BESTSELLERS / PAPERBACKS

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.

*--* SO. CAL. RATING Fiction 1 The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead: $14) A writer returns to Kabul to rescue the son of a childhood friend.

2 The Plot Against America by Philip Roth (Vintage: $14.95) President Charles Lindbergh launches 1940s pogroms.

3 The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Penguin: $15) A quest for the truth about a Spanish novelist.

4 London Bridges by James Patterson (Warner Vision: $7.99) Alex Cross battles nuclear terrorists.

5 Wicked by Gregory Maguire (ReganBooks: $15) The Wicked Witch of the West tells her side of the story.

6 The Virgin’s Lover by Philippa Gregory (Touchstone: $16) A young Queen Elizabeth I falls for a married man.

7 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (HarperSanFrancisco: $13) An Andalusian shepherd boy searches for treasure in Egypt.

8 The Colorado Kid by Stephen King (Hard Case Crime: $5.99) Two Maine newsmen recount a stranger’s murder.

9 Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (Vintage: $14.95) The life and loves of a teahouse entertainer.

10 The Known World by Edward P. Jones (Amistad: $13.95) Love and betrayal on a black slave owner’s plantation.

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*--* SO. CAL. RATING Nonfiction 1 A Million Little Pieces by James Frey (Anchor: $14.95) A memoir of addiction, rehabilitation and 12-step treatment.

2 Why Do Men Have Nipples? by Mark Leyner and Billy Goldberg (Three Rivers Press: $12.95) What’s up, doc?

3 Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (Vintage: $14.95) A serial killer haunts the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

4 The End of Faith by Sam Harris (Norton: $13.95) An examination of religion, terror and reason.

5 Sudoku Easy by Will Shortz (St. Martin’s Griffin: $9.95) Volume 1 of the popular puzzle book.

6 In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (Vintage: $14) The masterful writer’s account of a Kansas family’s brutal murder.

7 Sudoku Easy to Hard by Will Shortz (St. Martin’s Griffin: $6.95) One hundred wordless crossword puzzles.

8 Su Doku for Dummies by Andrew Herson and Edmund James (Wiley: $9.99) Puzzle-solving hints and 240 puzzles.

9 The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (Back Bay: $14.95) How fads, trends and ideas behave like viruses in a society.

10 The Book of Sudoku, No. 1 by Michael Mepham (Overlook: $9.95) An introduction to the number puzzle.

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