Books - Or What We Called TV In The Old Days

Maybe I just don't watch TV enough anymore, but apart from the Andrew Denton spot (which frankly looks just like any other spot by Andrew Denton promoting that week's Enough Rope) I haven't heard a peep about My Favourite Book 2004.

It seems Aunty is running a poll again to find out what we like to read, and then later in the year she'll make a TV special about her findings, and then you'll be able to go down to your local ABC shop and buy the book about the TV special about the poll about the books Australians like to read.

She may have to earn her own way these days, but despite the Liberal Government's best efforts, the people's broadcaster hasn't quite been reduced to prostituting herself yet, and anyway, I like books.

The parameters are simple: it just has to have been published in the English language, and it can be anything: a translation, a technical manual, a collection of poems... whatever bites deep.

Voting closes 22nd October.  You can:

Mail:	My Favourite Book
	c/o ABC TV
	GPO Box 9994
	Sydney 2001
Email:	myfavouritebook@your.abc.net.au
1900:	1900 957 175 (Max. call cost 55c incl. GST. Mobiles extra)
SMS:	197 97222 (Max. SMS cost 55c incl. GST.)
Fax:	02 8333 2657
or drop off your vote at your local ABC shop, selected bookshops and libraries.

Best of all, this time, it doesn't even have to be an Australian book, so that widens options a bit.

Not that there aren't any good Aussie reads around, but there aren't that many that make it to my annual Must-Read Again list.

What makes a favourite book?  For me, it has to be something I will read again and again for the sheer pleasure of it, that surprises and rewards me with each reading perhaps, and that will grow with me, and I love several entirely different types of books for those reasons.  Picking just one is going to be a challenge.