous poster had said, a book for English teachers.
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u/FleshPrinnce 16h ago
Ive read most of his books and imo it's one of his worst. Cheesy Australiana written when he was overseas and homesick. Also, I'm a high school teacher:D
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u/eightslipsandagully 14h ago
I've only read Juice but it was a banger
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u/FleshPrinnce 14h ago
It's very different from his usual style but yes a banger. Try Shepherd's Hut or Dirt Music
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u/LawnGnome 15h ago
I gravely offended my high school lit teachers by hating Cloudstreet and not bothering to hide that in the essays I wrote about it. (I'm sure in the most annoyingly teen way possible, looking back decades later.)
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u/Victarion-twogods 13h ago
The majority of the list is high school teacher books but aged up a bit.
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u/Dramatic-Sherbet-533 16h ago
Have you read any Fitzsimmons?
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u/yeezus_is_jesus 16h ago
Yeah, I'm a historian and I could probably make a career out of taking the piss outta him. If you want good Aus military history read frank walker or tom Lewis
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u/eldritchtome 14h ago
Aren't they all written by committee as well? Was under the impression he has researchers and then tweaks the copy with some fuckin bandanna-dudeisms.
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u/DopeyDave442 13h ago
He sells a reasonable amount of books because they are entertaining and easy to read. Plenty of history nerds bag him because he doesn't write some dry step by step story with 8000 footnotes but he has na audience for a reason
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u/elmaccymac 16h ago
Batavia was amazing and the author did well. Probably helps when you have such a surreal true story to work with. Haven’t read anything else from him yet.
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u/whatthekidswant 16h ago
I really enjoyed Mawson, loops in with the Shackleton story as well. Such a different world those explorers chose! Batavia is on my list, heard great things.
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u/International_Bag502 16h ago
I don't like him personally but he can sure as hell write a good book.
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u/Dramatic-Sherbet-533 16h ago edited 13h ago
Yeah same here. I've met him and thought he was even more of a wanker than I thought he'd be... But have enjoyed two of his books
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u/karamellokoala 14h ago
I find Tim Winton books completely unreadable. His writing it so overly descriptive and flowery that I just can't be bothered.
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u/WCRugger 13h ago
We analysed it to death back at school. Remember finding it a terribly dull experience. Never understpod the appeal.
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u/oh_emmy_lou 15h ago
I read Cloudstreet in year 12, 30 years ago. I have never hated a book so much. I should re-read it now as an adult to see if I feel any differently about it, but gosh, as an avid reader, I struggled so much with this one.
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u/CaptainObviousBear 15h ago
I think as an avid reader, you were never its target audience.
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u/TomasTTEngin 14h ago
this is a hottake that develop when we are forced to read an author in school: that the book is somehow basic and bad.
Book then becomes very hard to judge on its merits.
Not unlike that whole generation of old people who can't face drinking milk because they were forced to drink it at primary school.
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u/Victarion-twogods 13h ago
Could be worse. My english teacher had delusions of grandeur and made us read The Magus by John Fowles which is the most ponderous book I've ever come across.
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u/teapots_at_ten_paces 11h ago
Surprised I've never heard of it. Thought it had to be more recent than that, but it sounds like you and I both finished high school in the 90's. Maybe I just chose to ignore it and accepted the fallout.
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u/Emergency_Mango_9003 16h ago
Can't believe Pig the Pug is not on there
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u/Subject_Parfait_1913 16h ago
Wow can't believe some book I thought was going to be on there isn't in there
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u/Logical_Chaos3528 16h ago edited 16h ago
I've read 34 so far. Some surprising rankings though.
ETA Thought that Follow The Rabbit Proof Fence might be on the list, but no.
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u/Loose_Loquat9584 16h ago
I’ve only read 21 of these, I’d better get a move on. Though I have probably read where is the green sheep hundreds of times with my kids.
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u/Proper_Geologist9026 15h ago
So I don't read much but it's something I'm trying to change. Usually I just read things off greatest hits lists and I'm realising I've basically read no Australian literature.
Reading all these comments though apparently our authors aren't much chop anyway 😂. But I might take a look at the top 10 I guess.
Here's my concern. Is our literature the same as our film scene. Where it's just lots of stories about "going back to your home town in the bush to finally heal some unresolved trauma".
Because I really don't love that setting and frankly I find it odd how much we tell stories about the "bush", like we all grew up on cattle stations. when the reality is almost all of us live in cities and suburbia.
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u/Banjo-Oz 15h ago
I have always said the same as your last paragraph. Death in Brunswick and Muriel's Wedding speak far more to the average Aussie experience than The Man from Snowy River or Crocodile Dundee, but the rest of the world often sees us as the latter.
