ABC Radio National’s Top 100 Australian Books asks readers to nominate up to 10 of their favourite literary works produced by Australian writers.
Ten sounds generous — until it comes to the task of choosing them.
Do you vote for the most beautifully written book or the one that kept you awake till dawn under your blanket when you were a teenager?
Maybe you include the one you’ve re-read so often that its binding is hanging on by a thread.
Count down the Top 100 Australian Books
Or do you choose the one that opened your eyes to a new genre you now can’t stop reading, or the one that takes you back to a significant period of your life?
Choosing a favourite book isn’t always a judgement based on merit — it can also say a lot about the reader choosing it.
So, what do your favourite books say about you?
Favourite doesn’t mean best
A favourite book and a book you consider to be the “best” are not necessarily the same thing.
A favourite book can be attached to a memory, a sense of comfort or nostalgia, a character we identified with, a community we entered, or a specific stage of our life.
Shakiba Barghi’s research looks at how sharing favourite books, asking for recommendations and responding to other readers’ tastes can create recognition and connection between readers. (Supplied)
In my research into online reading communities, I look at how books become tied up in how readers express themselves and connect with others.
We don’t just evaluate books. We form relationships with them, and some of those relationships outlast the first reading. This connection does not end when we close the book.
Taste is also a way of saying ‘this is me’
A romance reader might not simply say “I like romance.” Online, they might discuss (in detail) slow burn, yearning, spice, particular types of “book boyfriends”, and the emotional experience they want from a book.
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These preferences tell other readers what kinds of books they enjoy. They can also communicate what kind of reader they understand themselves to be.
Expressing a preference for a trope does not reveal your personality; rather, books give people a vocabulary for presenting their taste.
When you’re telling someone “this is one of my [favourite] books”, you are also telling them “this is one of my worlds”.
Favourite books can help us recognise our people
Books can provide shared reference points: a fellow romance reader gets it when you tell them the book made you giggle and kick your feet, in BookTok parlance. Romantasy readers recognise when you say you can fix the grumpy male main character.
Readers may identify with a genre, such as sci-fi or graphic fiction, an aesthetic such as dark academia, or even a particular way of reading, from immersive fandom and re-reading to seeking books for the feelings they promise.
Rather than simply discerning between what we like or dislike, our taste as readers helps us recognise one another.
This has become more visible with the rise of social media reading communities where our taste, previously more likely to be private, is now expressed publicly in posts, lists, comments and lively conversations.
When loving a book becomes something you display
You may have multiple editions of the same book or arrange your bookshelves according to genre. You may even collect objects associated with characters — who doesn’t want a Mr Darcy figurine on their shelf?
We see these visuals displayed on Bookstagram, BookTube and BookTok, the bookish corners of these social media platforms. Readers signal their literary attachment through special editions, themed objects, anniversary rituals or detailed knowledge of the fictional world.
None of these are necessary to enjoy a book, of course, but they show how a favourite book can become something we want to live with rather than something we once read (and maybe forgot).
Much of the discussion around social media reading communities like BookTok focuses on which books become visible, go viral or reach new readers.
But these social media communities make something else visible, too: the reader.
A shelf tour says something about the reader’s taste. A trope list says something about the reader’s preferred reading experience. A comment defending a character or recommending a book can signal the reader’s group membership.
And although these posts are about books, they’re also small performances of readership.
Your favourite books
Think again about that final list of your 10 favourite Australian books.
One could be a sentimental favourite that points back to your childhood.
Another might mark the moment you discovered a genre you still love.
Yet another may connect you to a community you found through reading, offline or online.
Or you could choose a book you return to not because it’s perfect or flawless, but because it still feels like yours.
Selecting favourites can be a way of tracing your own history as a reader.
Read another way, a list of your favourite books can look a little like a portrait of the person who chose them.
Shakiba Barghi is a PhD candidate in the School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne, and is a 2026 ABC Top 5 program recipient.
ABC Radio National will count down the Top 100 Australian Books on air on October 17 and 18.