Australian Best Sellers 2007

News from my Aussie pal down under.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/29/1027926853937.html

Here's a sampling of Australia's best selling books so far this year, according to ACNielsen's BookScan:
1 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J. K. Rowling;
2 The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne;
3 Guinness World Records 2008;
4 Double Cross, by James Patterson;
5 The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards;
6 The Dangerous Book For Boys, by Con and Hal Iggulden;
7 Bones to Ashes, by Kathy Reichs;
8 Exit Music, by Ian Rankin;
9 The Six Sacred Stones, Matthew Reilly;
10 CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet Book 2, by Dr Manny Noakes & Peter Clifton;
11 High School Musical 2: Book of the Film;
12 4 Ingredients, by Kim McCosker & Rachael Bermingham;
13 A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini;
14 Those Faraday Girls, by Monica McInerney;
15 Jamie at Home, by Jamie Oliver.

You would think something would be done the touchstones for JK Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" to work better. (It looks like I found the secret for Rowling: by typing JK withou spaces or periods. Although the Zeitgeist page hasn't been updated, Deathly Hallows (14,592) has now passed To Kill a Mockingbird (14,499) to achieve 12th place at LT. Pride and Prejudice will be tougher to pass.

Ah, this is more like it! Obviously we lot in the southern Colonies tend to read the same sort of books because this looks more like the South African bestseller list. Harry Potter and Double Cross were popular in the US too of course but The Dangerous Book for Boys seemed to have a more British appeal - and how very appealing it was! I have read The Six Sacred Stones by Matthew Reilly, an Australian writer, but can't recommend it - definitely oine of his weaker efforts. And although I have not and never will read The Secret, I think I'm the only person in South Africa who feels that way, given how popular the tome has proved to be.