AMAZON China, one of the largest online booksellers, unveiled the bestselling books in China for the first half of 2017 last week, disclosing Chinese people’s reading habits.

Japanese author Keigo Higashino’s “Miracles of the Namiya General Store” topped the list of the most popular paper books, followed by late Chinese writer Yang Jiang’s “We Three” and Israeli historian Yuval Noah’s “Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow.”

In the list of paid eBooks on Kindle, the top three places were taken by Chinese writer Zhou Meisen’s “In the Name of the People,” Keigo Higashino’s “Miracles of the Namiya General Store” and “Fall of Giants” — book one of British author Ken Follett’s historical “Century Trilogy.”

Amazon has also released a ranking of Chinese cities where people read most. Hefei and Zhengzhou occupy the first and second spot respectively for the second straight year.

The ranking was based on the ratio of book sales compared to the volume of all products sold on Amazon during the first six months of the year.

Hit TV shows boost book sales

Popular TV dramas have prompted a surge in sales of the original books.

“In the Name of the People,” an anti-corruption novel, has become the most favored choice on Kindle’s paid eBooks and the eighth popular printed book on Amazon. The company has attributed the sales boom to the novel’s smash TV adaptation, which went viral online in March.

Statistics show the purchases of the book’s e-version increased 24 times three months after its screening, and printed copies surged 12 times.

Hong Kong author Isabel Nee Yeh-su’s “The First Half of My Life” is another example. The recent TV adaption of the novel caused a book buying craze in China. Purchases of the book’s hard copies rose 600 times a week after the TV play was aired earlier last month.

(China Daily)