In July 2026 we ran a huge book giveaway, with three book stacks to be won of titles featured in the 2026 Winter Reading Guide.

On 1 August the winners for each book stack were randomly drawn from 560 entries. Here's who won and what they are looking forward to reading.

The non-fiction book stack went to Katrina in Wellington.

Katrina was absolutely delighted to have won the incredible non-fiction book stack from the Winter Reading Guide (it really was incredible - the box of books weighed over 17kg!).

'What a generous prize. Winter is the perfect time of year for curling up with a good book, and I can't wait to dive into these books and share them with others,' she said.

She is especially looking forward to learning about the forgotten women of Aotearoa's goldfields in Digging Deep, and exploring The Secret Life of Fungi.

The fiction and poetry book stack went to Eddie in Whakatane.

Eddie said he was very glad to win this group of books from the Winter Reading Guide.

'My current interests have been sci-fi and mystery, so I'm especially excited to get into kluge by pip adam and No Prisoners by Ellis Blake.'

The children and young people's book stack went to Ruth in Palmerston North.

Ruth said it would be fun deciding which of her 12 grandchildren and 3  great-grandchildren will be best suited to each book from this selection in the Winter Reading Guide.

'I know there will be the little ones loving the Hairy Maclary book and I have a granddaughter obsessed with dragons and two more very keen on horse riding,' she said.

Sounds like Hairy Maclary's Hullabaloo, The Destiny of Dragons, Song of Saltings and Horses and Us have good homes already!

'Thank you very much for this opportunity to share my love of reading with my family,' said Ruth.

This giveaway was only made possible by the generosity of the Aotearoa New Zealand publishers featured in the Winter Reading Guide. We encourage you to buy local, read local.