Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | He Died with a Felafel in His Hand | 1994 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 2 | How to be a Man | 1995 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 3 | Leviathan: The Unauthorised Biography of Sydney | 1999 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 4 | Off One’s Tits: Ill-Considered Rants And Raves from a Graceless Oaf Named John Birmingham | 2002 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 5 | Dopeland; Taking The High Road Through Australia’s Marijuana Culture | 2003 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 6 | How to Be a Writer | 2016 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 7 | Stranger Thingies: From Felafel to Now | 2018 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 8 | The Seven Stages of Drinking Martinis. | 2018 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 9 | On Father | 2019 | John Birmingham | Buy |
John Birmingham began his career as a non-fiction writer, and his first book remains one of his most widely read. He Died with a Felafel in His Hand (1994) is a comic memoir about the horrors and absurdities of share house living in Australia. Birmingham lived in dozens of shared houses across Brisbane, Sydney, and other cities, and the book collects the worst housemates, the strangest incidents, and the general chaos of that lifestyle. It was a bestseller in Australia and was adapted into a film in 2001.
Leviathan: The Unauthorised Biography of Sydney (1999) showed a different side of his writing. It is a detailed narrative history of Sydney, tracing the city from its founding as a penal colony through gang wars, epidemics, corruption, and urban growth. The book won the National Award for Non-Fiction at the Adelaide Festival of the Arts. Other non-fiction works include How to be a Man (1995), Dopeland (2003) about Australian marijuana culture, and Off One’s Tits (2002), a collection of his journalism and commentary.
His later non-fiction includes How to Be a Writer (2016), practical advice for aspiring authors, and Stranger Thingies: From Felafel to Now (2018), a collection that revisits many of the themes from his early work. On Father (2019) is a personal essay about his experience of fatherhood. Throughout his career, Birmingham has maintained a parallel track as a journalist and essayist alongside his fiction writing.