Songs of the Sentimental Bloke is a wonderfully executed and quite hilarious verse novel* by the Aus novelist and poet CJ Dennis.
The story is about Bill, a larrikin in early 19th century Melbourne, who meets a young woman, Doreen. The book chronicles their courtship and marriage, detailing Bill's transformation from a violence-prone gang member to a contented husband and father.
Dennis achieves a grand visual picture in a very short 80 or so pages, and your heart warms to his characters and their everyday plights. A wonderful insight into early 20th Century Melbourne.
*verse novel - for info see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verse_novel
Here is the Adelaide Uni free ebooks url for Dennnis' works:
https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/dennis/cj/
On another note, as to books so far read in this decade, hmm, two completed books (CJ Dennis and Buchan), and two partly completed some time ago (Proust and DH Lawrence).
I shall certainly be reading Kafka and at the very least one other before the voting period ends.
Edit
There is a Glossary of Terms in the back of the Adelaide Uni book, which will help out those unfamiliar with Aus slang.