Reading

I’ve always known that reading and writing are intimately connected. I would never have written if I’d never read poets like Wordsworth, Auden, Dylan Thomas and Yeats.

So, for a long time I’ve kept a journal of my reading, and for the last twenty years or so, picked out my books of the year. Here’s my book of the year winners over that time. A couple of years ago I decided that some of the genre boundaries were a bit meaningless, but I’ve kept the list going on this page for posterity. You can read more about my choices at my poetry page HERE

Poetry Books of the Years

• 1985 – Selected Poems by Robert Gray
• 1986 – Travelling by Andrew Taylor
• 1987 – The Haw Lantern by Seamus Heaney
• 1988 – Under Berlin by John Tranter
• 1989 – In the Name of the Father by Kristopher Saknussemm
• 1990 – Selected Poems by Peter Porter
• 1991 – Blue Notes by Laurie Duggan
• 1992 – Standing with Friends by Peter Kocan
• 1993 – At the Florida by John Tranter
• 1994 – Waving to Hart Crane by Robert Adamson
• 1995 – New and Selected Poems by Kevin Hart
• 1996 – New & Selected Poems by Paul Muldoon
• 1997 – All of Us (Collected Poems) by Raymond Carver
• 1998 – Collected Poems by Tomas Transtromer
• 1999 – The World of Ten Thousand Things by Charles Wright
• 2000 – Selected Poems by Patrick Kavanagh
• 2001 – and dug my fingers in the sand by Brook Emery
• 2002 – Flame Tree: Selected Poems by Kevin Hart
• 2003 – Green See Things in Waves by August Kleinzahler
• 2004 – Mangroves by Laurie Duggan
• 2005 – Totem by Luke Davies
• 2006 – Sea Wall and River Light by Diane Fahey
• 2007 – The Goldfinches of Baghdad by Robert Adamson
• 2008 – Navigation by Judy Johnson
• 2009 – Mountains and Rivers Without End by Gary Snyder
• 2010 – A History of Clouds by Hans Magnus Enzensberger
• 2011 – Lines for Birds by Barry Hill and John Wolseley
• 2012 – Fire Diary by Mark Tredinnick
• 2013 – Picnic, Lightning by Billy Collins
• 2014 – Bluewren Cantos by Mark Tredinnick
• 2015 – The Moon Before Rising – W.S. Merwin
• 2016 – Have Been and Are – Brook Emery
• 2017 – Night Sky with Exit Wounds – Ocean Vuong
• 2018 -No Award
• 2019 – Swift. (New and Selected Poems) by David Baker
• 2020 – No Award
• 2021 – No Award
• 2022 – The Thicket by Kasey Jueds
• 2023 – The Jaguar by Sarah Holland-Batt

Non-Fiction Books of the Years

• 1985 – T.S. Eliot by Michael Ackroyd
• 1986 – The Bicycle and the Bush by Jim Fitzpatrick
• 1987 – Fred Williams by Patrick McCaughey
• 1988 – The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes
• 1989 – The Road to Botany Bay by Paul Carter
• 1990 – Blessed City by Gwen Harwood
• 1991 – The Great Plains by Ian Frazier
• 1992 – Thylacine by Eric Guiler
• 1993 – Iron John by Robert Bly
• 1994 – Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky
• 1995 – The Future Eaters by Tim Flannery
• 1996 – Landscape & Memory by Simon Schama
• 1997 – Badland by Jonathan Raban
• 1998 – Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
• 1999 – The Emmigrants W.G. Sebald
• 2000 – The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald
• 2001 – In Ruins by Christopher Woodward
• 2002 – The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton
• 2003 – The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen
• 2004 – Poets on the Peaks by John Suiter
• 2005 – Chronicles 1 by Bob Dylan
• 2006 – Here is Where We Meet by John Berger
• 2007 – Wildwood by Roger Deakin
• 2008 – The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane
• 2009 – The Red Highway by Nicholas Rothwell
• 2010 – Peeling the Onion by Gunter Grass
• 2011 – The Autobiography of Mark Twain by Mark Twain
• 2012 – Dylan’s Vision of Sin by Christopher Ricks
• 2013 – The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane
• 2014 – Four Fields by Tim Dee
• 2015 – H is for Hawk by Helen McDonald
• 2016 – If This is a Man / The Truce by Primo Levi
• 2017 – Between Them by Richard Ford
• 2018 – Henry David Thoreau (a life) by Laura Walls
• 2019 – The Journals of Lewis and Clarke. De Soto (editor)
• 2020 – Horizon by Barry Lopez
• 2021 – Red Comet (the short life of Sylvia Plath) by Heather Clark
• 2022 – Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit
• 2023 – Killing for Country by David Marr

Fiction Books of the Years

• 1985 – Harland’s Half Acre by David Malouf
• 1986 – A Lifetime on Clouds by Gerald Murnane
• 1987 – Waterland by Graham Swift
• 1988 – Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
• 1989 – Captivity Captive by Rodney Hall
• 1990 – Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• 1991 – The Great World by David Malouf
• 1992 – The Death of Napoleon by Simon Leys
• 1993 – The Volcano Lover by Susan Sontag
• 1994 – All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
• 1995 – The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy
• 1996 – The Lost salt Gift of Blood by Alistair McLeod
• 1998 – Montana, 1948 by Larry Watson
• 1998 – So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
• 1999 – Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien
• 2000 – No Great Mischief by Alistair McLeod
• 2001 – The Middle Parts of Fortune byFrederick Manning
• 2002 – Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald
• 2003 – Crabwalk by Gunter Grass
• 2004 – Old School byTobias Wolff
• 2005 – Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster
• 2006 – The Sea by John Banville
• 2007 – The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford
• 2008 – Home by Marilynne Robinson
• 2009 – No Award
• 2010 – The Barley Patch by Gerald Murnane
• 2011 – The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
• 2012 – Canada by Richard Ford
• 2013 – House of Earth by Woody Guthrie
• 2014 – A Million Windows by Gerald Murnane
• 2015 – Mason and Dixon by Thomas Pynchon
• 2016 – A Spool of Blue by Anne Tyler
• 2017 – The Last Man in Europe by Dennis Glover
• 2018 – Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson
• 2019 – Overstory by Richard Powers
• 2020 – Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
• 2021 – Bewilderment by Richard Powers
• 2022 – Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
• 2023 – Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard