“How’s your Australian reading year going?”
“Are you sick of reading Australian books yet?”
“Don’t you miss reading books from other places?”
During 2016 these questions hounded me every time I caught up with friends and bloggers who knew I had challenged myself to read Australian literature all year.
My response was always the same. I was enjoying the project so much that even I was surprised at how easy and fun it was proving to be. I did not feel like I was missing out. If anything, I was overwhelmed by the sheer scope and range of books available to me.
Now, looking back on an entire year’s worth of reading, I can chalk it up as one of the best reading years of my life.
Depth and breadth
I read such a diverse range of books, from psychological thrillers to personal essays about eating disorders, that I never once became bored. I was discovering some great new-to-me writers and reacquainting myself with ones I knew from long ago. It made me reassess my opinion that Australian writing was dull and obsessed with its colonial past — an opinion I formed more than 20 years ago when I worked in a book store and shunned the “convict fiction”, as I’d dubbed it, to spend all my money on a steady diet of (predictable) US fiction instead.
Back then I didn’t realise there were Australian writers pumping out edgy crime novels, mind-bending experimental fiction and glorious literary fiction set in contemporary times, or that essay writing could be so intriguing and readable, or that memoirs could be so thoroughly engaging and, occasionally, jaw dropping.
Perhaps in the early 1990s, the publishing industry wasn’t publishing those kinds of books (in 1991 I can safely say that I read just two Australian books that year — Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet and Ben Hills’ Blue Murder), or maybe I was too young and naive to realise there was more to the homegrown literary scene than I imagined.
Whatever the case, this past year of “reading Australia” has reignited a passion for reading books from my homeland. By year’s end I had read a total of 53 Australian books (I also read six British titles and six Canadian titles) and know that I will continue to read many more in the year to come.
Some highlights
- I read all the shortlisted titles for the Stella Prize and all the shortlisted titles for the Miles Franklin Literary Award.
- For the first time ever, I read more books by women than men, thanks to my participation in the Australian Women Writers’ Challenge. (Click to see the 35 titles I reviewed.)
- I read a surprising number of memoirs (eight in total) and a surprising number of short story collections (four).
- I read a diverse range of true crime, all of it fascinating, well researched and written in an engaging novelistic fashion.
- I discovered Stephen Orr and now want to read everything he’s ever written.
Some lowlights
- I did not make a very big dent in my TBR. At the beginning of 2016, the number of Australian titles in that pile was 128. It soon swelled thanks to a few review copies coming my way and the very many purchases I made (well, I had to buy the shortlisted titles for the Stella and Miles Franklin, didn’t I). By year’s end it stood at 116. Oops.
- I did not read any pre-mid-20th century classics (I had to abandon Christina Stead’s The Man Who Loved Children in the summer when I changed jobs and no longer had the bandwidth to cope with it).
- I did not read any books by Kate Grenville, Alex Miller or Randolph Stow, all Australian writers listed on my favourite authors page.
All up it was a brilliant year of reading, and I hope you had as much fun following along as I did in reading and reviewing so many fabulous books. I thought it might be useful to provide a list of everything I read, so here it is. The books marked * made my top 10 favourite reads of the year.
