2016 has been a huge year for Readings.
We returned as the official bookseller at Melbourne Writers Festival; we opened two new bookshops; we were named Independent Book Retailer of the Year at the 2016 Australian Book Industry Awards; and we won Bookstore of the Year Award at the 2016 London Book Fair International Excellence Awards. We also hosted a stack of fantastic events (including sell-out Town Hall extravaganzas with Gloria Steinem, and Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton), collaborated with a stack of fantastic organisations and festivals, and – of course – sold a stack of fantastic books.
In 2016, the Readings Foundation announced $128,349 worth of grants to support a range of projects and organisations within Victoria in 2017. Our Managing Director Mark Rubbo was appointed as a member of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation board this year, and we have been working hard to raise funds for this wonderful organisation. (In September we held a fundraiser event for the ILF with Richard Flanagan and Stan Grant that raised over $21,000.)
Meanwhile, several of our booksellers had their own brilliant achievements this year: Leanne Hall released a new novel for middle fiction readers (Iris and the Tiger), Gabrielle Williams’s YA novel (The Guy, the Girl, the Artist and His Ex) was listed on multiple prize shortlists and longlists, and A.S. Patrić won the 2016 Miles Franklin Literary Award for his novel, Black Rock White City.
After such a busy year, we’re going to be quiet on our blog for the next two weeks while our online and digital marketing team takes a break. (That’s us pictured in the photo, hullo!) All of our bookshops – including our online shop — are open as per usual during this time, and filled with all kinds of excellent books to satisfy your literary cravings.
We’ve compiled a selection of some of our most popular blog posts published on the Readings blog in 2016…
- An interview with Tim Winton
- An interview with Helen Garner
- Contemporary antidotes to terrible classics
- The books we read in one sitting
- What ABC TV’s The Book Club read in 2016
- Emily Gale on writing about death for kids
- Interesting women we met in books
- Why sex matters in young adult literature
- What to read when life sucks
- Children’s & YA authors on writing
- A snapshot of our Harry Potter memory wall
- Our best books & advice for comfort reading
- Princesses who don’t play by the rules
- Zoë Morrison on music & language
- On rereading childhood classics
- Five books that will stay with you
- 50 great reads by Australian women in 2016
Happy holidays, and happy reading.
