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Penguin Australia was named Publisher of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards and Penguin Canada was named Publisher of the Year by the Canadian Booksellers Association. Both honors were presented at publishing industry awards ceremonies held this past weekend.

Penguin Group Chairman John Makinson commented, "To win the Publisher of the Year award in two such important markets on different sides of the world on the same day is probably a unique achievement. But each award is richly deserved in its own right. Gabrielle Coyne in Melbourne and David Davidar in Toronto have shaped publishing companies that stand comparison with any in the world. All of us at Penguin are enormously proud of what they and their colleagues have achieved, and delighted that those achievements have been recognized."

Penguin Australia's achievement was reflected across the Australian Book Industry Awards book award categories, with Penguin authors and illustrators taking home awards in four of the seven categories for books. Maggie Beer accepted the prize for Illustrated Book of the Year Award for Maggie's Harvest; Kaz Cooke won General Non-Fiction Book of the Year for Girl Stuff. The Peasant Prince written by Li Cunxin, illustrated by Anne Spudvilas and based on Li's bestselling Mao's Last Dancer (published by Berkley in the US) won the Book of the Year for Younger Children; and Monica McInerney won the General Fiction Book of the Year for Those Faraday Girls. In addition, Geraldine Brooks' People of the Book, published by Harper Collins in Australia but Viking in the US, won Book of the Year. This is the first time in nine years, and third time overall, that Penguin Group Australia had been awarded this major accolade.

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Reading should always be a fresh activity, full of surprises. But how can you keep it so? Sometimes that means another reread of your favorite classics, other times you can just dip into the long pile you've had sitting on your table --in my case the floor -- for months.

But I have another suggestion, namely that you should, every now and then, radically rethink what kind of books you read.

So often we read books which are geared to our identities, professions, and interests, rather than just reading for fun or reading for "viewquakes." Most of all I love the surprises I can earn from reading. So here's my advice.

Go to new sections of your book superstore, especially if you have never ever been to that section before. The reality is this: the best popular book on geology, gardening, or basketball is very very good, whether or not you like or care about the topic. Try to find those books and read them.

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This week we kick of a series of interviews with the DK staff, where we'll try to figure out the secret to their success by asking them about their favorite childhood books and what sort of trouble they've been up to lately. Read these interviews carefully--DK's secrets are contained within!

 

Rachel Kempster, Associate PR Director

Okay, quick: tell us about yourself, what your favorite book was as a child, and how you ended up doing PR for DK!

My earliest book memories are of Sydney Taylor's All of a Kind Family series--my mom and I would pass them back and forth until they shredded to bits. The books were about five young sisters living on the Lower East Side, and I adored them.

How did I end up doing PR for DK? I answered a New York Times classified ad! It seems so quaint, right? But it's true. I'd dropped out of my doctoral program (I was studying 17th century transatlantic literature) and was working at a bookstore when I answered an ad to be a publicity assistant. I'll admit that at the time I had no idea what that entailed. I just knew I loved books.