Southern California Rankings:FICTION1. BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY by...

Southern California Rankings:

FICTION

1. BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY by Helen Fielding (Viking: $22.95) The New Year’s resolutions of a single thirtysomething girlie Brit, from personal appearance to the perfect man.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 9

2. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur Golden (Knopf: $25) The life and loves of a teahouse entertainer growing up in Kyoto during World War II.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 39

3. SUMMER SISTERS by Judy Blume (Delacorte: $21.95) Friendship between two unlikely girls blossoms and grows through years of hardship and maturity.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 12

4. I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE by Wally Lamb (HarperCollins/ReganBooks: $27.50) A man with a twin brother searches for meaning in the story of an Italian ancestor.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 8

5. POINT OF ORIGIN by Patricia Cornwell (Putnam: $25.95) Kay Scarpetta, chief medical examiner, takes on a psychopathic serial killer, her former lover.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 4

6. THE FIRST EAGLE by Tony Hillerman (HarperCollins: $25) Murder, Navajo witchcraft and a virulent form of bubonic plague in the high, dry deserts of the American Southwest.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

7. A WIDOW FOR ONE YEAR by John Irving (Random House: $27.95) From childhood to middle age, a woman learns that one must wait a long time to fall in love.

Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 14

8. COLD MOUNTAIN by Charles Frazier (Atlantic Monthly: $24) A Confederate soldier deserts the Civil War and walks home to his farm and sweetheart.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 52

9. MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE by Nicholas Sparks (Warner: $20) A single mother searches for a lonely heart who threw a lover’s plea into the ocean.

Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 11

10. THE ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT by Jeffrey Archer (HarperCollins: $26) Treachery begins at home for a CIA agent specializing in assassination.

Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 3

11. THE STREET LAWYER by John Grisham (Doubleday: $27.95) After being confronted on a city street, an arrogant lawyer becomes a hero for the homeless.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 23

12. THE GIRL IN THE FLAMMABLE SKIRT by Aimee Bender (Doubleday: $21.95) Stories of men and women living on the frontlines of need and desire.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 3

13. AI! PEDRITO! by L. Ron Hubbard and Kevin J. Anderson (Bridge Publications: $25) Naval Lt. Tom Smith discovers that his look-alike is a South American revolutionary.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 3

14. LOW COUNTRY by Anne Rivers Siddons (HarperCollins: $25) A determined Southern belle chooses her land over her husband.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

15. THE KLONE AND I by Danielle Steel (Delacorte: $17.95) Finding the right chemistry in a story of high-tech love among the test tubes.

Last Week: 15; Weeks on List: 7

****

NONFICTION

1. TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE by Mitch Albom (Doubleday: $19.95) A sportswriter’s empowering story of his weekly visits to see an older dying friend.

Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 31

2. EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS by Peter Biskind (Simon & Schuster: $25) How the sex-drugs-and-rock ‘n’ roll generation of filmmakers saved Hollywood.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 17

3. THE NINE STEPS TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM by Suze Orman (Crown: $23) Practical tips for avoiding stress, making good savings plans and managing money.

Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 17

4. THE GIFTS OF THE JEWS by Thomas Cahill (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday: $23.50) How a nomadic people heard the Almighty’s voice and transformed the world.

Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 17

5. TITAN by Ron Chernow (Random House: $30) A biography of John D. Rockefeller Sr. that draws on unpublished interviews with the industrial tycoon.

Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 10

6. A PIRATE LOOKS AT FIFTY by Jimmy Buffet (Random House: $24.95) The songwriter author reflects on his adventures around the globe aboard his seaplane.

Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 7

7. A MONK SWIMMING by Malachy McCourt (Hyperion: $23.95) The brother of Frank McCourt offers a bawdy antidote to a sad childhood.

Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 8

8. IF YOU’RE NOT OUT SELLING, YOU’RE BEING OUTSOLD by Michael St. Lawrence and Steven Johnson (Wiley: $22) Getting in touch with your inner salesman.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 6

9. CITIZEN SOLDIERS by Stephen E. Ambrose (Simon and Schuster: $27.50) True accounts of America’s gutsy frontline fighters in World War II.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 13

10. ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt (Scribner: $24) A bittersweet lyrical memoir of a poverty-stricken childhood in a rain-soaked Irish city.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 90

11. THE MILLIONAIRE NEXT DOOR by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Lanko (Longstreet Press: $22) Lives of the rich and famous, including golden parachutes.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 27

12. YOUR LIFE AS A STORY by Tristine Rainer (Tarcher/Putnam: $24.95) Exercises, examples and other tips for turning your life into literature.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 2

13. CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, BOOK ONE by Neale Donald Walsch (Putnam: $19.95) Channeling messages from Mr. Big about good, evil and the meaning of life.

Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 62

14. BASQUIAT: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A STAR by Phoebe Hoban (Viking: $29.95) The short, colorful life of the Jimi Hendrix of the art world.

Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 2

15. A WALK IN THE WOODS by Bill Bryson (Broadway: $25) After 20 years in England, a writer gets reacquainted with America by hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 3

PAPERBACK

FICTION

1. DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD by Rebecca Wells (HarperCollins: $13) Sisterhood in the South.

2. THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS by Arundhati Roy (HarperPerennial: $13) The rise and fall of an Indian family.

3. THE BEST LAID PLANS by Sidney Sheldon (Warner: $7.99) A political dreamer meets a sexy schemer.

4. THE NOTEBOOK by Nicholas Sparks (Warner Vision: $5.99) Old flames recall their former combustion.

5. SHE’S COME UNDONE by Wally Lamb (Pocket: $14) A woman’s painful journey of self-discovery.

6. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov (Vintage: $13) A loner’s lyrical obsession with a young girl.

7. HIGH FIDELITY by Nick Hornby (Riverhead: $12.95) A 35-year-old man squelches heartbreak with pop music.

8. THE MATARESE COUNTDOWN by Robert Ludlum (Bantam: $7.99) Showdown between the CIA and a group of conspirators.

9. AMERICAN PASTORAL by Philip Roth (Vintage: $14) The sorrows of Swede Levov, as told by Nathan Zuckerman.

10. DETECTIVE by Arthur Hailey (Berkley: $7.99) The hard-boiled, noirish world of crime investigation.

****

NONFICTION

1. INTO THIN AIR by Jon Krakauer (Anchor Books: $7.99) Risk and recklessness on Mt. Everest.

2. UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN by Frances Mayes (Broadway: $13) Making a home in a glorious Italian landscape.

3. THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger (HarperPerennial: $13) Fishermen trapped in the fury of an Atlantic storm.

4. INTO THE WILD by Jon Krakauer (Doubleday: $12.95) A man’s wilderness escape ends in tragedy.

5. BRAIN DROPPINGS by George Carlin (Hyperion: $9.95) The comedian’s look at the humorous absurdity of modern life.

6. L.A. BIZARRO by Anthony Lovett and Matt Maranian (Buzz/St. Martin’s: $16.95) Trivia and tidbits from L.A.’s twilight zone.

7. NEWS OF A KIDNAPPING by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Penguin: $12.95) A Colombian drug cartel’s abduction of a journalist.

8. HIT & RUN by Nancy Griffin and Kim Masters (Touchstone/ Simon & Schuster: $15) Making movies and conning Sony.

9. NAKED by David Sedaris (Little, Brown: $12.95) Autobiographical essays from the NPR commentator.

10. HOW THE IRISH SAVED CIVILIZATION by Thomas Cahill (Anchor: $12) What Irish monks did after Rome’s fall.

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.