Here are our 10 bestselling DVDs from the past year.

(We’ve also compiled our 100 bestselling books of 2019 and our 10 bestselling albums of 2019.)

Our bestselling DVDs range from a much-loved, literary inspired detective series, to a stunning love story set against the backdrop of WWII, to an inspiring documentary about how to face the realities of climate change. Two DVDs about music icons also appear on this list: Gurrumul from director Paul Damien Williams, and…

Read more ›

Every year our staff vote for their favourite books, albums, films and TV shows of the past 12 months. Here are our top 10 DVDs of the year, voted for by Readings’ staff, and displayed in no particular order.

(You can find all our best picks for books, music & DVDs of 2019 here.)

Chernobyl by Craig Mazin

HBO’s chilling dramatisation of the April 1986 Ukraine nuclear power plant disaster is both an historical time capsule and a warning…

Read more ›

Our staff share their favourite books by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors, including prize-winning fiction, biography, essays, non-fiction, memoir and books for kids of all ages, from babies through to teens.

Today is Indigenous Literacy Day and Readings will be donating 10% of our book sales to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF), on top of our ongoing support. The ILF does amazing work to foster literacy in remote communities around Australia and close the gap on literacy and numeracy…

Read more ›

Flick on the heater, draw the curtains and brew yourself a pot of tea. We’ve rounded up some of our favourite new film and TV releases to DVD with which to curl up on a Sunday night in front of the telly.

FILM

If Beale Street Could Talk

Based on the book of the same name by James Baldwin, If Beale Street Could Talk is a heartbreaking love story set in Harlem in the era of Ray Charles and Aretha…

Read more ›

A host of excellent books are once again being adapted for the screen this year. Here are a collection of some of our most anticipated picks, and you can find plenty more by browsing our collections below.

Storm Boy by Colin Thiele

This classic Australian story was first published by Colin Thiele in 1964. After their mother is shot, Mike ‘Storm Boy’ Kingley rescues three pelican chicks and one of the birds, Mr Percival, forms a very special bond with…

Read more ›

Here are our 10 bestselling DVDs from the past year.

(We’ve also compiled our 100 bestselling books of 2018 and our 10 bestselling CDs of 2018.)

Our bestselling DVDs range from crime, drug addiction and historical dramas, to stories exploring the power of books; from moving tributes on the lives of creative geniuses, to the tale of an aircraft that changed the world.

Several of the following DVDs are also adapted from books. The Bookshop is based on Penelope…

Read more ›

Every year our staff vote for their favourite books, albums, films and TV shows of the past 12 months. Here are our top 10 DVDs of the year, voted for by Readings’ staff, and displayed in no particular order.

(You can find all our best picks for books, CDs & DVDs of 2018 here.)

Call Me By Your Name

Northern Italy, 1983 – swimming, peaches, long summer days. Luca Guadagnino’s swoony adaptation of André Aciman’s novel is a sensual…

Read more ›

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

On Chesil Beach is a masterful short novel from Ian McEwan. It is July 1962. Edward and Florence, young innocents married that morning, arrive at a hotel on the Dorset coast. At dinner in their rooms they struggle to suppress their private fears of the wedding night to come and, unbeknownst to them both, the events of the evening will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

At cinemas now
Watch the trailer…

Read more ›

Staff share what they’re planning to see at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) this year. You can find the full program here.

Marie Matteson recommends queer content, Icelandic films & Frederick Wiseman

Whenever the Miff guide comes out the first thing I do is pore over the pictures looking for signs of queer content. This year I am happy to report that I will be heading off to see The Miseducation of Cameron Post, adapted from the…

Read more ›

While most films at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) are strictly 18+, their Kids Gala and MIFF Schools program stream present an array of high quality, diverse film for under 15s. Here is what’s on offer for kids and teens in 2018.

SUITABLE FOR 3+

MIFF 2018 Kids Gala: The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales

France | English

Beautifully hand-drawn by animator and co-director Patrick Imbert, The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales makes its English-language Australian debut…

Read more ›

Every year, the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) program features some great films inspired by literature. Here are some of our favourite books (and one short story) that will be shown on the big screen this year.

Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin

Charley, a teen living with his single father, finds work caring for an aging racehorse named Lean on Pete. When he learns Pete is bound for slaughter, the two embark on an odyssey across the new American…

Read more ›

Our staff share some of their favourite fictional sibling relationships in books and film.

‘My favourite sibling pairings in books are generally on the more sinister side of things. One of my all-time favourite authors is A.S. Byatt, who is known for real-life sibling drama with her sister Margaret Drabble, also an author. Byatt’s book The Game details the relationship between two very competitive sisters in a way that can’t help but feel slightly autobiographical.

As precocious and highly intelligent…

Read more ›

Digital marketing manager Lian Hingee shares book recommendations for fans of popular TV shows.

If you love Game of Thrones…

The HBO TV series of Game of Thrones has introduced millions of readers to George R.R. Martin’s novels. If you’ve already read all of the books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, then grab a copy of The Name of the Wind. This wonderfully-written novel charts the early years of the legendary magician Kvothe who…

Read more ›

There are a stack of amazing books being adapted for the screen this year. Here are 10 of our favourites, and you can find plenty more picks by browsing our collections below.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

Mary Ann Shaffer’s The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society received a rave response from readers when it was first published in 2008. Set in the immediate aftermath of WWII, this epistolary…

Read more ›

Here are our 10 bestselling DVDs from the past year.

(We’ve also compiled our 100 bestselling books of 2017 and our 10 bestselling CDs of 2017.)

Our bestselling DVDs of last year reveal our customers’ love of historical dramas, crime mysteries and cats!

Ceyda Torun’s documentary about the cats of Istanbul, Kedi was a favourite with staff as much as it was with customers this year, as was Taika Waititi. We’re so pleased to see the New Zealander listed…

Read more ›

Our marketing manager shares five things that made her feel happy this past year

2017 has been a very hard year for a lot of people, the kind of year where you take whatever sources of happiness you can find. To that end, here are four novels and a movie that gave me a lot of joy over the past 12 months, and I hope they might bring you equal amounts of joy also.

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

…

Read more ›

Every year our staff vote for their favourite books, albums, films and TV shows of the past 12 months. Here are our top 10 DVDs of the year, voted for by Readings’ staff, and displayed in no particular order.

(You can find all our best picks for books, CDs & DVDs of 2017 here.)

Get Out

Cross The Stepford Wives with Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and the comedic brain of Key & Peele, and you come close…

Read more ›

To celebrate this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival, we are holding our annual Madman DVD sale throughout August.

This sale featuring a wide range of releases that includes Putuparri and the Rainmakers, Paterson, Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict, The Bélier Family, Tokyo Story and more.

Browse some of the highlights online below, or come in-store to discover the full range.

With prices from $12.95 each, this sale is not to be missed. Get down to your local…

Read more ›

Staff share what they’re planning to see at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) this year. You can find the full program here.

Jemima Bucknell is excited for a very special Australian film event.

MIFF is just the best time of year for the Melbourne film scene. I’m looking forward to new things from the cinema landscapers like Terence Malick with Song to Song, Luca Guadagnino with Call Me by Your Name, Todd Haynes with Wonderstruck…

Read more ›

This year’s Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) presents two program streams for a youth audience. MIFF Kids is a program of films for all ages at family-friendly times on the weekends. MIFF Schools brings together an array of high quality, diverse and age appropriate films in languages most commonly taught in Victorian schools.

Here is what’s on offer for kids and teens in 2017.

RECOMMENDED FOR 8+

MIFF Kids’ Gala: Rock Dog

USA & China | English

Directed by Pixar…

Read more ›

This Mother’s Day, our staff reflect on some of the most important lessons they’ve learned from fictional mothers – in books, TV, films, and more.

‘In the world of fictional mothers, Lorelei Gilmore has taught me to embrace pop culture at every opportunity, Emily Gilmore showed me to take no shit from anyone, Tami Taylor demonstrated how to have a successful marriage (nine parts love and kindness, one part great hair), Ellen Ripley was the ultimate maternal badass, Molly Weasley…

Read more ›

2017 is another massive year for book-to-screen adaptations, and we’re particularly excited to see these four books from Australian authors make their big (and small!) screen debuts.

