The figures are out for the books you loved the most this year ... but first, here are the bestsellers from Booksellers New Zealand for the two-week period which ended on 26 November.

In the adult fiction lists (always makes me feel slightly furtive, that ‘adult fiction’), still at number one from two weeks ago is Tu by Patricia Grace, and from out of nowhere into number two, Sarah-Kate Lynch has been Eating With The Angels in Manhattan.

The Denniston Rose by Jenny Pattrick has dropped one from number two, and Heart of Coal also by JP is back on the chart having briefly fallen off, at number four. Finally, The Bone People by Keri Hulme has hopped into number 5! Well, well – there must be loads of Germans and reluctant students about at the moment ...

In the world of non-fiction, The Penguin History of New Zealand by Michael King just keeps on truckin’. Stephen Fleming: Balance Of Power by Richard Boock is a Christmas cert at number two, and continuing the fine tradition of Kiwi icons, Sir Peter Blake: An Amazing Life by Alan Sefton is at number three, up from four. Tears In The Wind: The Lance O'Sullivan Story by Dianne Howarth is at number four from out of the blue. And at number five is Adrenaline Rush by Eric Rush, again with no previous appearances.

In international fiction, the big news is that Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code has been finally toppled from number one by Phillipa Gregory’s latest, The Virgin’s Lover. Not for long, I’ll bet – Tom Hanks has just been announced as the lucky man who will play Robert Langdon in the Da Vinci Code movie.

Finally, the Best of the Bestsellers for this year – the number one overall book is, of course, The Penguin History of New Zealand. It’s been number one on the non-fiction chart for twelve straight months, clocking up an astonishing (for NZ) 150,000 copies sold.

In July it won the Readers’ Choice Award at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards and in August it went platinum as a Premier New Zealand Bestseller. It has even toppled The Edmonds Cookery Book, which has been the number one Bestseller for the last two years in a row. Sigh. Michael eh? What a guy …

I’ll just whizz through the rest of the Best of the Best for 2004 – one should note that this is a summary from Booksellers New Zealand of the number of times these titles have appeared on the Bestsellers Lists and doesn’t necessarily represent a ranking in terms of total copies sold, or the positions at which titles have appeared.

So, for fiction, it was
1. The Whale Rider (Movie Tie-In Edition), Witi Ihimaera, 22 times on the list;
2. The Denniston Rose, Jenny Pattrick, 19;
3. Heart of Coal, Jenny Pattrick, 18;
4. Degrees For Everyone, Bob Jones, 9, and
5. Ooh look, Jane! It's The Bone People, Keri Hulme with 8 appearances.

For non-fiction, the aforementioned
1. The Penguin History Of New Zealand, Michael King, with 25 shows on the list;
2. Edmonds Cookery Book Revised Edition, with 23;
3. A Portrait Of New Zealand, Warren Jacobs, 13;
4. New Zealand Aotearoa, Craig Potton, 12; and
5. The Lord Of The Rings Location Guide Book 2nd Edition, Ian Brodie with 11 appearances.

In the children and teenagers section, all we know is that the top spot was a tie between The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J K Rowling.

So there you are. Sorted, Santa? Good.