BESTSELLERS / PAPERBACKS

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.

*--* SO. CAL. RATING Fiction

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*--* 1 Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Vintage: $12) An autistic teen seeks a killer.

2 The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead: $14) A writer returns to Kabul to rescue the son of a childhood friend.

3 Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (Pocket Books: $7.99) A Harvard scholar uncovers a vendetta against the Catholic Church.

4 Blow Fly by Patricia Cornwell (Berkley: $7.99) Pathologist Kay Scarpetta investigates gruesome bayou murders.

5 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (Picador: $15) A Greek family embraces the American dream.

6 The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (Washington Square: $14) A farming couple’s struggle in pre-revolutionary China.

7 The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner: $14) A Bengali couple and their son try to find their way in America.

8 The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (Harvest: $14) A time traveler falls in love with a teen heiress.

9 Split Second by David Baldacci (Warner Vision: $7.99) Disgraced federal agents attack crime on the campaign trail.

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

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*--* 1 The 9/11 Commission Report by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks (Norton: $10) The report.

2 Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (Random House: $13.95) A professor keeps literature alive for her students.

3 Where I Was From by Joan Didion (Vintage: $13.95) How the once-promising Golden State has fallen from grace.

4 The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (Vintage: $14.95) How a serial killer haunted the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

5 Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter (TechPress/Warner: $15.95) Fiscal parenting.

6 A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (Broadway: $15.95) From the primordial to the present.

7 The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle (New World Library: $14) How to attain enlightenment by living in the now.

8 Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama (Three Rivers Press: $13.95) Obama traces his mixed-race parentage.

9 Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom (Broadway: $12.95) Learning life’s lessons from a dying former teacher.

10 My California edited by Donna Wares (Angel City Press: $16.95) Writers on the state’s mythology and reality.

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