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Shvoong Home>Society & News>News Items>The Sunday Times Summary

The Sunday Times

Article Summary   by:Rich2809    
  • Summary rating: 5 stars (1 Ratings)
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We are, literally, stereotypical

The British buy books by television personalities, Americans are obsessed with self-improvement, French choices are more highbrow, the Germans like holidays while the Japanese have more eclectic tastes. If it were not for Harry Potter, the survey by Amazon of global reading tastes would look like a very lazy exercise in national stereotyping.
The internet retailer has listed the bestselling books on its sites in Britain, the United States, France, Japan and Germany. There are tens of millions of titles to choose from, but Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows tops the charts in four of the countries.
In Japan it nestles in third place, behind two health-and-beauty titles: Yukuko Tanaka’s Face Massage and Inspiring Exercise. The list embraces the first Michelin guide to Tokyo restaurants, a scientific treatise on (human) viruses, a comedian’s autobiography and three volumes of Manga.
The British prefer celebrity chefs, TV presenters and trivia, with a light sprinkling of literary fiction. Nigella Lawson pips Jamie Oliver to second place in the battle of the cookbooks. Richard Hammond’s 300mph crash while filming for Top Gear makes his the bestselling autobiography.

Kes Nielsen, head of book buying for Amazon.co.uk, said that the list reflected the increasing clout of celebrities in the book market. The pursuit of trivia had always had a place in Britain’s publishing scene, he added, but it was Ben Schott, a regular contributor to The Times, who turned it into a white-hot publishing trend with Schott’s Original Miscellany.
There are only three novels in the list, the fewest of any country: Harry Potter, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Orange Prize-winning Half of a Yellow Sun and Khaled Hosseini’s follow-up to The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns. Mr Nielsen believes that three quarters of the books on the bestseller list had been bought as Christmas presents. “People don’t tend to buy fiction as a present because it’s a very personal thing.”
The French have no such inhibitions. There are seven works of fiction in Amazon.fr’s Top Ten, most of them spectacularly French-sounding novels. They include: L’élégance du hérisson, about a suicidal girl and her apartment building’s philosophy-loving caretaker; Chagrin d’école, about a miserable student; and Un secret, set in the aftermath of the Nazi occupation and is the story of a sickly boy who invents an imaginary brother only to find out that such a brother did exist.
The only autobiography in the list is that of Simone Veil, the Auschwitz survivor who became the first female President of the European Parliament.
The American list is dominated by self-improvement: Eat, Pray, Love (one woman’s search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia); Good to Great (why some companies make the leap . . . and others don’t); Now Discover Your Strengths (how to develop your talents and those of the people you manage); and Deceptively Delicious (simple secrets to get your kids eating good food). The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne, which suggests that positive thought alone can generate health, wealth and happiness, features in the US, German and Japanese Top Tens.
Germans like books about travel and the outdoors. There are two in the Top Ten, both featuring Hape Kerkeling, a comic, actor and presenter. Ich Bin Dann Mal Weg is an account of his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. In Ein Mann, ein Fjord, he and his boyfriend head for Norway. Where the Germans really excel though is in the search for the driest bestseller. Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, in eighth place, is the country’s civil code.
Harry leads the way on a global odyssey
United Kingdom
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J. K. Rowling_2. Nigella Express Nigella Lawson_3. Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life Jamie Oliver_4. Do Ants Have Arseholes?: And 101 Other Bloody Ridiculous Questions Jon Butler_5. On the Edge Richard Hammond _6. My Booky Wook Russell Brand_7. QI: The Book of General Ignorance QI_8. Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie_9. The God Delusion Richard Dawkins_10. A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini
United States
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J. K. Rowling _2. The Secret Rhonda Byrne _3. Eat, Pray, Love Elizabeth Gilbert _4. A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini _5. The Dangerous Book for Boys Conn Iggulden _6. Deceptively Delicious Jessica Seinfeld _7. Strengthsfinder 2.0 Tom Rath _8. Good to Great Jim Collins _9. Water for Elephants Sara Gruen 1_10. Now Discover Your Strengths Marcus Buckingham
France
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J. K. Rowling _2. I do not know how to lose weight Dr Pierre Dukan_3. The elegance of the hedgehog Muriel Barbery _4. School blues Daniel Pennac _5. Secret* Philippe Grimbert _6. Volume 18: The Irish Jean Van Hamme_7. Volume 19: The Last Round Jean Van Hamme_8. A Life Simone Veil _9. Fitness: 110 exercises without equipment Olivier Lafay _10.The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo* Stieg Larsson
Germany
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J. K. Rowling_2. I am off for bit, then Hape Kerkeling_3. For every solution a problem Kerstin Gier_4. Volume 3 of the Inkworld Trilogy Cornelia Funke_5. The Secret Rhonda Byrne_6. A Fjord Angelo Colagrossi_7. The Joy of Life – Calendar 2008_8. The Civil Code_9. The Cleaner*Paul Cleave_10. The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini
Byrne_10. Nodame Cantabile 18 (Manga) Tomoko Ninomiya
Published: March 05, 2008   
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