It’s that time of year again: Get Reading! Australia have released their list of Top 50 Books You Can’t Put Down. Of those on the list this year, I have read only one so far (Burial Rites, Hannah Kent) and two others are loaded onto my e-reader, awaiting their turn to be read (Mateship with Birds, Carrie Tiffany and Questions of Travel, Michelle de Krester). A few other titles are already on my mental hit list. I love this initiative of encouraging people to read, and I especially love that the list includes books from all genres, including picture books.
This year, Get Reading! have taken things further, announcing Australia’s Top 100 Favourite Homegrown Reads, as voted by Australians. Again, this list includes books from all genres, and I was pleased to see that many of my favourites made 
the cut. There are so many wonderful titles on the list, and of the 100 books, I’ve read 26 of them. Not terrible, but there are definitely some fantastic titles on the list which I’ve overlooked. Some I even have sitting on my bookshelf, yet they keep getting pushed to the back of the queue and somewhere along the line forgotten.
In the spirit of the Get Reading! initiative and in order to acquaint myself with some more Aussie classics, I’m going to start my own Get Reading! challenge and read my way through the 76 books I haven’t yet read. This will include committing to giving Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet a third attempt, despite my resolution to get on with reading books I enjoy. Instead of writing straight reviews of these titles, I will blog about my experience of reading these books as I go. My goal will be to finish reading all 76 books by September next year, when the 2014 Get Reading! initiative is launched.
Join me in the challenge! I would love to hear other readers’ thoughts about the books on the list, and their experiences of reading them.
So what are we waiting for? Shut your laptop screen, disable your WiFi and dive into that book you’ve been meaning to read for ages. My only dilemma is which of the 76 books to read first…
Little Swag of Books 
DoingDewey
I have too many books on my TBR list to add 76 at one go, but I’m excited to hear what you think about them 🙂
Annie
Hannah Kent’s book has been on a few of the blogs I read lately, her books sounds interesting. I’ve checked out both of the lists you’ve mentioned, as I’ve been meaning to read more Australian fiction. I’m glad to see that several Melina Marchetta titles made the Top 100 list, I love what I’ve read of her work. Anyway, I’m thinking I’ll start with Puberty Blues – have you read that?
Raelke
Thanks for the comments! ‘Burial Rites’ is worth a read, but no, I haven’t read ‘Puberty Blues’ yet. I might start with that one too!
Annie
Awesome. I follow ShelleyRae at Book’d Out on Goodreads and she’s given it 4 stars, so I have high hopes. What did we do in the days before Goodreads? Lol. Hope we both enjoy it!
Annie
Oh, just read the synopsis for Man Drought on the Top 50 list, now that sounds like me! (I’m definitely a Chic Lit kind of girl.)