Would you buy this book if you could read it online for free?

Everyone's buying dictionaries this week. The new Modern Chinese Dictionary (fifth edition) knocks the British Harry Potter from the top slot. The remainder of the overall bestseller list is relatively unchanged, with only one new addition: My Normandy, a newly published WWII-related book by Tang Shizeng (#10).

This week Danwei looks at the general fiction list, which is populated by angels. Dan Brown's Angels and Demons (#4) is joined by the sentimental love story An Angel Will Love You For Me, and the coming-of-age love story Left Bank Angel. The god of war in the Mars TV tie-in novel and a recently deceased child in The Great Blue Yonder round out the supernatural presence.

Type-B Gemini young woman writes about angels and love

In An Angel Will Love You For Me (#3, cover at left), a young woman loses her boyfriend, but his heart is transplanted into another young man. Left Bank Angel (#6) is the story of a group of schoolgirls encountering the real world, and it is apparently written by a member of "DC Home Ladies", the second-place team in ESWC's 2004 China regionals. The author bio says, "Her writing stings harder than an AK, is gentler than M4, and is more decisive than AWP." I guess you have to play CS to really get that.

This kind of fiction by and for young women is another current trend alongside Guo Jingming's stable of comic-book writers. The authors' bios detail their blood types and astrological signs. Cover images, too, in manga-influenced pastels, bear certain resemblences to each other. The Best Debater (#10, image at top), is the first novel in the "Young Woman's Complete Reader Series," which already includes The Best Debater II.

Xiao Lou (Scorpio, Type O), author of The Best Debater, first made her name writing fiction online, and in fact, the full text on this novel was available online long before it appeared in print. What puts a freely available book on the bestsellers list? Perhaps much of the book's readership is underage, and prohibited by law from entering web cafes. Perhaps it's a sign that China's internet penetration still has a ways to go. Or perhaps the tactile appeal of something paper-bound shouldn't be underestimated.

Another recent bestseller, The Lover by Naihe Zuozei ("How to be a thief", Scorpio, type AB), drops off the list this week, but it too was originally a web phenomenon that had success in print as well. The original title, Daddy, I'm Carrying Your Child, may provide a key to the book's popularity (no, it's not that transgressive. The lovers have an 8-year age gap, so "Daddy" is apparently just a pet name). In a forthcoming article, Danwei will look more closely at the web-publishing phenomenon and its effect on traditional book sales.

No, it's not Jimmy

In the midst of all this romance is a whimsical fable. Alex Shearer's The Great Blue Yonder (#9) comes endorsed by some of the current big names in Chinese lit - writers from Zhou Guoping to Annie Baby have all recommended this book. The Chinese version has been illustrated by an artist called Daodao, whose pictures are more than slightly reminiscent of the popular Taiwanese cartoonist Jimmy.

The book's western publisher, Houghton Mifflin, categorizes it as juvenile fiction, and it has been praised for helping children deal with death by approaching it as a gentle parable. The Chinese translation, however, falls on the general fiction list, though the readership certainly overlaps with Harry Potter fans. Perhaps death fits too uneasily among the self-esteem building, inspirational stories that typically compose the children's list.

The fiction bestseller list for the week of 7/30--8/5:

1. (1) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. (丹·布郎,《达·芬奇密码》)
2. (2) Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong. Full text available on Sina Book Channel. (姜戎,《狼图腾》)
3. (6) An Angel Will Love You For Me by Ming Xiaoxi. Serialized on Sina. (明晓溪,《会有天使替我爱你》)
4. (4) Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. (丹·布郎,《天使与魔鬼》)
5. (3) Rush to the Dead Summer by Guo Jingming (Danwei previously translated the title as 1995-2005 Not Yet Summer Solstice): Novel is serialized on Sina. (郭敬明,《1995-2005夏至未至》
6. (7) Left Bank Angel by Yihur Zuo ("A Bit Left"). Serialized on Sina. (一忽儿左, 《左岸天使》)
7. (-) Mars: Idol photobook and novelization of the movie of the same name. (《战神偶像写真小说》)
8. (5) The Basement by BENJAMIN. Novel by a graphic artist, part of Guo Jingming's "I5land" series. (BENJAMIN, 《地下室》)
9. (8) The Great Blue Yonder by Alex Shearer. Serialized with illustrations on QQ. (希尔, 《天蓝色的彼岸》)
10. (-) The Best Debater by Xiao Lou. (小楼, 《最佳辩手》)

The overall bestseller list for the week of 7/30--8/5:

1. (-) Modern Chinese Dictionary (fifth edition), published by The Commercial Press. (《现代汉语词典》)
2. (1) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling: British version. (J.K. 罗琳, 《哈利·波特与混血王子》)
3. (3) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown: For the past few months this novel has been a best-seller shared by the mainland, Taiwan, and the United States. Digital Fortress is a perennial on the fiction list, too. (丹·布郎,《达·芬奇密码》)
4. (4) Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong: Another long-running best-seller, this loosely-plotted novel is being made into a movie (mentioned earlier on Danwei). (姜戎,《狼图腾》)
5. (2) Harry Potter #6 American version.
6. (-) Short Stories, Great Truths complete set. Classic parables with wisdom for today. (《小故事大道理全集》)
7. (10) A Night With No Adults edited by Liu Haitao. (刘海涛, 《没有大人的夜晚》)
8. (5) Light for a Book-Dream edited by Liu Haitao: subtitled One hundred stories to motivate middle school students. Similar to the popular A Night With No Adults (#10). (刘海涛, 《书梦的灯》)
9. (7) About Going to Work by Zhu Deyong: The author is a cartoonist from Taiwan whose earlier work was the inspiration for the incredibly popular television series Pink Ladies. A sample of Work is available on Sina. (朱德庸,《关于上班这件事》)
10. (-) My Normandy by Tang Shizeng: New work of photojournalism commemorating the 60th anniversary of victory in the war against fascism. (唐师曾, 《我的诺曼底》)

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.