Eight winning titles for Australia’s National Year of Reading

The National Year of Reading 2012 is all about supporting reading initiatives in Australia. It's also about helping people discover and rediscover the magic of books and Australians becoming a nation of readers.

As a part of the initiative, eight books have been chosen by Australian readers in all States to be the National Year of Reading 2012 collection.

Thousands of Australians voted on the ABC website or in their local library for one of a selected number of books to represent their state or territory during the National Year of Reading 2012. They are;

Smoke and Mirrors, by Kel Robertson (ACT)

The Idea of Home, by John Hughes (NSW)

Listening to Country, by Ros Moriarty (NT)

The White Earth, by Andrew McGahan (QLD)

Time’s Long Ruin, by Stephen Orr (SA)

Wanting, by Richard Flanagan (TAS)

Well Done, Those Men, by Barry Heard (VIC)

Jasper Jones, by Craig Silvey (WA)

Margaret Allen, chair of the National Year of Reading founders and State Librarian of WA, explained,

“Readers have helped us create a collection of books which, read together, describe the Australian experience. We all know how very different it is if you’re living in the city or in a remote community; in the Northern Territory or New South Wales. We’re hoping that thousands of readers will take a journey around Australia through the pages of these eight books and come out of it with an even greater depth of understanding about what it means to be Australian.”