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‘Cloudstreet’ tops 10 Aussie Books to Read before You Die

5 December 2012   Books+Publishing
@booksandpublishing

Tim Winton’s novel Cloudstreet (Penguin) has been voted by readers as the number one Australian book to read before you die, in a competition held by the ABC’s First Tuesday Book Club.

The results were announced during a special show on 4 December, with regular panellists Jennifer Byrne, Marieke Hardy and Jason Steger joined by author Judy Nunn and director of the Wheeler Centre Michael Williams.

The top 10 titles were:

  1. Cloudstreet (Tim Winton, Penguin)
  2. The Book Thief (Markus Zusak, Picador)
  3. A Fortunate Life (A B Facey, Penguin)
  4. The Harp in the South (Ruth Park, various imprints)
  5. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay, Penguin)
  6. Jasper Jones (Craig Silvey, A&U)
  7. The Magic Pudding (Norman Lindsay, various imprints)
  8. The Slap (Christos Tsiolkas, A&U)
  9. The Secret River (Kate Grenville, Text)
  10. Picnic at Hanging Rock (Joan Lindsay, various imprints).

Nine of the books on the list are fiction, with A B Facey’s memoir A Fortunate Life the only nonfiction title represented. Seven of the books are written by men and three by women.

A spokesperson for the First Tuesday Book Club told Bookseller+Publisher that over 20,000 votes were received, and that the ‘top three [titles] were very clear winners’. A list of the top 50 titles is available on the First Tuesday Book Club website. The spokesperson also said that the episode won its timeslot in Sydney and Adelaide, and was ranked second overall at a ‘five-city level’.

Online bump in sales for Cloudstreet, The Harp in the South
Catherine Schulz from Fullers Hobart told Bookseller+Publisher that the store had ‘at best, a couple of copies of each of the top ten titles and yes, they’ve all sold out this morning’. Schulz said she was unlikely to create an in-store display around the list at such a busy time before Christmas. 

‘I could be churlish and note that it could have been a huge sales opportunity if we’d been able to pre-order,’ said Schulz. ‘I’d be prepared to commit to stock without knowing the results if it meant we could have met customer expectations—I worry that its impact will be lost during the Christmas rush.’

Fiona Stager from Avid Reader in Brisbane said that she was ‘a little surprised’ that there hadn’t been a bump in sales of the titles this morning, but added that it was still ‘early days’. Stager said she was planning to do some social media around the list but, like Fullers, would not devote an in-store display to the titles ‘at this time of year’.

Online bookseller Bookworld was promoting the top 10 list on its homepage this morning. Senior category manager Melanie Barton told Bookseller+Publisher that Bookworld ‘certainly sold more of all of the books overnight from people jumping online—in particular The Harp in the South, Cloudstreet and Jasper Jones (in that order).’ She added that the ‘physical books seemed to be more popular for us than the ebooks, which is an unusual picture on our big-brand fiction sales’. 

Booktopia’s product strategy manager John Purcell also reported a ‘considerable jump in sales for Cloudstreet and The Harp in the South’. ‘The rest, not so much,’ he said.

 

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Category: Local news