FICTION
PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER
- ‘Fear is the Rider’ by Kenneth Cook
- ‘Viral’ by Helen FitzGerald
- ‘What Came Before’ by Anna George
- ‘Hush, Little Bird’ by Nicole Trope
CRIME
- ‘The Dry’ by Jane Harper*
- ‘Crucifixion Creek’ by Barry Maitland
- ‘Line of Sight’ by David Whish-Wilson
LITERARY FICTION
- ‘Floundering’ by Romy Ash*
- ‘Drylands’ by Thea Astley
- ‘It’s Raining in Mango’ by Thea Astley
- ‘The Other Side of the World’ by Stephanie Bishop
- ‘Hope Farm’ by Peggy Frew
- ‘Goodbye Sweetheart’ by Marion Halligan
- ‘Snake’ by Kate Jennings
- ‘The Landing’ by Susan Johnson
- ‘A Guide to Berlin’ by Gail Jones
- ‘Leap’ by Myfanwy Jones
- ‘The World Without Us’ by Mireille Juchau
- ‘Harland’s Half Acre’ by David Malouf
- ‘The Mint Lawn’ by Gillian Mears
- ‘The Hands: An Australian Pastoral” by Stephen Orr*
- ‘Black Rock White City’ by A.S. Patrić
- ‘When the Night Comes’ by Favel Parrett
- ‘True Country’ by Kim Scott*
- ‘The Last Painting of Sara de Vos’ by Dominic Smith*
- ‘A Pure Clear Light’ by Madeleine St John
- ‘Dirt Music’ by Tim Winton
HISTORICAL FICTION
- ‘Elemental’ by Amanda Curtin
- ‘The Daughters of Mars’ by Thomas Keneally
- ‘The Golden Age’ by Joan London
- ‘Salt Creek’ by Lucy Treloar
DYSTOPIAN FICTION
EXPERIMENTAL FICTION
SHORT STORIES
- ‘Six Bedrooms’ by Tegan Bennett Daylight
- ‘A Few Days in the Country and Other Stories’ by Elizabeth Harrower
- ‘Merciless Gods’ by Christos Tsiolkas
- ‘Hot Little Hands’ by Abigail Ulman
NON-FICTION
TRUE CRIME
- ‘The Family’ by Chris Johnston and Rosie Jones
- ‘A Murder Without Motive: The Killing of Rebecca Ryle’ by Martin McKenzie-Murray
- ‘Wild Man’ by Alecia Simmonds
- ‘Eugenia: A True Story of Adversity, Tragedy, Crime and Courage’ by Mark Tedeschi QC
- ‘The Media and the Massacre’ by Sonya Voumard
ESSAYS
MEMOIR
- ‘Walking Free’ by Dr Munjed Al Muderis (with Patrick Weaver)
- ‘Aunts Up the Cross’ by Robin Dalton*
- ‘Big Blue Sky: A Memoir’ by Peter Garrett
- ‘Talking to My Country’ by Stan Grant*
- ‘The Latte Years’ by Philippa Moore
- ‘Reckoning’ by Magda Szubanski*
- ‘Dying: A Memoir’ by Cory Taylor
- ‘Island Home: A Landscape Memoir’ by Tim Winton
Reading Matters 
Well done! It’s vaguely insulting to any nation to assume that they only produce one kind of book and that a reader is going to get bored. And you obviously found a great variety of reading from your Australian year!
LikeLike
The variety was what impressed me most, I think. If the books were all just lit fic after lit fic I might have got bored, but the different genres made for an eclectic choice.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve enjoyed your year of Australian discovery too, Kim. My first review this year was for an Australian debut – Jennifer Down’s Our Magic Hour which I loved. It was published between Christmas and New Year, not an ideal time for review coverage sadly. I hope it won’t disappear into UK obscurity. It deserves to be noticed.
LikeLike
That’s good to hear, Susan. I have a review copy of that but it didn’t sound like something I wanted to read. I’ll have another look based on your opinion of it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I bet half those people who quizzed you about being sick of OzLit only ever read US/UK Lit and don’t think there’s anything odd about that!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah, hadn’t thought of that… I do know lots of bloggers that read pretty much a steady diet of new British fiction. That doesn’t excite me at all…I like to be fairly eclectic in what I choose to read.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes, me too. I’m enjoying the trend of bloggers fossicking through the guilt-ridden TBR and resurrecting books from a while back… though they end up adding to my TBR when they do!
LikeLike
I plan to read much more from my TBR this year, so apologies in advance if you’re TBR grows as a result 😉
LikeLike
Oh yeah…
LikeLike
If Cloudstreet was all I read I might have given up on Aust.Lit too. I forget what else I read back then – I was very busy with my (first) mid-life crisis.
