The 100 bestselling books at Readings in 2019
Here are our 100 bestselling books from the past year.
We’ve also compiled our 10 bestselling albums of 2019 and our 10 bestselling DVDs of 2019.
Of the 100 books listed below…
- 32 are non-fiction
- 31 are fiction
- 14 are children’s books (4 picture books, 2 junior grade books, 6 middle grade books, 2 YA books)
- 13 are biographies or memoirs
- 5 are crime reads
- 3 are cookbooks
- 3 are collected works (1 anthology, 1 poetry collection, 1 single-authored collection)
Of the 107 authors (as well as editors, illustrators, translators, and more) listed here, 56 are Australian, 53 are women and 12 are First Nations writers.
Contributors to appear on this list multiple times include two First Nations writers, Bruce Pascoe and Marcia Langton, as well as self-help author Mark Manson and acclaimed Irish novelist Sally Rooney. All three books released last year that featured characters from the beloved children’s TV series Bluey also appear here.
Books about environment, climate change and rethinking our relationship to the land were popular this year, with nonfiction titles from authors Greta Thunberg (No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference), Ross Garnaut (Superpower), Tyson Yunkaporta (Sand Talk) and David Wallace-Wells (The Uninhabitable Earth), all appearing here, as well as notable fiction that tackles the climate crisis head on, including The Overstory by Richard Powers and The Glad Shout by Alice Robinson.
100. Dare to Lead by Brené Brown
99. Blue Moon by Lee Child
98. This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay
97. Superpower by Ross Garnaut
96. Lanny by Max Porter
95. The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells
94. It Sounded Better in My Head by Nina Kenwood
93. When All Is Said and Done by Neale Daniher
92. Buckley’s Chance by Garry Linnell
91. Veg by Jamie Oliver
90. There Was Still Love by Favel Parrett
89. Guts by Raina Telgemeier
88. Welcome to Country by Marcia Langton
87. From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage by Judith Brett
86. Bluey: Fruit Bat
85. Axiomatic by Maria Tumarkin
84. The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga
83. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat & Wendy MacNaughton
82. Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino
81. See What You Made Me Do by Jess Hill
80. Peace by Garry Disher
79. The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
78. The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein
77. The History of Philosophy by A.C. Grayling
76. Love Is Strong as Death by Paul Kelly
75. Australia Day by Stan Grant
74. Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow
73. Penny Wong by Margaret Simons
72. City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
71. Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith
70. Growing Up Queer in Australia edited by Benjamin Law
69. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
68. Everything Is F*cked by Mark Manson
67. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
66. Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (translated by Geoffrey Trousselot)
65. Real Pigeons Fight Crime by Andrew McDonald & Ben Wood
64. The Scholar by Dervla McTiernan
63. Outline by Rachel Cusk
62. Plots and Prayers by Niki Savva
61. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
60. Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan
59. Welcome to Country (Youth Edition) by Marcia Langton
58. The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman
57. Bruny by Heather Rose
56. The Glad Shout by Alice Robinson
55. The Peacock Detectives by Carly Nugent
54. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
53. Bluey: Time to Play!
52. How to Make a Movie in Twelve Days by Fiona Hardy
51. Maybe the Horse Will Talk by Elliot Perlman
50. Tell Me Why by Archie Roach
49. Bluey: The Beach
48. Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
47. Salt by Bruce Pascoe
46. Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout
45. Jack Charles: Born-again Blakfella by Jack Charles
44. Kitty Flanagan’s 488 Rules for Life by Kitty Flanagan
43. The Arsonist by Chloe Hooper
42. Agent Running in the Field by John le Carré
41. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
40. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
39. Yellow Notebook by Helen Garner
38. The Wife and the Widow by Christian White
37. All the Ways to be Smart by Allison Colpoys & Davina Bell
36. Less by Andrew Sean Greer
35. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
34. Wilam by Aunty Joy Murphy, Andrew Kelly & Lisa Kennedy
33. Sand Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta
32. Any Ordinary Day by Leigh Sales
31. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
30. Milkman by Anna Burns
29. The White Girl by Tony Birch
28. The Body by Bill Bryson
27. Men at Work (Quarterly Essay 75) by Annabel Crabb
26. The Rosie Result by Graeme Simsion
25. The 117-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton
24. Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
23. The Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape
22. The Fast 800 by Dr Michael Mosley
21. Your Own Kind of Girl by Clare Bowditch
20. Becoming by Michelle Obama
19. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
18. The Anarchy by William Dalrymple
17. Educated by Tara Westover
16. The Weekend by Charlotte Wood
15. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
14. The Overstory by Richard Powers
13. Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko
12. Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
11. No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg
Our top 10 bestselling books are…
10. The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie
9. Young Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe
8. Damascus by Christos Tsiolkas
7. Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
6. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
5. Ottolenghi SIMPLE by Yotam Ottolenghi
4. Normal People by Sally Rooney
3. No Friend but the Mountains by Behrouz Boochani (translted by Omid Tofighian)
2. Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
And our number one bestselling book of 2019 is…
Bruce Pascoe’s remarkable 2014 history of Australia’s First Nations, Dark Emu, was our number one selling book of the year, having been among our top 10 bestsellers for every week of 2019 – except one when the book was out of stock. Pascoe’s game-changing title has been embraced by readers eager to learn more about our country’s 60,000 year history, and his new books Young Dark Emu (an adaptation of Dark Emu for young readers) and Salt (a collection of his writings from his storied career) also appear in our top 100.
