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Forty-four paperback novels sold more than 5,000 copies at UK booksellers last week, and Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol (Corgi) was once again the bestseller. The conspiracy thriller sold 51,462 copies, according to trade statisticians Nielsen BookScan, some 16,757 more than the second bestselling book of the week, James Patterson and Maxine Paetro's Swimsuit (Arrow).
The mass-market edition of Ian Rankin's The Complaints (Orion) takes third position in the Official UK Top 50, helped by a half-price "book of the week" spot at W H Smith. Sue Townsend's story of the now 39-and-a-quarter year-old Adrian Mole, The Prostrate Years (Penguin), climbs into fourth position helped by its spot in the same retailer's "£2.99 if you buy the Times" promotion, while Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy takes positions five through seven.
This week's highest new entry, Ruth Rendell's The Monster in the Box (Arrow), joins the chart in 23rd position. The thriller, Rendell's 22nd involving her famous Inspector Wexford, sold 13,000 copies in hardback.
Also new in the Official Top 50 are former advertising executive John Verdon's New York-set Think of a Number (Penguin), and freelance copywriter Sarah Rayner's first novel in more than seven years, One Moment, One Morning (Picador). The paperback has sold 27,000 copies in just six weeks—more than eight times as many copies as both of her previous Orion-published novels, The Other Half and Getting Even sold in their entire lifetime.
Also making its débuts in the Official UK Top 50 is Christos Tsiolkas' The Slap (Tuskar Rock). With a sale of 6,451 copies, the book is comfortably the most popular of the 13 longlistees nominated for the Man Booker Prize. The next most popular title, Emma Donoghue's Room (Picador), sold 2,466 copies last week.
Katie Price's Paradise stays top of the Original Fiction charts for a fourth week, matching the four-week stint her Sapphire spent at the summit in 2009. However, sales of Paradise are down 25% on sales of Sapphire, and down 35% on sales of her previous Angel Summer novel, Angel Uncovered (all Century).
In non-fiction, both Peter Mandelson's The Third Man (HarperPress) and Frankie Boyle's My Shit Life So Far (Harper) stay at the summit of their respective hardback and paperback charts—the former for a fifth week, the latter for a 10th week. The last book to spend 10 consecutive weeks at the summit of the Paperback Non-fiction charts was Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father (Canongate) in 2008/2009.
Meanwhile, in children's, Stephenie Meyer and her Dark Romance compatriots remain the dominant force in the market, while there are new entries for Jacqueline Wilson's Hetty Feather (Corgi) and Jeff Kinney's second Diary of a Wimpy Kid instalment, Rodrick Rules (Puffin).
In total, £29.2m was spent at UK booksellers last week, down 5.4% week on week but up 0.7% on the same week last year. It is the fourth consecutive week that book sales (in spending terms) have been ahead of 2009 — the last time this occurred was in April/May last year.