Votes Are In On Victoria’s Favourite Summer Reads

This years' Summer Read Top 5 is actually a Top 6. Two novels have tied for first place to determine Victoria’s favourite summer read in the Library's unique reader’s choice program. The winners were announced at the Summer Read closing ceremony today by Rosemary McKenzie, the wife of Victorian Premier John Brumby.

Max Barry’s Company and Barry Heard’s Well Done, Those Men were voted the favourites out of the list of 20 Summer Read titles. The runners up (in order of votes) were Alice Pung’s Unpolished Gem, Ilsa Evan’s Broken, Diana Georgeff’s Delinquent Angel and Kate Holden’s In My Skin.

In Barry Heard’s memoir Well Done, Those Men, he draws on his own experiences of life before, during and after the Vietnam War. On hearing he was the Summer Read joint winner, Heard said 'When first informed I was selected for the Summer Read I felt daunted being 'in the mix' with so many talented and recognised writers - it was nothing short of an honour to be part of that Summer Read. Thank you Summer Read, what a brilliant concept and such a creative initiative to encourage reading.'

Max Barry’s Company is a wry and satirical novel about corporate culture. 'Naturally', said Barry on hearing he was joint winner, 'I assumed the whole exercise was a desperate, doomed attempt to attract the attention of an anaesthetised public who no longer care about art forms that don't involve texting votes to Channel TEN – but clearly it worked! The most enjoyable and impressive part for me was the opportunity to blog alongside all these excellent authors. Usually it's impossible to keep that many writers sober', Max said.

Voter prizes were also announced at the closing ceremony. Anyone who voted in the Summer Read was eligible to go into the draw for the four prizes of a weekend away, two Summer Read book sets and a book voucher.