Lion: A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley

At the age of five, Saroo Brierley became lost on a train in India. Not knowing the name of his family or where he was from, he survived for weeks on the streets of Kolkata, before being taken into an orphanage and adopted by a…

Read more ›

Here are our 20 bestselling DVDs from the past year.

(We’ve also compiled our 100 bestselling books of 2016 and our 20 bestselling CDs of 2016.)

Crime and historical stories dominate our list of bestselling DVDs of last year – including all five volumes currently available of Un Village Francais. Set in a fictional village of German-occupied France during the Second World War, this popular French drama series comes from writer Frédéric Krivine and principal director Philippe Triboit…

Read more ›

It’s been a really tough year, and summer is the perfect time to log off from social media for a little while, give yourself a break and binge watch your troubles away.

You’ll find my many suggestions below, with a few caveats: I have excluded reality TV, I watch far too many American shows, and my blind spots include Scandinavian crime and animation (sorry, BoJack Horseman fans).

If you’re seeking comfort…

You might be in need of the kind of…

Read more ›

Every year our staff vote for their favourite books, albums, films and TV shows of the past 12 months. Here’s a round up of all the blog posts featuring our best books, CDs & DVDs of 2016:

The Best Fiction Books of 2016

The Best Non-Fiction Books of 2016

The Best Crime Books of 2016

The Best Cookbooks of 2016

The Best Art & Design Books of 2016

The Best Picture Books of 2016

The Best Junior Fiction Books of…

Read more ›

Every year our staff vote for their favourite books, albums, films and TV shows of the past 12 months. Here are our top 10 DVDs of the year, voted for by Readings’ staff, and displayed in no particular order.

(You can find all our best picks for books, CDs & DVDs of 2016 here.)

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Taika Waititi’s latest and greatest is a must see for laughs and tears. It follows young Ricky Baker and his unwilling…

Read more ›

This year’s Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) program features some great films inspired by literature. Here are some of our favourite picks for book lovers in 2016.

We’ve also compiled a list of family-friendly films, shared our staff picks, and prepared a quick ‘at-a-glance’ guide for the time-poor.

THE HANDMAIDEN

Directed by Park Chan-wook | Based on Sarah Water’s Fingersmith

Sooki, a beautiful young pickpocket, has been dispatched by a master conman known as The Count to become…

Read more ›

Here’s a quick ‘at-a-glance’ guide to this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). You can see the full program here.

We’ve shared our top picks for book lovers, compiled a list of family-friendly films, and you can also find out which films our staff are planning to see here.

Most buzzed about

We recommend: High-Rise Runner up: Gimme Danger

Feel good film

We recommend: Toni Erdmann Runner up: Slack Bay

Psychological thriller

We recommend: The Handmaiden…

Read more ›

Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) curates a program of entertaining and thought-provoking cinema for a youth audience with Next Gen. Here’s what’s on offer for kids and teens in 2016.

We’ve also compiled a list of literary-inspired films, shared our staff picks, and prepared a quick ‘at-a-glance’ guide for the time-poor.

RECOMMENDED FOR 8+

Mune: Guardian of the Moon

France | English

In a fantastical universe where the Sun and the Moon are protected by fabled warriors…

Read more ›

Staff share what they’re planning to see at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) this year. You can find the full program here.

We’ve also prepared a quick ‘at-a-glance’ guide to the program for the time-poor, shared our top picks for book lovers, and compiled a list of family-friendly films.

Lian Hingee’s wishlist includes films about conspiracy theories and cats.

I’m a sucker for space, conspiracy theories and mockumentaries, so Operation Avalanche kind of looks like it…

Read more ›

The Oscars are due to be announced on 28 February. Here are our predictions of who will take out this year’s top awards. (You can view the full list of nominees

Nina Kenwood, Marketing manager

Best Picture: Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Actress in a Leading Role: Cate Blanchett, Carol
Best Actor in a Leading Role: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Sylvester Stallone, Creed
Best…

Read more ›

2016 is a particularly literary year for the Academy Awards with no fewer than five of the eight films nominated for Best Picture being inspired by books. Here are 11 books that have inspired films in this year’s list of Oscar nominees.

Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín

Nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role, and Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

In 1952, Eilis Lacey leaves Ireland to immigrate to Brooklyn, where she has a better chance of finding work…

Read more ›

Here are our 25 bestselling DVDs from the past year.

Televised dramas led the way in DVD sales last year with multiple seasons of Un Village Francais, The Fall, and The Legacy all appearing in our top 25. The list also includes some great documentaries, such as Asif Kapadia’s harrowing biopic of powerhouse singer Amy Winehouse. We’re also pleased to note that three of our bestselling DVDs are drawn from literature. Far From The Madding Crowd is based…

Read more ›

Here’s where I’m coming from – I like good comedies, snappy dialogue, family drama, teen angst, action-packed intrigue, survival-against-the-odds stories, anything that will make me cry and legal dramas. I don’t enjoy procedurals, most cop shows, and reality TV.

My summer viewing guide encompasses the shows I have enjoyed this year, the shows I expect to enjoy in the future, and shows I don’t personally enjoy but others will.

Shows I loved

This year had an abundance of terrific new…

Read more ›

Here are our top ten DVDs of the year, voted for by Readings staff. Displayed in no particular order.

Small Is Beautiful

Small Is Beautiful is a special documentary. Filmed in Portland, Oregon, Australian filmmaker Jeremy Beasley documents the tiny house movement, a grassroots response to the housing affordability crisis that currently affects so many people across the developed world. Beasley follows four people, each at various stages of building and living in their homes with little or no prior…

Read more ›

Here’s our mid-festival update from this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival. Staff share what their thoughts on what they’ve seen so far, and tell us what they’re still looking forward to. (You can find the full program here).

Nina Kenwood’s favourite film (so far) has been The Wolfpack

To date, I’ve seen four films at MIFF, and I’ve adored them all.

I watched three documentaries: Do I Sound Gay?, The Cult of JT Leroy and The Wolfpack.

…

Read more ›

Here’s a quick at-a-glance guide to this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival. You can see the full program here, and also find out what Readings staff are seeing here.

Most buzzed about

We recommend: The Lobster Runner up: Force of Destiny

Psychological thriller

We recommend: The WitchRunner up: Sunrise

Book-to-film adaptation

We recommend: Holding the Man Runner up: See all of our book-to-film picks here

Contemporary Australian drama

We recommend: The DaughterRunner up: Pawno

Tearjerker

We…

Read more ›

Staff share what they’re planning to see at the Melbourne International Film Festival this year! (You can find the full program here).

Nina Kenwood loves American indies

As always, there are a ton of American indie films I want to see: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (I’ll cry, I’ll laugh, my heart will be warmed), Sleeping With Other People (sex comedy starring Alison Brie – I’m in), The Overnight (sex comedy starring Adam Scott – I’m in)…

Read more ›

This year’s Melbourne International Film Festival is filled with book-to-film (and play-to-film) adaptations. Here are our picks of the bunch.

The End of the Tour (James Ponsoldt, USA)

Tasked with writing a profile on author David Foster Wallace for Rolling Stone, David Lipsky joined Wallace on a publicity tour for Infinite Jest. His book, Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself is based on this road trip and the conversations they have. And now, it’s been adapted…

Read more ›

Readings staff member Chris Gordon tells us what it’s like to watch the complete Game of Thrones series, with her teenage son.

Here is the stark truth:

I am not a fan of fantasy films or novels.

I’m well aware that dragons are not real.

Gratuitous sex and violence does not please me.

I hate anything to do with zombies.

And yet, I’ve somehow managed to watch all available seasons of Game of Thrones, without missing one single minute…

Read more ›

Winter is most certainly here and with that in mind, here’s some literary-inspired period dramas for you for to snuggle up with during the cold evenings – all sorted by the historical period they’re set in.

