Beijing Bestsellers: Nutrition, history, and a codeless Dan Brown

How to get the most from your zhou.

Beijing is enduring a heat wave this week. As appetites wilt, it’s time to think about how to get the most nutrition from the food that you do manage to get down.

Seven of ten books on this week’s lifestyle bestseller list are food related. Topping the list is Eating Porridge This Way is More Nutritious, shown here. The same publishers have a similar guide to eating vegetables. The publishers of the cooking magazine Betty’s Kitchen also have two books on the list, one on non-fattening dishes and another on food for women. Drink for Immunity and Food is the Best Medicine hit the health angle, and a translation of You Are What You Eat rounds out the best-sellers.

TV personalities retelling history continue to be popular. Books on Heshen and Laozi in CCTV 10’s Lecture Room have been bestsellers earlier this year, and return to the overall list this week. Ji Lianhai, author of The Historical Heshen has a new Lecture Room book in the top ten this week, The Historical Dorgon, about the early Qing dynasty regent.

Once again, the rankings have been influenced by a book-signing event – Ji Lianhai appeared at the Xidan Book Building on the 11th as a promotion for the Dorgon book.

Shattered Face, a thriller.

Dan Brown has three books on the fiction list this week – not unusual given the sales of his novels this year, except for the conspicuous absence of The Da Vinci Code for the third week in a row. Mr. Brown is not the only author to benefit from the hype surrounding the early release and early cancellation of the Code movie; Lifestyle magazine reports on the popularity of thrillers:

While on the one hand the movie is no longer showing, on the other, an interesting thing has taken place: the novel of the same name has set off a sales rush online. This reporter learned from Dangdang that the period before The Da Vinci Code went on-screen saw a wave of orders for the book. And following the screening, The Da Vinci Code moved more than 1000 copies a day on Dangdang, leading all book outlets. After the movie was pulled from screens, audiences who had not yet had enough had to turn their attention to the original book. And besides, the details cut from the movie had people confused, and sent them back to the book to confirm their impressions.

An individual with Dangdang’s marketing department told this reporter that the current fever for thrillers has driven sales of Lifeguard [by James Patterson], The Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud [by Julia Navarro], British thriller queen Minette Walters’ The Breaker and The Scold’s Bridle, as well as the Chinese thrillers Shattered Face [by Gui Gunü] and 19th Level of Hell [by Cai Jun].

The lifestyle bestseller list for the week of 06/09–06/15:

1. (-) Eating Porridge This Way is More Nutritious by Zhang Benteng. (张奔腾, 《这样喝粥更营养》)
2. (1) Human Body User’s Manual by Wu Qingzhong. (吴清忠, 《人体使用手册》)
3. (-) Food is the Best Medicine. A Japanese diet book. (阿部博幸, 《食物是最好的医药》)
4. (-) Eating Vegetables This Way is More Nutritious by Zhang Benteng. (张奔腾, 《这样吃素更营养》)
5. (-) You Are What You Eat by Dr. Gillian McKeith. (吉莲·麦克凯斯, 《改变一生的饮食计划》)
6. (-) Drink For Immunity I by Li Chenghan. (李承翰, 《喝出免疫力(Ⅰ)》)
7. (5) Good, Non-Fat Foods by Betty’s Kitchen. (《贝太厨房》工作室, 《好吃不胖》)
8. (-) Beauty King by Xu Xiyuan. Taiwan celebrity Big S writes about fashion. Online at QQ. (徐熙媛, 《美容大王》)
9. (-) Betty’s Private Women’s Cooking. (《贝太厨房》工作室,《私房女人菜》)
10. (-) A Guide to Elegance by Genevieve Antoine Dariaux. (德阿里奥, 《优雅》)

The overall bestseller list for the week of 06/09–06/15:

1. (1) Brothers (part II) by Yu Hua. (余华, 《兄弟》下)
2. (-) Deception Point by Dan Brown. (布朗, 《骗局》)
3. (1) Brothers (part I) by Yu Hua. (余华, 《兄弟》上)
4. (-) The Historical Dorgon by Ji Lianhai. A profile of Nurhachi’s 14th son, the regent behind the throne of the Shunzhi Emperor. (纪连海, 《历史上的多尔衮》)
5. (9) Ji Xianlin talks about life by Ji Xianlin. (季羡林, 《季羡林谈人生》)
6. (-) The Heshen of History by Ji Lianhai. Adapted from a series of lectures on CCTV 10 (see this note). (纪连海, 《历史上的和珅》)
7. (6) Be Your Personal Best by Li Kaifu: motivational book and DVD by Google’s new China head. (李开复, 《做最好有自己》)
8. (5) Yi Zhongtian Evaluates Han Dynasty Figures by Yi Zhongtian. (易中天, 《易中天品读汉代风云人物》)
9. (-) Detail is the Key of Success, Second Edition, by Wang Zhongqui. Business-related self-help book which has expanded into a lecture series available on VCD. (汪中求,《细节决定成败》第二版)
10. (-) Laozi and common life by Yao Ganming. (姚淦铭, 《老子与百姓生活》)

The overall bestseller list for the week of 06/02–06/08:

1. (2) Brothers (part II) by Yu Hua. (余华, 《兄弟》下)
2. (3) Capital by Karl Marx. A new, abridged, illustrated translation. (马克思, 《资本论》)
3. (-) Give Me Results by Jiang Ruxiang. “Don’t just complete your task. What’s important are results.” Published by CITIC Press. (姜汝祥, 《请给我结果》)
4. (5) Beiping Beacon Fire by Du Liang. Author of bestsellers Flashing Swords and Crimson Romance (see this short note). (都梁, 《狼烟北平》)
5. (6) Yi Zhongtian Evaluates Han Dynasty Figures by Yi Zhongtian. (易中天, 《易中天品读汉代风云人物》)
6. (7) Be Your Personal Best by Li Kaifu: motivational book and DVD by Google’s new China head. (李开复, 《做最好有自己》)
7. (8) Who are you working for? by Chen Kaiyuan. (陈凯元, 《你在为谁工作》)
8. (9) Human Body User’s Manual by Wu Qingzhong. (吴清忠, 《人体使用手册》
9. (4) Ji Xianlin talks about life by Ji Xianlin. (季羡林, 《季羡林谈人生》)
10. (-) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. (胡赛尼, 《追风筝的人》)

Bestseller rankings are taken from the Friday Book Review section in The Beijing News, which compiles its data from the city’s major online and brick & mortar bookstores.