Kingstone celebrates its bestsellers

The main ballroom of Taipei's Formosa Regent Hotel was the place to be for the local literati yesterday afternoon, as Taiwan's largest bookstore chain, Kingstone (金石堂) dished out the prizes at its annual book awards as well as revealing its best selling novels, magazines, inspirational and most influential books of last year.

Now in its 21st year, the annual awards ceremony has not only become one of the nation's leading literature-related events, but is also seen by those in the publishing industry as the most significant indicator of Taiwan's reading habits.

"Although this event is now in its 21st year we're still seeing fresh

literary ideas, be they from local authors or international ones," said Kingstone Director Chou Chuan-feng (周傳芳).

"All of which just goes to show just how rich the written word really is. Even at a time when computers are becoming more and more influential in everyday life, people still make time to buy and read books," Chou said.

Last year the Taiwanese public made the time to read more books than ever before. While SARS blighted everything from the economy to the sporting calendar, the bookstore was busy celebrating record-breaking annual sales of NT$31million, an increase of 39 percent.

Topping Kingstone's bestseller list was J.K. Rowling's latest tale of mystery and magic Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, a book which sold more than 100,000 copies within the first two months of its publication at Kingstone book stores nationwide. The local translation of Rowling's international best seller may have stolen the show, but local author, Hou Wen-yung (侯文詠) came a close second for his tale of a dysfunctional 15 year-old rebel, Dangerous Mind (危險心靈).

The prize for the "Most Influential Figure" in the local publishing world was shared this year. Financial and investment guru Cheng Hung-yi's (鄭弘儀) Teaching You How Best to Invest (教你投資致富) took the honors with Sayling Wen (溫世仁), for his numerous business and English language guides.

Too numerous to award individually, Kingstone's "Most Influential Books of the Year" comprised an odd assortment of novels, biographies and inspirational books. Leading the pack was Cheng Ta-chun (張大春) for her biographical work, As One Family (聆聽父親). Following Cheng were the Chinese-language versions of the Dalai Lama's inspirational work, Advice on Dying, Alice Sebold's novel The Lovely Bones and Michael Crichton's thriller Prey.

Foreign authors topped the polls in the "Inspirational," or "Self Help" category also, with the Chinese-language versions of Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan's Execution and Jim Collins' Good to Great taking the top slots. Local financial adviser and author, Cheng Hung-yi (鄭弘儀), took third spot for his Teaching You How Best to Invest (教你投資致富).

Along with books, the book store also released the results of its best selling magazines for last year. The gossip magazine, Next Magazine (壹週 ) proved it's popularity and scored the top spot in the weekly category; and the fashion magazines, EF (衣芙) and Sugar (甜心) showed that fashion magazines remain a force to be reckoned with in Taiwan in the monthly category.