Breaking News: Announcing the 2022 Better Reading Top 100

We are thrilled to announce the 2022 Better Reading Top 100

Each year, Australians have their say about which books and authors they love to read in the Better Reading Top 100. It has become a well-loved annual event that readers vote for, celebrate and then discuss. It is a true reflection of what Australians read, featuring a mix of crime, women’s general fiction, literary fiction and classics. We’re thrilled with this year’s list and look forward to sharing it with our readers.

The 2022 top spot goes to… drumroll, please… Honeybee by Craig Silvey. Honeybee is a tender, profoundly moving novel, brimming with vivid characters and luminous words. It’s about two lives forever changed by a chance encounter – one offering hope, the other redemption. It has been embraced by Australian readers and sets the tone for the rest of this year’s Top 100 list. Some other noteworthy observations:

Australian readers love female authors.
71 of the Top 100 books were written by women.
There are seven great reads by female authors in the Top 10.
Three female authors in the Top 10 are Australian.
In total, 57% of authors are Australian, and six of the Top 10 books are by Aussie authors.

Overall, the list is a celebration of female authors but also a reminder of how loved Australian authors are. Better Reading Director Cheryl Akle states:

“Once again, readers have shown their love of home-grown authors with well over 50% of their favourite books written by Australians. This shift first took place in 2017 and shows no sign of changing. It’s clear the desire to read Australian remains, which is incredibly exciting. There is a strong culture and thirst for local voices with authors such as Jane Harper, Liane Moriarty, Rachael Johns and Heather Morris each featuring multiple titles on the 2022 list.
Also noteworthy is how readers embrace female authors now more than ever. This year, with nearly 10,000 votes, an outstanding 71 books by female authors made the list. Women read, women buy the books and now it’s clear, women write the majority of books we read. Congratulations to all the authors who made the list this year, especially Craig Silvey who takes our top spot with Honeybee, a personal favourite of mine.”

Once again, debut authors play a prominent role on the list – especially authors whose books have now remained on the list for consecutive years. Also crime thrillers remain one of the genres most widely enjoyed by readers. Australian crime is well represented with multiple books by Chris Hammer, Jane Harper and Christian White making the list. And let’s not forget women’s fiction, a mainstay on the list each year.

Along with the Top 100 displays in Big W stores nationwide, all the titles are also available as an e-book list on Apple Books, and more and more libraries are now creating Top 100 shelves. All over the country, readers use the Top 100 as their annual book list, counting down their reads alone, with friends, in book clubs and on the Better Reading Facebook Page.

For the full list of Better Reading’s 2022 Top 100, click here.

Click here for a downloadable Top 100 poster.

Click here for a printable PDF list of the Top 100 books.

Better Reading’s Top 10 reads:

Honeybee by Craig Silvey
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Godmothers by Monica McInerney
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
Devotion by Hannah Kent
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
Still Life by Sarah Winman

Thank you to all who voted, and a huge congratulations to our Top 100 winners who will be receiving a copy of each title on the Top 100 list. The winners are:

Kylie Fendt, SA
Yvonne Luckhurst, NSW
Brooke Long, VIC
Kate Hamilton, NSW
Susan Francis, ACT
Sue Black, SA
Kylie Auld, QLD