Sunday book club: Why there is a bumper crop of new Australian releases coming for readers
It’s been a tough year so far for a number of reasons but with the next wave of prime new releases set to hit bookstores very soon, 2020 could be the best year for readers yet.
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Reading patterns have changed noticeably over the past few months, but that isn’t necessarily bad news — especially considering the next wave of prime releases about to hit stores, writes Kimberley Allsop.
A lot of industries have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, but a few have probably had their best months in years — I’m looking at you, toilet paper manufacturers, streaming services and makers of 1,000 piece puzzles.
Many people assume that book publishing should be in that thrive list — after all, reading is a leisure activity that can easily be done in the house.
While the first few weeks of lockdown saw a boost in sales for many well-known authors across both physical and e-books, readers rely on those wonderful people called booksellers to have their shops open and be sharing their love of reading and book recommendations in order for you to discover new titles to add to your TBR piles.
A lot of canny bookstores have become terribly innovative in the past couple of months. They’ve created whole e-commerce sites where there was only a Facebook page before. They’ve moved incredible events programs to digital platforms. And they’ve done what good booksellers do best, they’ve been there for their communities, using their bicycles for book deliveries and partnering with other local stores to weather the COVID storm.
The books that have soared into your letterboxes at this time have spoken to that community spirit and our hope for better days. Julia Baird’s Phosphorescence, a book on awe, wonder and the things that sustain us in the darkest times has been consistently at the top of the charts. We’ve also been reaching for those books that we’ve been meaning to read for ages.
Books that we’ve heard are “must-reads” from all our friends but driving the kids to all the sports on a Saturday morning and the never-ending roster of after-school activities in the five preceding days have zapped our ability to focus on the page before collapsing in to bed at night.
Boy Swallows Universe, Where the Crawdads Sing, Dark Emu and Becoming are finally being upgraded from the book shelf to the bedside table.
While the last few years have seen huge numbers of readers taking up audiobooks, there has been a dip in audiobook consumption in the past few months — no doubt in part due to the hours that we’ve no longer been spending on public transport each week.
Every time I leave my house (for essential reasons) I’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of people sporting active wear as they go for what has become a mandatory stroll — this would be the perfect time to listen to an audiobook but alas, by the looks of it, most people are spending this time on the phone to other people who are also strolling and talking about their lack of weekend plans.
Next time you’re feeling the crush of ennui may I suggest listening to The Ruin as read by Aoife McMahon — it’s incredibly soothing despite the twists and turns.
With lots of bookshops closed over the past few months, publishers have delayed the release of a lot of books that were originally slated to be published in the middle of this year.
This means that there is going to be a HUGE Christmas for booklovers. The blockbusters start rolling out from August: the hottest debut novel of the year, Gabriel Bergmoser’s The Hunted (August), a new Twilight companion book, Midnight Sun, from Stephanie Meyer (August), the new Jane Harper, The Survivors (September), a new book of stories from Jimmy Barnes, Killing Time (October), Matthew Reilly’s The Two Lost Mountains (October), Paul Hogan’s much anticipated memoir The Tap Dancing Knife Thrower (November).
As if that’s not enough, spectacularly, on September 29 we will see three of the biggest fiction writers in Australia battling it out: Trent Dalton with All Our Shimmering Skies, Craig Silvey with Honeybee and Richard Flanagan with The Living Sea of Waking Dreams.
What COVID-19 has shown us — in the days that seem to go forever and months that zip by — is that the book industry in Australia is resilient and when propped up by passionate people (both bookseller and publishing types), imaginative authors and enthusiastic readers, we can continue to ensure that stories will continue to populate your bookshelves, earphones and e-readers. In fact, with this unusual array of riches all falling in the next couple of months, we might need to enforce our own periods of self-isolation — just so that we have time to read everything!
Kimberley Allsopp is a publishing executive at HarperCollins Australia.
Which of the books above are you most excited about? Come discuss at the Sunday Book Club Facebook group. And if you want a cracking read for right now, try our Book of the Month: The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter. You get 30 per cent off at Booktopia with our book club code WIFE.