Sorry you didn’t like Black Rock White City enough to include it in your top ten – I checked out your review – but I really loved the way that Jovan’s poetry reasserted itself in his consciousness to symbolize his gradual healing.
LikeLike
You didn’t like Cloudstreet I take it? I have very fond memories of reading it… and I planned to re-read it in 2016 but just never got around to it. Part of me is a little scared I won’t enjoy it as much second time round.
I enjoyed Black Rock White City, but as you will have seen from my review I thought it was slightly uneven. I like your suggestion that Jovan recalling his poetry was a symbol of his gradual healing. I hadn’t thought of it like that.
LikeLike
An excellent summary of your reading year Kim, I’m not surprised to hear there is such a breadth of literature coming out of Australia now, and its good to hear about the reading initiatives that promote. I read The Dry last year which I enjoyed, but admit, I steer away from literature that dominated my reading youth in favour of voices that are even lesser heard, I’m not much of a patriot, although can be enticed by a particularly favourable review!
LikeLike
I think books by New Zealand writers are very hard to find… but I have a small collection here, so perhaps if I ever review any of them you might be tempted, Claire 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
I do keep an eye out for them and have read a couple of Fiona Kidman novels recently, and follow the Booksellers blog, but I don’t think I could survive being constrained to just one country, no matter where it was, I need the freedom to change my reading plans regularly. 🙂
LikeLike
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed following your year reading Australian literature Kim… and the diverse range you covered. Certainly made me appreciate there’s plenty authors worth exploring.
What’s your plans for this year? Will you maintain a portion of your reading for Oz or have you a new project?
LikeLike
Thanks, Poppy, it’s been lovely to have you along for the ride!
No project this year… I want to catch up on a lot of the stuff I missed out on last year (mainly the Irish books I bought and put aside), plus delve into my TBR a little more deeply and ignore the 2017 new releases wherever possible! I would also like to read more by my favourite authors https://readingmattersblog.com/my-favourite-authors/ and books from Peter Boxall’s 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die https://readingmattersblog.com/reading-log/1001-books/
Oh, and I will sign up for the Australian Women Writers’ Challenge again, though I only plan on reading 10.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know exactly what you mean – the more CanLit I read, the more I want to read, and I honestly have a hard time fitting in any of the other stuff! There is everything and anything a reader could want (except books from other countries!). I suspect Australian literature is similar. So glad you had a great year! Would you do it again?
LikeLike
Would I do it again? In a heartbeat! I actually contemplated extending it right into 2017 and making it a 2-year project, but I couldn’t bear missing out on all those Irish books I bought last year in preparation for reading this year. I do love my Irish fiction.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Maybe every second year! 😉
LikeLike
Ive very much enjoyed reading your blog especially your australian challenge. Ive read 15 australian books in 2016 thanks to you including charlotte wood and elizabeth harrower who were new to me. I am interested to see what you are reading this year.
LikeLike
Oh that’s great, Victoria. Where are you based?
LikeLike
Sorry I’m a bit late to the party Kim, but I was in Thredbo for 6 days and didn’t read many blogs while there. Am trying to catch up now. A lovely summary of your year. I remember being impressed when you announced your project – a big commitment – but I would never have thought you could become bored through such a focus, particularly given around 2/3 of my reading is Australian and, as you say, I find it wonderfully varied.
And again, thanks so much for your wonderful contributions to the AWW challenge this year. It was such a pleasure seeing your posts come through.
LikeLike
Thanks, Sue. It was an amazingly varied reading year and I really loved reading so many great books by women writers especially. I’m going to sign up for the AWW challenge again but will aim for a much lower figure (probably 10) because I want to get back into reading/catching up with translated fiction and Irish fiction.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes fair enough, it will be lovely to have you on board with any number of books Kimbofo.
LikeLike