Radio National’s Top 100 Books of the 21st Century vote has concluded. You can read all about it at this link.
I didn’t vote, mainly because I generally think that the book I’m currently reading is the best or worst of all time. I’ve read 36 of the ones that made the cut. Some of them are terrific, some I wouldn’t give the time of day to in the street. Here are the books that I’ve read, with links to my blog post where they were published after about 2004, plus the 13 books I haven’t read but have seen a TV or movie version of, without links. I almost scored 50 percent.
95. Susanna Clarke, Piranesi
92. Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl (Movie directed by David Fincher 2014)
90. Adam Kay, This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor (TV series starred Ben Whishaw 2022)
89. Geraldine Brooks, People of the Book
88. Helen Garner, This House of Grief
82. Alexis Wright, Carpentaria
81. Melissa Lucashenko, Too Much Lip
76. Mem Fox & Judy Horacek, Where is the Green Sheep?
72. Mary Ann Schaffer, Annie Barrows, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Mike Newell’s 2018 movie)
71. Paul Murray, The Bee Sting
65. Richard Flanagan, Question 7
64. Ann Patchett, Bel Canto
61. Helen Garner, Joe Cinque’s Consolation (I read this extraordinary book before I started blogging)
60. Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles
59. Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Another one I read before I started blogging)
58. Percival Everett, James
56. Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (Yet another read before blogging)
55. Bernadine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other
52. Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
48. Yann Martel, Life of Pi (Read before blogging)
47. J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Movie directed by Mike Newell 2005)
44. Robbie Arnott, Limberlost
43. Anna Funder, All That I Am
42. Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove (Movie directed by Hannes Holm, 2015)
41. Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain
40. Tim Winton, Dirt Music (Read before blogging)
38. Tim Winton, Breath (Movie directed by Simon Baker, 2017)
37. Christos Tsiolkas, The Slap
36. Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club (TV movie, directed by Chris Columbus 2025)
34. Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (Wonderful movie directed by Mark Romanek 2010)
33. Min Jin Lee, Pachinko
32. Sally Rooney, Normal People (Excellent TV series directed by Lenny Abrahamson & Hettie Macdonald 2020)
28. Jane Harper, The Dry (Movie directed by Robert Connolly, 2020)
27. Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend
24. Craig Silvey, Jasper Jones
21. Ian McEwan, Atonement (Movie directed by Joe Wright, 2007)
20. Kate Grenville, The Secret River
19. Cormac McCarthy, The Road (Movie directed by John Hillcoat, 2009)
18. Bruce Pascoe, Dark Emu
15. Geraldine Brooks, Year of Wonders (Read before blogging)
11. Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These
10. Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
9. Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life
6. Hannah Kent, Burial Rites
5. Bonnie Garmus, Lessons in Chemistry (2023 TV series)
4. Anthony Doerr, All The Light We Cannot See
3.Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow
2. Marcus Zusak, The Book Thief
1. Trent Dalton, Boy Swallows Universe
Me fail? I fly! 
I haven’t counted how many of the 100 I have read, but I have read nine of the top 10 which felt like a good outcome – until I realised 2 of them were ones I enjoyed at the start but got tired of and only skimmed the final third or so to finish them.
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Yes, getting onto this list is no guarantee of a good read. Fan clubs, formal and informal, inevitably stack the votes. Not a single book of poetry made the grade. Hrumph!
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Only 3 of the books I voted for made it into the top 100. Oh well hopefully it’s good for sales (wearing my bookseller hat) and helps some readers find their next read.
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I did vote, despite the bizarre set-up of the books being organised alphabetically by author’s first name. I got bored after a bit so probably only voted for anyone whose first name started with a letter in the first half of the alphabet. I had read 5 of the eventual top 10 and would say they didn’t all deserve to be there!
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