The latest installment of our book advice column where you can ask our wise bookseller Agatha all your tricky (book-related) questions.

Based on the longlist, which book do you predict will win the Man Booker Prize this year?

I haven’t read everything on the longlist as yet but I’d argue that Siri Hustvedt’s The Blazing World is well-placed to win – it’s a superbly intricate novel set in the New York art world. I’d also like to mention Karen Joy Fowler’s We are All Completely Besides Ourselves, a funny and heartbreaking book that I was surprised, but so pleased, to see on the longlist.

Richard Flanagan, the only Australian included on the longlist, is also garnering much praise internationally for The Narrow Road to the Deep North – I think it’s certainly a strong contender.

(You might also be interested to read ‘The Lazy Bugger’s Guide to the Man Booker Longlist’ in which the author reads samples of the available books and then make a decision on how good they are based on that alone.)

My granddaughter is graduating from high school this year and I wanted to give her a special book as a gift. What can you recommend?

If you’re feeling nostalgic or sentimental, a special edition of a book your grandaughter loved as a child, whether it’s Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are or the Moomins, is a lovely gift for graduation. You can have a look through our collection of kids’ classics to jog your memory here.

For something a bit more practical there’s Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In. Sandberg is the COO of Facebook and this book is her memoir, business manifesto and career guide all rolled into one. Geraldine Doogue’s The Climb: Conversations with Australian Women in Power and Tess McCabe’s Conversations With Creative Women: Volume Two are also wonderful choices featuring revealing interviews with inspirational women.

Finally, I’d very highly recommend George Saunders’ Congratulations, by the Way which is a transcript of Saunders’ stirring and funny address at Syracuse University.

I’ll start with a disclaimer: I love Readings and buy all my books from independent bookshops (and I buy a lot of books). But I also read a lot of fan-fiction online. My question: how ashamed should I be of reading fan-fiction? Is this something I shouldn’t talk about in public, especially with my more literary friends?

My conservative, accountant friend recently revealed to me that she wrote Prince William fan-fiction when she was younger. She even sent me the link to read it (and, yes, it was hilarious and rather cringe-worthy). There are a lot more people writing and reading fan-fiction than you may realise – see this article as an example. As with all things, fan-fiction ranges across a very broad spectrum from awful to amazing. It’s just a matter of finding what suits your tastes and your needs.

I don’t believe in book-shaming, and that extends to fan-fiction. With reading, there’s no such thing as ‘guilty pleasure’. It’s just pleasure. If you enjoy reading something, you shouldn’t be ashamed. I say be bold and share your fan-fiction reading habits with the world. You’ll probably discover a few of your friends are interested in your recs.

And thank you for being a supporter of independent bookshops too!

If you have a question for Agatha please email