ABC’s Top 100 Books

Over the weekend, our national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) hosted its Top 100 books from 2001 till date as voted by the public over two afternoons. Almost 280,000 people voted including myself. And based on that, we heard the top 100 books.

I didn’t get to listen to the entire show on the radio thanks to other commitments. But I did listen when I could and followed it online. I predicted three of the books in the top 5 even though I hadn’t voted for them (they all made it to my shortlist though). I predicted the number 1 book – Boy Swallows Universe. It was a book I enjoyed when I read it well before the hype in 2018. I remember it being a slow burn and hard to get into but then, one Saturday morning, I was meant to go to the gym but instead, found myself on the couch racing through the book in three hours. It was captivating and I can see why Australians would vote for it. It also has the Aussie battler theme which people seem to love. Anyway, kudos to Dalton and Boy Swallows Universe.

From the final list of 100 books, I’ve read 59 books (including one DNF – The Goldfinch) and I have 9 more on my shelves waiting to be read. There were plenty there that I was happy to see – only three from my Top 10 made it but others from my shortlist definitely did. If I could go back, I would do some things differently – I missed We need to talk about Kevin which is in my top 10 favourite books ever. I also hadn’t realised that you could add books if you voted using your desktop and not your phone. I would’ve added The Namesake, Melanie Cheng’s novels, Denizen – all of which feature in my top 10. Another top 10 books of all time for me. But I was pleased to see Normal People on there, and The Bee Sting, and Shuggie Bain (on my shortlist), and Big Little Lies.

What makes me sad though, is the lack of diversity. Based on my count, and I could be wrong, only 13 authors were POC and one of them had two of his books in there – Khaled Hosseini. While I am pleased that so many Australian books dominated the top 10, if we were to look closer at Australian authors of colour, we only had 5 which included 3 indigenous authors. It’s telling about the Australian publishing industry and consequently, a reflection of what people read. If we published more books by authors of colour, surely, we’d have more people reading them. The fact that people have read Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens or The Covenant of Water or Too Much Lip and loved them enough to vote for them shows you that it’s not people that don’t like reading diversely. It’s that we just don’t have enough books.

As someone who loves Australian stories – both indigenous and non-indigenous, I also love reading about the migrant experience or even family sagas. But we don’t have as many diverse ones here. Which is a shame. I can only hope the next time there is a poll like this, we have more diverse books.

For now though, let’s revel in the fact that over 280000 people voted and enjoy books and reading. And let’s hope this inspires more people, especially the younger generation to read.