Los Angeles Times Bestsellers

December 9, 2001

FICTION

Southern California Rating

1 HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE by J.K. Rowling (Scholastic: $6.99) Young Harry trains as a wizard.

2 HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS by J.K. Rowling (Scholastic: $6.99) A trap awaits Harry at Hogwarts.

3 THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY by Michael Chabon (Picador: $15) Cousins in the comics biz.

4 HARRY POTTER & THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN by J.K. Rowling (Scholastic: $7.99) Showdown with Sirius Black.

5 PRODIGAL SUMMER by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperPerennial: $14) Tapestry of love in Appalachia.

6 SHOPGIRL by Steve Martin (Theia: $10.95) Department store clerk Mirabelle meets an older man too good to be true.

7 THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING by J.R.R. Tolkien (Ballantine: $6.99) Volume 1 of the epic “The Lord of the Rings.”

8 THE HOBBIT by J.R.R. Tolkien (Houghton Mifflin: $12) The adventures of Bilbo Baggins in the world of Middle-Earth.

9 THE BLIND ASSASSIN by Margaret Atwood (Anchor: $14) A tale of two sisters and an unpublished sci-fi novel.

10 GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING by Tracy Chevalier (Plume: $12) The woman who inspired a Vermeer painting.

NONFICTION

1 THE FOUR AGREEMENTS by Don Miguel Ruiz (Amber-Allen: $12.95) Life lessons based on ancient Toltec wisdom.

2 TALIBAN by Ahmed Rashid (Yale University Press: $14.95) The rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Afghanistan.

3 WORST-CASE SCENARIO SURVIVAL HANDBOOK by Joshua Piven & David Borgenicht (Chronicle Books: $14.95) S-O-S!

4 WORST-CASE SCENARIO SURVIVAL HANDBOOK: DATING & SEX (Chronicle Books: $14.95) Blind dates and other crises.

5 WORLD ALMANAC AND BOOK OF FACTS 2002 (World Almanac Books: $11.95) 2001 and then some.

6 PERSONAL HISTORY by Katharine Graham (Vintage: $15) A memoir by the late publisher of the Washington Post.

7 JIHAD VS. McWORLD by Benjamin Barber (Ballantine: $12.95) Colliding ideologies and the new world order.

8 ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY by David Sedaris (Little, Brown: $14.95) Wisecracking essays on life in Paris and elsewhere.

9 BAND OF BROTHERS by Stephen Ambrose (Touchstone: $16) The elite World War II fighting force Easy Company.

10 PARIS TO THE MOON by Adam Gopnik (Random House: $14.95) Dispatches from Paris by a New Yorker writer.