With the year almost over we thought we’d take a look back at the 100 bestselling books at Readings in 2011. This list combines sales from all six Readings shops and our website.

Each of the hundred bestselling books at Readings this year made the list with good reason. Local debuts that garnered really good word-of-mouth are there (Favel Parrett’s ), as are novels that were given a second life by big screen adaptations (The Help, The Slap, One Day) and book prizes helped a handful of books become mega hits (Booker-winning The Sense Of An Ending, Orange-winning The Tiger’s Wife and Pulitzer-winning A Visit From The Goon Squad).

It’s hugely pleasing that half of our bestselling books this year came from Australian authors and interesting to note - given the recent focus on the gender imbalance in book publishing, reviews and awards - that 40 of the 100 books came exclusively from female authors.

Here at Readings our own predictions as to what the bestselling book of the year might be included the new Murakami or the Steve Jobs bio, which have both been monster sellers. So it was with some surprise that we learnt what our most popular book of 2011 was. And in fact, what the top five bestsellers were. Scroll down and check them out for yourself.

100. Life by Keith Richards
99. The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson
98. Women Of Letters by Marieke Hardy and Michaela McGuire (Eds)
97. Smut by Alan Bennett
96. 1000 Fairy Stickers by Fiona Watt
95. Berlin Syndrome by Melanie Joosten
94. Kinglake-350 by Adrian Hyland
93. Violin Lessons by Arnold Zable
92. Spirit Of Progress by Steven Carroll
91. A Storm Of Swords: Steel And Snow: A Song Of Ice And Fire Book Three Part One by George R.R. Martin
90. Where Is The Green Sheep? (board book) by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek
89. After Romulus by Raimond Gaita
88. Ten Little Fingers And Ten Little Toes (board book) by Mem Fox and Helen Oxenbury
87. The Book Of Rachael by Leslie Cannold
86. The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin
85. Mangia! Mangia! by Teresa Oates and Angela Villella
84. What The Family Needed by Steven Amsterdam
83. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
82. Fair Cop by Christine Nixon
81. Michael Kirby: Paradoxes, Principles by A.J. Brown
80. Inheritance by Christopher Paolini
79. The Guide To Ethical Supermarket Shopping 2011 by Ethical Consumer Group
78. A Dance With Dragons: A Song Of Ice And Fire Book Five by George R.R. Martin
77. The Leopard by Jo Nesbo
76. The 13-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton
75. Hand Me Down World by Lloyd Jones
74. Drawing Conclusions by Donna Leon
73. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
72. Batavia by Peter FitzSimons
71. The Paris Wife by Paula Mclain
70. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
69. What Body Part Is That? by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton
68. Shannon Bennett’s New York by Shannon Bennett
67. Worse Things Happen At Sea by William McInnes and Sarah Watt
66. Terry Denton’s Bumper Book Of Silly Stuff To Do by Terry Denton
65. The Stranger’s Child by Alan Hollinghurst
64. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson
63. Her Father’s Daughter by Alice Pung
62. The Cook’s Companion by Stephanie Alexander
61. There Should Be More Dancing by Rosalie Ham
60. Indelible Ink by Fiona McGregor
59. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
58. Sarah Thornhill by Kate Grenville
57. The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories Of Personal Triumph From The Frontiers Of Brain Science (Revised Edition) by Norman Doidge
56. A Clash Of Kings: A Song Of Ice And Fire Book Two by George R.R. Martin
55. The Little Coffee Shop Of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez
54. A Private Life by Michael Kirby
53. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
52. The Dukan Diet by Pierre Dukan
51. Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
50. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
49. Past the Shallows by Favel Parrett
48. Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson
47. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
46. Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen
45. Room by Emma Donoghue
44. 1835: The Founding Of Melbourne And The Conquest Of Australia by James Boyce
43. Bereft by Chris Womersley
42. The Little Veggie Patch Co: How to Grow Food in Small Spaces by Fabian Capomolla and Mat Pember
41. Cabin Fever: Diary of a Wimpy Kid #6 by Jeff Kinney
40. Death Comes To Pemberley by P.D. James
39. James Halliday’s Australian Wine Companion 2012 by James Halliday
38. The Troubled Man by Henning Mankell
37. The Age Cheap Eats 2011 by Nina Rousseau and Simone Egger (Eds)
36. Rome: A Cultural History by Robert Hughes
35. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
34. Autumn Laing by Alex Miller
33. The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
32. Five Bells by Gail Jones
31. Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi
30. After Words by Paul Keating
29. Go The Fuck To Sleep by Adam Mansbach
28. Quarterly Essay 43: Bad News: Murdoch’s Australian and the Shaping of the Nation by Robert Manne
27. The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje
26. Sideshow: Dumbing Down Democracy by Lindsay Tanner
25. A Game Of Thrones: Song Of Ice And Fire Book One by George R.R. Martin
24. You’ll Be Sorry When I’m Dead by Marieke Hardy
23. Bossypants by Tina Fey
22. Notebooks by Betty Churcher
21. The Age Good Food Guide 2012 by Janne Apelgren
20. The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do
19 . The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt
18. Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson
17. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
16. That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott
15. Quarterly Essay 41: The Good Life: The Search for Contentment in the Modern World by David Malouf
14. The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
13. One Day by David Nicholls
12. The Street Sweeper by Elliot Perlman
11. Melbourne by Sophie Cunningham
10. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
9. Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage by Hazel Rowley
8. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
7. A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
6. Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals by Jamie Oliver
5. The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht
4. All That I Am by Anna Funder
3. The Sense Of An Ending by Julian Barnes
2. Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
1. The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance by Edmund De Waal

A perfect fusion of family memoir, history and art made The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance our most popular book of the year. It was a huge title around Mother’s Day and has continued to sell well ever since.

Caleb’s Crossing was only just behind the Hare, while there was a much bigger gap between those top two books and the rest of the field.

This list was compiled from sales across all six Readings shops and the Readings website from the period January 1 to December 12 2011. Different editions of titles have been combined to reflect total sales of each title. Ebook sales are not included.