It’s that time of year again!
Time to think about how many Australian books and authors you can read during the month of November for AusReading Month.
Now in it’s 9th year, AusReading Month is a chance to celebrate all the things we love about Australian literature. Back in 2013, I was looking for an opportunity to celebrate and promote Australian literature. I chose the month of November to coincide with Triple J’s annual AusMusic Month.
Over the years we have played with various questionnaires, tags and challenges.
Now in 2021, there are several ways to participate in AusReading Month.
- Between now and November join in with Celebration, Anticipation and Promotion (see below).
- During the month of November complete the AusReading Month Bingo Card.
- Plan ahead to include some Australian Non-Fiction and Australian Novellas so you can join in the multiple reading challenges that happen every November.
- Or simply read an Australian book and blog about it.
Celebration, Anticipation and Promotion
- This challenge is for those of you who love making lists and sharing lists.
- Celebration is all about what you’ve read this year.
- Simply list, collage and/or discuss the Australian books you’ve read since last AusReading Month. Which ones were your favourites? Which ones can you recommend? Did you favour a certain genre or author?
- The second part is all about the Anticipation.
- What do you hope/plan to read for AusReadingMonth 2021? What’s lurking on your TBR pile? Which new releases have caught your eye?
- Promotion.
- This is your chance to shout-out your favourite Australian book event, bookshop, or blogger that features Australian literature. You can also promote a publisher or author website that has caught your eye this year.
You can create three separate posts – Celebration, Anticipation and Promotion – or you can combine them all into one. Whatever works best for you. The idea is to get excited about Australian stories and share your enthusiasm.
AusReading Month Bingo Card
- This challenge is for anyone who would like to travel around Australia, state by state, via books (since you cannot actually travel here any other way again right now!)
- AusReading Month Bingo is an easy, fun way to plan and track you’re reading. Pick as many books as you like, or just one, to see you on your way.
Your book can be set in the state of your choice, or the author can hail from the state of your choice. All book types are acceptable – novels, non-fiction, graphic novels, children’s books, travel books, cook books, poetry, gardening books, art and design. Simply blog about it and match it to a square on the Bingo card.
- Retrospective Bingo posts are welcome as well. If you’re not sure you can read and review something by the end of November, then look back at your reading year that was to see if you can complete the Bingo card post factum.
Flyby Night
- If time is of the essence, one book from the BINGO card may be the prefect option for you.
- A quick getaway is better than none!
Backpacker
- This option is for those of you who prefer to pack light.
- Simply select one line (horizontal, vertical of even diagonal) on the BINGO card and read three books about Australia.
Road Tripper
- With every crossroad on the map, there’s a choice to be made; you cannot do it all, so select just two lines on the BINGO card.
Pilgrimage
- Read NINE books this November from all of the 8 states and territories plus one freebie.
- The FREEBIE can be any book by an Australian author or a book written by an overseas author but set entirely in Australia. The Australian Antarctic Territory is also a possibility, if you can find a book set there!
Australian Novellas & Non-Fiction
- November is a busy book blogging month.
- To make it easier to combine book events, check out my evolving Australian Novellas page and Australian Essays page.
- As time permits, I will be adding pages to the Australiana tab on my menu bar, which will feature authors and books from each state and territory of Australia.
- The only pages published so far are the ones for Canberra/ACT and the Northern Territory.
I hope you will be joining us for AusReading Month in November. Only 55 more days to go!
Please leave links for your posts in the comments below. Pingbacks are welcome.
Share your #AusReadingMonth2021 love on Twitter or Instagram.
| This post was written on the traditional land of the Wangal clan, one of the 29 clans of the Eora Nation within the Sydney basin. This Reading Life recognises the continuous connection to Country, community and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. They are the traditional custodians of the lands, seas, and skies on which we live and they are this nations first storytellers. |
This Reading Life 
I don’t have any in the TBR and I’m not sure I’ve read any in between – how can this be?? But I look forward to reading about how it’s going.
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😱
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But wait, something might have come into the house …
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Ohhh the suspense!
