This week's most talked-about book hasn't come out in print yet. Yu Hua, whose first part of the novel Brothers was a bestseller last summer, serialized several sections of the second part on his blog at Sina ahead of the novel's official release on Sunday. Yu Hua's been criticized for not spending enough time on his blog, and for throwing up older, previously published material to avoid letting it go entirely to seed. The appearance of three chapters of his new book lend credence to his earlier excuses that he was simply too busy working on his writing to blog.

Apart from his personal blog, the second part of Brothers also appears in issues 2 and 3 of Harvest magazine, and it will be serialized on Sina's Book Channel. In answer to several questions posed by people commenting on his blog, Yu Hua said that the three chapters he posted were the most pleasant parts of the new volume; the fortunes of the main characters go rapidly downhill from there.

Turning to popular books in print, we find familiar faces on the bestseller list. Net writer Annie Baby has Padma (#2), emoticon-happy Gwiyeoni has the third book in the Outsider series, and Dan Brown's Deception Point (#4) joins The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, and Digital Fortress in a Chinese edition. The only other new title on the list this week is Peking Duck Restaurant (#8) by director Gu Rong. A copy of this book could not be found for this article, but it appears to be an adaptation of the 1990 film starring Chen Baoguo and Ge You that told the story of the Quanjude restaurant.

The eclectic scholar Zhang Zhongxing has two books on the academic bestseller list this week. In a fortunate coincidence or an astonishingly rapid display of marketing opportunism, Zhang's works appeared on bookshelves in new editions shortly after he passed away in February. Sharp eyes will notice Qi Gong's calligraphy on the title of this and other volumes in the series (see Danwei's earlier article).

The two books by Zhang on the academic list this week are Zen Outside of Zen (#3) and On Accordance with Nature (#4). The second one was conceived during the cultural revolution and worked on intermittently in the succeeding decades before being published in 1993. Kicking off from the first words of the Doctrine of the Mean: "The will of heaven is called 'nature.' Accordance with nature is called the 'way,'" On Accordance with Nature lays out Zhang's interpretation of how best to live. His day-job was working as an editor for the People's Education Press putting out textbooks and other educational materials. His own writings carried that same popular flavor (this reviewer recommends in particular his writings on wenyan).

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The academic bestseller list for the week of 03/10--03/16:

1. Ancient China in Transition by Cho-yun Hsu. Subtitled "Social movement during the Spring & Autumn and Warring States periods," this is a translation of the 1965 book by the peripatetic prof. Hsu. The Chinese title is Outline History of Ancient Chinese Society. (许倬云, 《中国古代社会史论》)
2. Private Life under Socialism by Dr. Yunxiang Yan. The UCLA professor's survery of "Love, Intimacy, and Family Change in a Chinese Village" from 1949 to 1999. The Chinese version is titled The Transformation of Private Life. (阎云翔, 《私人生活的变革》)
3. Zen Outside of Zen by Zhang Zhongxing. (张中行, 《禅外说禅》)
4. On Accordance with Nature by Zhang Zhongxing. (张中行, 《顺生论》)
5. The Chinese: Idea and Action by Wen Chongyi and Xiao Xinhuang. (文崇一,萧新煌, 《中国人：观念与行为》)
6. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber. (马克斯, 《新教伦理与资本主义精神》)
7. Nationality and Development by Wen Jun. "Strategies for pursuing the new modernization." (温军, 《民族与发展》)
8. Rule of Law and Democratic Superstition by Pan Wei. The Peking University professor's essay collection came out in Hong Kong in 2003. His essays are available online at his PKU site. (潘维, 《法制与民主迷信》)
9. Crossroads by Zhang Jingping. Zhang writes for Window on the South magazine. This book, published in 2004, looks back at the events of the 12 months from March 2003 through March 2004, and how they determine China's future. His newest book, published in January of this year, is called Democracy in Zhejiang (浙江发生了什么：转轨时期的民主生活). (章敬平, 《拐点》)
10. Peasant Life In China by Fei Xiaotong. Chinese translation of the classic 1939 text by China's most famous anthropologist. (费孝通, 《江村经济——中国农民的生活》)

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The overall bestseller list for the week of 03/10--03/16:

1. (1) Impression by Fu Biao and Zhang Qiufang. A memoir by beloved actor Fu Biao and his wife. Fu passed away last year after a long illness; this book came out on Valentine's Day and was snapped up by fans. (傅彪,张秋芳, 《印记》)
2. (-) Padma by Annie Baby. (安妮宝贝, 《莲花》)
3. (-) Outsider 3 by Gwiyeoni. Earlier article on Danwei. (可爱淘, 《局外人3》)
4. (-) Deception Point by Dan Brown. (丹·布朗, 《骗局》)
5. (4) Detail is the Key of Success by Wang Zhongqui. Business-related self-help book which has expanded into a lecture series available on VCD. The English title on the most common pirated version, ironically, is misspelled. (汪中求,《细节决定成败》)
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. (3) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. (丹·布郎,《达·芬奇密码》)
8. (-) Peking Duck Restaurant by Gu Rong. (古榕《老店·全聚德》)
9. (2) Tibetan Mastiff by Yang Zhijun. Another "Way of the Animal" book. See brief note here. (杨 志军, 《藏獒》)
10. (5) Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong: The long-running bestseller, set to be made into a movie. English translation forthcoming. (姜戎,《狼图腾》)

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.