The best books of 2008

Christmas is the time for looking back at the past year’s crop of books and choosing those which really stood out. Here is my personal selection of seven outstanding conservative non-fiction books published in  Australia in 2008.

1. The new history of Australia which stripped away the layers of Left mendacity and presented a fresh, highly original and crisply honest account of our country. A great nation finally gets a great historian.

2. The brilliant book which delved deep into the ABC and produced a chilling, though sometimes funny, account of the national broadcaster. The section dealing with the ABC’s complaint processes was hilarious.

3. The discussion of Australia’s media, by an outsider, confirmed what conservatives have always known – that our media is both one armed (Left naturally) and third-rate. Even conservatives were amazed to find how poor it really is.

4. Australian society today was deftly analysed and this book revealed the horrors that mass immigration has brought into the country. As critics noted, it sometimes read like a Stephen King novel.

5. The account of our education system, from pre-school to the PhD tragi-comedy, was superbly done. Few readers could finish it without breaking into tears.

6. A special favourite of mine was the book on the intellectualocrats. Deftly describing this influencial social class it pointed to the links between individuals in the media, education, law and politics and suggested how these contacts, unknown to the public, are used to manipulate public discussion and political decision making. Using hitherto secret emails between university academics and ABC employees it showed how the so-called public intellectuals use their influence.

7. The comedy of the Arts and government arts funding was one of the funniest books of the year and a classic study of nihilism and stupidity. A meticulous delineation of corruption – though the author was careful not to use the word.

This is my list of best books and no doubt readers will be able to compile their own.

Unfortunately, as any visitor to a bookshop may have noticed, none of these books were actually written or published. Instead Australian writers and publishers produced the usual Left pap for their boring Left customers.

Oh well, maybe next year.

In the meantime, you should find a place in Christmas stockings for The Costello Memoirs and The Little Black School Book – both would go on a real list of the best non-fiction actually published.