SMH's 15 Books Every Australian Should Read

Speaking of Ruth Park, she made it on to the SMH's list of "15 {Australian} books every Australian should read" ("Words to the wise", Sydney Morning Herald Summer, 29/12/10, pp. 4-5).

(I put the first "Australian" in squiggly brackets because they seemed to omit that when referring to the article elsewhere in the paper, something I found irritatingly misleading but which you might find pedantry on my part.)

So to carry on (hence why I added "ramblings" to the subheading of my blog!), the selection was made by SMH's literary editor, Susan Wyndham. As with all lists, the criteria used to justify the selections is open to debate. As Wyndham herself states, "This is a list to use and argue with and perhaps to inspire your own".

Why 15? She doesn't really say why her editor chose this number. She does, however, mention that one of the works she drew on for inspiration was Jane Gleeson-White's Australian Classics, a book I heartily recommend as an English teaching resource. In particular, it has a quite pithy analysis of Oodgeroo of the Tribe Noonuccal's "No More Boomerang".

To summarise, this was her selection (it doesn't appear to be ranked):

• For the Term of His Natural Life - Marcus Clarke
• My Brilliant Career - Miles Franklin
• The Man Who Loved Children - Christina Stead
• The Harp in the South - Ruth Park
• Voss - Patrick White
• The Tyranny of Distance - Geoffrey Blainey
• A Boy's Life - David Malouf
• A Fortunate Life - A.B. Facey
• The Children's Bach - Helen Garner
• Cloudstreet - Tim Winton
• Night Letters  - Robert Dessaix
• Eucalyptus - Murray Bail
• True History of the Kelly Gang - Peter Carey
• Carpentaria  - Alexis Wright
• The Slap - Christos Tsiolkas

An interesting selection of past and present, fiction and non-fiction. As expected, Wyndham's article has sparked lively debate. So far, the online version of the article has received 41 comments, including many more suggestions that people felt Wyndham had overlooked.

I particularly like this comment:
"They forced us to watch the film, 'My Brilliant Career' at school. That was a couple of hours I'll never get back." Mojo

From an English teacher's point of view, it does make one consider how our selections of texts may positively or negatively influence our students' regard or disregard for literature. There are many more out there like Mojo who bemoan the texts they were "force fed" while at school. 

But the problem remains - so many books, so little time!