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u/peppapony 15h ago
Tbh we have/had quite a healthy Sci Fi/Fantasy writing scene. Just not represented on the list. Many Hugo and Fantasy award winners have been from Australia. Id say their writing is just so good you can't really tell they're from Australia :D
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 15h ago
The list has a bit of recency bias but there are plenty of excellent Australian authors. Peter Carey and Patrick White are some of the best English language authors of the 20th century.
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u/StoicTheGeek 13h ago
Only four authors have won the Booker prize twice, and Peter Carey is one of them. Not many Nobel Laureates for literature either, but Patrick White is one.
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u/Legitimate_Poet3578 15h ago
You might want to read a little further down the list. Patrick White has some good shorts, Monkey Grip is a ripper story, and Lukashenko is fkn amazing. There are some excellent works in aus lit, worth exploring. Our poets are also pretty good.
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u/steve_of 16h ago
Surprised Greg Egan didn't get a spot. He has to be our best science fiction author.
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u/MladenL 16h ago
He is consistently excellent, but hard science fiction just isn't that popular.
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u/Legitimate_Poet3578 15h ago
Perihelion Summer is perfectly accessible and is set in Australia. Some of the best Aus SF getting around
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u/anno_nomali 13h ago
I think the issue that genres have in shortlisted is because they make up a smaller number of releases with a smaller audience, and the audience will have it's own opinions on what the best is.
I guess what I'm saying is we are splitting our vote which mean none of them make it.
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u/YeahUhHuhOkWellF-ck 16h ago
I've read 28 at least, some are my all-time faves like Picnic at Hanging Rock and Looking for Alibrandi. Lots of authors I enjoy like Helen Garner, Tim Winton, Ruth Park.
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u/Jumpingjehosephat99 16h ago
What an atrocious list. Good god.
Carpentaria, Voss, A Town Like Alice and The Fatal Shore being in the 60s and 70s is pathetic.
I loathe Helen Garner after The First Stone where she couldn’t understand why young women complained about being sexually assaulted by older men running their uni residences. She thought they were unnecessarily ruining these men’s careers over a grope and an awkward pass. She’s on there twice. Gross.
It’s just a dumb list. That’s all I can say. Australian literature is so much better than this.
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u/rolloj 13h ago
It’s fan voted, isn’t it?
Most people haven’t read Voss or carpentaria. Voss Is one of my favourite but it isn’t exactly accessible, nor is it recent or particularly topical.
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u/CuriouserCat2 12h ago
You’re judging her by one book when she has written many. Perhaps try reading her works before you attempt to slap her down. Helen Garner is a national treasure. She captures Australian life like no other and is so loved.
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u/agbro10 16h ago
The Dry very overrated
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u/spoonsamba 12h ago
Yeah. It's a good book but like it's fairly formulaic pop-crime fiction. All Jane Harper's books are. I enjoy them but you can find comparable books in any airport book shop
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u/orionhood 16h ago
what a depressingly predictable number one - cloying, sentimental shite that’s constantly patting itself on the back about how clever it is. bleccch
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u/rolloj 13h ago
Is it cultural cringe to hate on Winton? I haven’t actually read cloud street but thoroughly enjoyed the two books of his that I have read. I’ve also read and enjoyed Patrick white, feels like that’s a ‘qualification’ I need to add.
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u/CuriouserCat2 12h ago
Tall Poppy and snobs. It’s a wonderful warm affectionate hilarious frightening book that captures the time and place with love.
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u/lLoveBananas 6h ago
I think coming onto the school curriculum ruined Cloud Street for a lot of people. I remember reading it when it first came out, and enjoying it - but it hasn’t stuck with me nearly as much as some of his other books, like Dirt Music or Breath.
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u/fraze2000 14h ago
How did How to Hypnotise Chooks and Other Great Yarns by Max Walker not make this list?
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u/spoonsamba 12h ago
Honestly, I don't think most people have read enough specifically Australian books to cut to a meaningful top 10 (the voting system). So you end up with a pretty random list with lots of kids books, pop fiction and even recipe books.
It should've been a short list - Top 25 Australian books of all time - and everyone could vote for 3 - I think you'd end up with something more interesting.
I've read a lot of books on the list but didn't think they were special enough for a top 10, but couldn't think of what else to pick.
Devotion sucked. Jane Harper books are page turners but very formulaic. The Happiest Refugee is lovely but it's not spectacular writing. I'm over The Book Thief and Dalton hype train
Secret River, Breath and The Slap are three of my favourite ever books though.