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Here’s month to look forward to! I’m pretty sure I can’t shout a retrospective ‘Bingo’ this year but I’ll definitely participate one way or another.
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Glad to hear it Bill! I look forward to your contribution
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I think it’s been AusReading YEAR for me, already. Since repatriating I have binged on Australian books because it was so rare to find them in the UK! In other words, there’s no doubt I will be participating in your month 😃
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I’ve enjoying reading all your Australian reviews this year, although I’m sure I missed the occasional one. Seeing them all in a list together would be great!
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I am trying not to get entangled in too many events on account of health, but I may be able to participate in this one. Let me see what I can find !
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This year you get a leave pass to do whatever you like!
But I do hope you can find a book or two to join in with us 🙂
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You are the best! I will join for sure! As you know Aussies have a special place in my heart 😊
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I don’t do challenges, but I do ‘weeks’ and ‘months’ so I’ll certainly be participating. Cathy at 746 Books advertised Novellas in November this week and I pulled out a pile of AusBooks from the TBR to choose from, all set to go.
Most of my NF books are weighty tomes but I’ll find something, preferably a literary bio if I can manage it.
Are these any use?
https://anzlitlovers.com/2015/03/15/authors-from-victoria-australian-authors-1/
Sue (WG) has done some state-by-state posts.
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I also have a page dedicated to WA writers: https://readingmattersblog.com/reading-log/focus-on-western-australian-writers/
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That’s a great resource Kim! Thanks for sharing it.
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Thanks for the link Lisa. I’ll add these links to my pages (when I get to them!)
I save a couple of Griffith Reviews for this time of year as they usually help me out for both nonfiction & novella challenges. And if I’m lucky I find a poet I like too!
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Lisa, before joining WP, I seem to recall you talking about one of your end of year summary posts and using the tags or categories or something to help you create a list of books with URL’s. I’ve been googling and duck, duck, goosing to no avail how to do this (ie pull all the books with the Australia tag from the last 12 mnths into a list with their URL’s).
Can you help?
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Ah, ok, here’s how. From the Home page pull up the category from your category list or tag from your tag cloud and you’ll have a list of all the titles in that category. The URL at the top will be, for example, https://anzlitlovers.com/tag/meet-an-aussie-author/, and then it will list all the posts in that tag (or category), most recent ones first.
To list them in a new post, copy and paste the title of each post, and WP will lift the URL along with it. Depending on how skilled you are at Copy/Paste, you can copy a whole lot at once, and just delete the unwanted date of posting that comes along with it. It will paste as a Heading, and you can alter that to Paragraph just by deleting the space between each listed post, it will move up onto the line before and then you press enter to put it back where it was.
To do this for every book you’ve read in a year, make a category for the year. In This Reading Life, I have Read in 2021, Read in 2020, etc.
Does that make sense? Email me if not and I’ll walk you through it with Print Screen.
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Thanks so much Lisa! I’ll give it a go on the weekend (when I’m less tired) & ‘call’ for help if I need it. I’m hoping to pull out my Australian tag – fingers crossed – for my celebration post.
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Thanks for your help Lisa. Unfortunately I cannot work out how to display my tags as a list. They display in except format instead – https://bronasbooks.com/tag/australia/
I’ve googled until my fingers are blue!!
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Oh. What a pain. Maybe it’s the template I’ve chosen? Or… maybe… do have your settings to show the whole post, or just a few lines of it when it does out as email, so that they have to visit the blog? Maybe that has something to do with it?
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I think it’s the template. I’ve searched the admin sections & making list view isn’t an option anywhere.
I’ve also left a message/question on the wp forum.
Thanks for trying though 😊
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Yay! I have been planning already and have Moral Hazzard by Kate Jennings lined up which will fit Aus Reading Month and Novellas in November.
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Perfect!!
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Oh, Brona, I have a lot “research” to do finding #AusReadingMonth21 books!
Good news: I all ready have the one for ACT!!
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Well done! I remember that you and others, always said that the ACT was one of the hardest ones to find a book for, which is why I made the ACT page my first priority 🙂
I can’t wait to see what you come up with.
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