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Garth CoghlanABC RN's The Bookshelf has published the books that came in at 101-200 on their Favourite Books of the 21st Century poll. I'm not going to repeat a full-blown analysis, but few things:
* I've only read ~30 of these, compared with 57 of the top 100.
* Two more more of the books I voted for made it: #157. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss and #171. The Good People by Hannah Kent. (I had 3 in the top 100.)
* There are quite a few more fantasy & scifi books: The Name of The Wind, a couple by Margaret Atwood, and Sarah J Maas, and by RF Kuang, a Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, Cloud Cuckoo Land, The House in the Cerulean Sea, The Three-Body Problem, plus a couple of YA: Percy Jackson, and Nevermoor. Not a terrible selection.
We reveal the books that didn’t quite make the Top 100 - ABC listen
Join us for a lively Top 100 Books of the 21st Century after-party! Following last weekend’s extraordinary two-day countdown, this event recaps the results of over 288,000 votes cast by readers across Australia. Kate, Cassie, and special guests will unpack the trends, surprises, and insights that reveal what Australians are reading — and why. Plus, the countdown is not over. We're revealing the books that almost cracked the Top 100! GUESTS Michaela Kalowski, Curator and Top 100 Producer Gavin Williams, Owner - Matilda Bookshop in the Adelaide Hills; Chair - BookPeople Maryanne Vagg, Librarian, Warrnambool Library Download a printable list of The Ones That Got Away Listen to the Top 100 Books countdown. CREDITS Presenter, Cassie McCullagh, Kate Evans Producer, Cassie McCullagh, Kate Evans, Michaela Kalowski, Shevonne Hunt, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Simon Branthwaite, Beth Stewart Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown
I couldn't resist doing some analysis of ABC Radio National's Top 100 Books of the 21st Century.
How much more likely were people to vote for books because they had read them in recent memory (recency bias)? You would expect that good books are spread out evenly across the years, but it's hard to remember books that you read many years ago! Turns out there was an even spread of books across 2000-2019. But there were 40% more books than expected from 2020-2024. (See first graph.)
Were newer books more likely to be lower down the list? I thought this might be lkely because votes for recently read books might spread out more. But that wasn't completely true. The bottom 40 of the list did lean new, but so did the top 20. (See second graph.)
How diverse were the authors on the list? Not very! Only 22 of the books were by authors with diverse backgrounds, by which I mean non-white or not hetero-normative. The top 20 were the least diverse, but it was pretty even across the range. Probably not surprising - people might connect most strongly with books that speak to their own experience. Would be fascinating to see more demographic info on the voters.
Most books were by authors from Australia (35), the USA (31), the UK (17) and Ireland (7). Ireland seemed to punch above its weight. New Zealand only had one author! (Heather Morris, The Tattooist of Auschwitz).
There were very few non-fiction books, especially if you exclude memoirs and true crime. I count 4: Dark Emu, Stasiland, Sapiens and A Short History of Nearly Everything. And yet non-fiction accounts for something like 40% of book sales. I wonder if that is because a non-fiction book tends to focus on a particular subject, which would have less widespread appeal. It could also be that the type of people who vote in this sort of poll are book nerds, and book nerds mostly read fiction.
As a keen #fantasy & #scifi reader, I was disappointed. Project Hail Mary is the only full-blown scifi, but I wouldn't say it is a good representation of the genre. There is Hunger Games and Harry Potter, but both are young adult. The others (Cloud Atlas, Station Eleven, Piranesi, Never Let Me Go) feel borderline (I've not read the last two).
How did the list compare with my own ratings? I've read 57 of the 100 books, and I did rate higher books better, but the relationship was very weak. (See third graph.)
Highest ranked book that I didn't really like: #12. Where The Crawdads Sing. (Runner up The Dry.)
Lowest ranked book that I really liked: #86. Cloud Atlas
Highest ranked book I'd never heard of: #9. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
I've got 43 books to catch up on in the next few years, plus the favourites as voted by my friends. Never short a good book!
News BeepTrent Dalton’s Boy Swallows Universe wins the Top 100 Books countdown — as it happened
1h agoSun 19 Oct 2025 at 8:10am Want more Top 100 Books? On Monday, Radio National’s The Book…
#NewsBeep #News #Headlines #AU #Australia #boyswallowsuniverse #markuszusak #radionational #thebookshow #thebookthief #thebookshelf #top100books #top100booksnumberone #trentdalton #trentdaltontop100books
https://www.newsbeep.com/195132/
I'm looking forward to the final 40 of Radio National's Top 100 Books of the 21st Century this afternoon.
I reckon these with rank highly:
Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton, and maybe also Lola In The Mirror
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Something by Margaret Atwood, maybe Oryx & Crake
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan (could be #1)
Less sure of:
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
A Song of Ice & Fire by George RR Martin (surely a proper fantasy book has to make an appearance?)
The Martian by Andy Weir (I'd prefer a better sci fi, maybe Seveneves by Neal Stephenson?)
Stasiland by Anna Funder
What have I missed? Will be fascinating to see!
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https://www.abc.net.au/listen/radionational/countdown/top100books
thermonuclear small claimsThis is fun. Hottest 100 for book nerds (me)
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/radionational/countdown/top100books/1-100
The first of my favourite books has made it into Radio National's Top 100 Books of the 21st Century: #68. Educated by Tara Westover.
Only expecting a couple more of mine to make it ...
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/radionational/countdown/top100books
Leigh-ChantelleOnly a few more days to #vote in Radio National's Top 100 #Books of the 21st Century: https://top100books.abc.net.au
What about you?
My list primarily consists of non-fiction (except for Trent Dalton & Sally Rooney), and the decision-making process centred on the books I've lent to people the most.
sneedy maccreedytwo things about #RadioNational this morning: 1. the failure every dang time somebody whinges about regulations to even ask for an example. 2. the alacrity with which the host will interrupt someone criticizing this or that action by israel with a countervailing argument made by israel
questions noticeably missing from the interview on #RadioNational this morning: 'how many people did you forecast?' 'how many people did the oranizers tell you to expect (and did you ask them)?' 'what were your contingency plans for 50k? 75k? 100k etc?'
https://eigenmagic.net/@NewtonMark/114963875835607424
https://eigenmagic.net/@NewtonMark/114963875835607424
Mark Newton (@[email protected])
Acting Police Commissioner: "I was honestly worried that we were going to have a major incident with potential loss of life." Maybe you should be better at your job. Did any of the protesters think they were about to lose their lives, or were you just pearl-clutching? Seemed quite orderly. Maybe you're just not qualified to judge how "perilous" it was and shouldn't be doing this job. #acab