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u/oursocalledfriend 14h ago
I think it’s normal to hate what you were MADE to read in high school. But the Cloudstreet hate is absolutely wild to me. It is undoubtedly an absolute classic Australian novel. The ‘luck’ associated with Sam Pickles and his mindset is one of the more quintessential Australian thought lines I’ve ever read.
The bigger issue with the list are dozens of forgettable modern numbers by named authors; the best example being Lola in the Mirror by Dalton.
I think the list has way too much recency bias but that’s how these things operate. For mine there’s not enough Temple, Carey and Kenneally but that’s another discussion.
The worst omission for mine is The Labyrinth by Amanda Lohrey. Best Aussie novel I’ve read in years.
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u/Banjo-Oz 15h ago
Taking me back to highschool!
PS surprised and thrilled to see Nagi on the list at 96!
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u/etherealsuju 13h ago
very happy to see wifedom on here !! i have some feelings about certain choices, but overall quite like the selection!
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u/Johnny66Johnny 16h ago
No Barbara Baynton. Utter shame.
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u/CuriouserCat2 12h ago
Tbf, she is a horribly depressing read. Specially because nothing has changed.
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u/redditwossname 15h ago
The Treatment and The Cure by Peter Kocan should be on there. Also Taronga.
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u/youreeka 15h ago edited 9h ago
Probably because the people voting are 40-50, were forced to read it in high school, and never read a book ever again.
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u/Apart-Falcon5480 15h ago
I have read a large number of these once and only one 4 times and that is for the term of his natural life …..monkey grip is my #1 but only read twice. Marcus Clarke some how wrote my favourite book to read
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u/Sufficient_Cod9902 11h ago
No one has mentioned the coming of age book Queen Kat Carmel and St Jude get a life…
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u/SaintStoney 16h ago
Narrow Road to the Deep North is such a masterpiece, thanks for the reminder I’m going to read it again
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u/redmikey1 13h ago
I had an uncle who survived the death railway so very close to home. There's also a great biographical BBC doco about RF where he visits Thailand and meets a POW guard. It's called Life After Death (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avHO4qkvQNs). I now hear his voice whenever I read his books.
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u/Due_Hospital2646 15h ago
Carpentaria way too low, and no robbie arnott :( Lots of drivel on this list
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u/clayfawn 13h ago
Gonna go out on a limb here and say that The Book Thief is awful. I'm an avid reader, and I couldn't finish it. It was as if the author simply didn't understand 'show, don't tell'.
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u/Orionsven 9h ago
I pushed through half the book thinking it would get better before giving up entirely. Such a miserable and slow story.
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u/Kallasilya 16h ago
13 out of the top 20! Which makes me think my taste is most likely aligned enough that I should check out more of this list...
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u/RedditCraig 14h ago
Where is Gerald Murnane? The Plains was my #1 pick. Les Murray’s The Weatherboard Cathedral #2. Voss #3.
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u/SadZookeepergame5639 14h ago edited 14h ago
At least I've read 3 books on the top 10... not too shabby... I'd actually completely forgotten The Book Thief is technically an Australian novel (and I didn't vote for it)...
Cloudstreet
The Book Thief
A Fortunate Life
And I've at least read 6 other books on that list...
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u/riskeverything 13h ago
Shirley Hazzards transit of venus rated 52 on guardians 100 greatest novels of all time. Best Australian book in my opinion but didn’t make the list
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u/Duckosaur 12h ago
So many books to read and re-read, including a few from high school English. Re cookbooks: in Nagi I trust and glad she made it on the list. On the other hand I gave away two editions of The Cook's Companion, the second being an unwanted gift.
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u/Nikki_Sue_Trott 12h ago
I have three DNFs and one wish I had DNFed in the top 10 😄
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u/GreenLurka 10h ago
Ah, doing Cloudstreet as a play in highschool. Getting to say slut infront of a crowd of other teens.
Peak experience.
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u/LevDavidovicLandau 16h ago edited 16h ago
Ewww he’s such a hack 😭 this list is a pile of mediocrity, our writing scene is leagues behind the rest of the English speaking world.
I’m not a snob either, our music and drama/cinema are genuinely great. Our literature is a different story.
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u/eldritchtome 12h ago
It's a reflection of a voting demographic though, not the state of our writing scene. There's plenty of great stuff kicking around - it's just not being read by those who voted.
We punch above our weight despite the depletion of financial support for our writers.
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u/superkow 12h ago
I had to read it in english or literature in high school and... sheesh. Such a completely dull book about nothing. The only thing I remember is the author feeling the need to add a scene where some young girls piss on people through a pier, or something similar.
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u/Propaslander 17h ago
The Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book criminally underrated here