The author critiques top 100 book lists for being subjective and reflecting only the tastes of critics or those who vote, rather than objectively ranking the best books. Despite these criticisms, they admit to finding such lists compulsive reading. The article focuses on a specific poll by ABC Radio National aiming to find the 100 best Australian books of all time, noting that this could highlight lesser-known Australian works compared to predominantly American and British lists.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-18,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Why this leaning score
This article does not take a side on a contested political
question, so it has no leaning score. That is an
answer rather than a gap: a match report or a rescue can be warmly
or critically written without being left or right, and scoring it
anyway is how approval of a subject gets recorded as a political
position.
No political leaning scored for article 17707 · logged 2026-09-18
If critics choose them, they reflect only the critics’ tastes.
asserted
they → choose → tastes
If chosen by the public, they reflect only what people interested in voting have read and liked.
asserted
people → choose → voting
You can’t say these are the best books of all time; you can only say they represent something about readers’ choices at a particular moment.
asserted
they → say → moment
And yet like many others, I find these lists compulsive reading.
asserted
lists → find → others
I want to see if my favourites are on it, or if a book I hate is high on the list.
asserted
I → want → list
Then I moan and groan and avidly wait for the next list to appear.
asserted
list → moan → ?
The latest poll is from an ABC Radio National drive to find the 100 best Australian books of all time.
asserted
poll → find → time
This is a welcome antidote to international lists, which heavily favour American and British titles and rarely mention Australian books.
asserted
which → favour → books
You can nominate a shortlist of up to 10 books by October 1 and the final list will be announced live on a countdown on October 17 and 18.
asserted
list → nominate → October
I wonder what book will be number one?
asserted
book → wonder → ?
Possibly a Winton or a Garner or a Dalton or a Zusak – a book by a contemporary writer because these are the books most people read.
uncertain
people → read → writer
Patrick White, long regarded as Australia’s best writer, is out of fashion.
asserted
White → regard → fashion
And whether we like it or not, fashion rules these lists.
asserted
fashion → like → lists
I’m not alone in my concerns.
asserted
I → ’m → concerns
A Canadian writer, Thea Lim, wants such lists abolished.
asserted
lists → want → ?
“By design, a work of art… is unique, incomparable,” she writes in The Walrus newsletter.
asserted
she → write → newsletter
“But we resort to describing literature by how it stacks up to totally unrelated texts, because rating stuff is burned into our brains by the competitive economy.
asserted
stuff → resort → economy
Here’s an idea.
asserted
idea → ’ → ?
This voids the book’s intrinsic worth and turns it into a floating commodity like Bitcoin, she claims.
uncertain
she → void → Bitcoin
“Next time you talk up a book, experiment with constraining yourself to solely what’s between the covers.
asserted
what → talk → covers
Novelists pitch to publishers by saying their book is like two popular titles by two other authors.
asserted
book → pitch → authors
Prizes, awards and fellowships, not to mention bestseller lists, are all about comparisons.
asserted
Prizes → mention → comparisons
Radio National’s Top 100 Books poll last year was an international one, but bestselling Australian books (Trent Dalton’s Boy Swallows Universe and Marcus Zusak’s The Book Thief) took out the first two places and two other Australian bestsellers (Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites and Pip Williams’ The Dictionary of Lost Words) made the top 10.
asserted
bestsellers → take → top
The Guardian’s Top 100 novels list this year, voted in by authors, critics and academics worldwide, was much more angled towards the classics.
asserted
list → vote → classics
George Eliot’s Middlemarch took out the top spot and the rest of the top 10 were all golden oldies.
asserted
rest → take → 10
Ulysses, long regarded as a particularly challenging read, was at number three.
asserted
Ulysses → regard → number
The New York Times recently did a survey of 503 “literary luminaries” to determine the 100 Best Books of the 21st century and it’s a very literary list.
asserted
it → do → century
Number one is well known: Elena Ferrante’s novel My Brilliant Friend.
asserted
Number → know → ?
But I confess I’d never heard of number two, The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning non-fiction story of how black Americans migrated across the country.
asserted
Americans → confess → country
Here’s an idea.
asserted
idea → ’ → ?
Usually the ones at the top are predictable, but the ones at the end are passionately loved by relatively few, and that’s a great space to explore.
What else is happening in the book world?
-
asserted
What → love → world
This novel is the raw, moving reality check Australian fiction needs
- Blood, lies and cartels: Five new crime books to read this month
- ‘Landmark achievement’ wins $80,000 literature prize
- A giant Mao looms over Hong Kong.
asserted
Mao → need → Kong
The Aporia