1529, Wolf Hall

Wolf Hall is an intimate portrait of Thomas Cromwell, the brilliant and ruthless advisor in the court of Henry VIII. As he walks the corridors of power at the Tudor court, Cromwell must navigate deadly political intrigue, the King’s tempestuous relationship…

Read more ›

Our staff bring us an update from the Alliance Française French Film Festival – what they’ve seen so far and what’s still to come!

Mark Rubbo on Gemma Bovery:

I had the privilege of attending the opening night which included a viewing of Gemma Bovery – a funny retelling of Madame Bovary’s classic story. The film is based on a popular graphic novel by Posy Simmonds. Skilfully directed by Anne Fontaine, who also made the similarly sumptuous Coco Before…

Read more ›

Nina Kenwood and Bronte Coates talk about Cheryl Strayed’s memoir, Wild, and how the recent film adaptation compares to the book.

Bronte: I read Wild based on your recommendation but otherwise I never would’ve picked it up as it didn’t sound like the sort of thing I’d enjoy. I absolutely loved it (of course). Why did you pick it up in the first place?

Nina: I think I read something about it online, and I’d just gotten into hiking…

Read more ›

Here are our 25 bestselling DVDs from the past year.

Crime and politics dominate our top sellers with every currently available season of The Bridge, House of Cards (both the US and UK versions) and Borgen all listed below. Three new crime shows have also proved popular: The Fall which stars Gillian Anderson of The X-Files fame, Morden: The Fjällbacka Murders which is based the books of Swedish crime writer Camilla Läckberg and True Detective which was one of…

Read more ›

Our staff share their favourite – and sometimes their least favourite – films for Christmas time.

My all-time favourite Christmas movies are Home Alone and While You Were Sleeping. But over the past few years I started a new tradition for myself of watching super cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies (Hallmark releases a new batch every Christmas). So far this holiday season I’ve enjoyed Christmas Under Wraps (a big-city doctor moves to a small town and learns to appreciate Christmas)…

Read more ›

Here are four upcoming Australian book-to-TV-&-film adaptations that have our staff excited! (Three are supported by Screen Australia and one is an overseas production…)

Joe Cinque’s Consolation: A True Story of Death, Grief and the Law by Helen Garner

A film adaptation of Helen Garner’s classic true crime story has received funding from Screen Australia. Garner – who has read an early draft of the screenplay written by Matt Rubinstein and Sotiris Dounoukos – said: ‘(Dounoukos’) whole attitude to the…

Read more ›

Three fans of The Hunger Games trilogy – Nina Kenwood, Chris Gordon and Bronte Coates – share their thoughts on the the most recent film adaptation, Mockingjay: Part 1.

Bronte: Okay, let’s kick this off with an easy question… How did film rate against the first two?

Chris: I loved Mockingjay: Part 1 the best of all three. I think the actors came into their own in this film and really owned the characters. I particularly enjoyed watching the…

Read more ›

Here are our top ten DVDs of the year, as chosen by our film specialist Lou Fulco. Displayed in no particular order.

Chef

Chef is a rich and vibrant comedy – the story of Carl Casper (Jon Favreau), who loses his chef job and cooks up a food truck business in the hope of re-establishing his artistic promise. At the same time, he tries to reconnect with his estranged family.

True Detective: Season 1

The lives of two detectives, Rust…

Read more ›

As a fan of both the novel and film adaptation of Gone Girl, I am here to pit them against one another in an ultimate showdown so you can know, definitively, which version is better. My scientific process involves comparing each in random categories that I have deemed important.

(Warning: plot spoilers ahead.)

Nick:

I never liked Nick in the book. Not for one minute – not at the very beginning, not after the Big Twist and not even…

Read more ›

Nina Kenwood, our digital marketing manager, and Fiona Hardy, our crime book specialist, attended a special preview screening of the Gone Girl movie this week. Here’s a (relatively) spoiler free discussion of the experience.

Nina: Hi Fiona. We both saw the Gone Girl movie last night. Let’s start with the most pressing question: did you see Ben Affleck’s penis? No wait. We’ll come back to that. Did you enjoy the film?

Fiona: Yes, I did enjoy Ben Affleck’s…

Read more ›