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Reading has always been a lifeline for me.
My childhood, while full of love from my parents, was marked by unending bullying, which began as I stepped on the school bus and only stopped as I stepped off that afternoon, and judgement and censure from not all but many of the people in the congregation where dad was a pastor.
I was either jeered or judged and with the real world holding not much in the way of appeal – though, being an extrovert, I did find my joy where I could; life somehow stays a little wondrous even when life is hell – and so reading gave me a necessary and richly rewarding escape.
It also sharpened inherent writing skills and imbued with an empathy that I think was always there but grew more pronounced as I read all kinds of people and mice and other characters who weren’t me but who were just as real and wonderful and worthy of love and acceptance.
For a kid in a highly circumscribed, very judgey world, that was important, and while I didn’t ever think “Oh, I’m escaping real life” or “I’m becoming more empathetic”, that’s what happened and I am hugely grateful for it all.
You’ll notice my choices are a real mixed bag, composed of books I read as a kid like The Rescuers (I still remembering buying these books with my pocket money at Dymocks in Lismore), Agatha Christie (my bridge between kids’ books and more adult fare, suggested by my dad), the Just Williams books (thanks Mum for that series, suggested when we were overseas in Singapore in 1974/75) and novels like Lessons in Chemistry (which was Dymocks’ Book of the Year some years back and deservedly so; I sold a ton of copies waiting in line at their Sydney City store, simply by telling people, in my loud voice, how much I loved the book).
I still read at least 120 books a year and when work is hugely stressful, which it always is, or I need to just switch off life, books are where I turn and they NEVER fail to make things better.
2. The Finches’ Fabulous Furnace by Roger Wolcott Drury
3. The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
(cover image courtesy Hachette Australia)
4. Spiderlight by Adrian Tchaikovsky
5. Watership Down by Richard Adams
6. The Famous Five … by Enid Blyton
8. Duncton Wood by William Horwood
9. The Rescuers by Margery Sharp
10. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Funny by Gail Honeyman
11. Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
12. Hardy Boys books – created by Edward Stratemeyer
13. Just William book series by Richmal Crompton
14. Agaton Sax book series by Nils Olof-Franzen
15. Moomins series by Tove Jansson
16. Emily Wilde series by Heather Fawcett
17. Christmas at the Island Hotel by Jenny Colgan
18. The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
(courtesy Little Brown)
19. The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks
20. Welcome to Glorious Tuga by Francesca Segal
22. The Murder Robot series by Martha Wells
24. The Borrowers by Mary Norton
25. A Robot in the Garden by Deborah Install
26. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
27. The Middlesteins by Jamie Attenberg
28. The Wombles by Elizabeth Beresford
29. Paddington Bear series by Michael Bond
30. Winnie the Pooh books by A. A. Milne
31. All the books of Peter F. Hamilton
32. Lights out in Lincolnwood by Geoff Rodkey
33. Ghost Girl, Banana by Wiz Wharton
(courtesy Hachette Australia)
36. Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings
37. A Caravan Like a Canary by Sasha Wasley
38. Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
39. The Story of Doctor Doolittle by Hugh Lofting
40. The Guncle by Steven Rowley
41. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
42. The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
43. The Torrent by Dinuka McKenzie
44. Day Zero by C. Robert Cargill
45. Nancy Business by RWR McDonald
46. Radio Life by Derek B. Miller
47. Last One at the Party by Bethany Clift
48. Wolfe Island by Lucy Treloar
49. Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett
50. Invisible Boys by Holden Sheppard
51. Darius the Great is not Okay by Adib Khorram
52. The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman
53. Step by Step: my life in Journeys by Simon Reeve
54. The Lady From the Black Lagoon by Mallory O’Meara
55. Snake Island by Ben Hobson
56. Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts
57. Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
58. Do You Dream of Terra-Two? By Tami Oh
59. Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
60. The Vintage Shop of Second Chances by Libby Page
