Southern California Rankings:FICTION1. BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY by...

Southern California Rankings:

FICTION

1. BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY by Helen Fielding (Viking: $22.95) The New Year’s resolutions of a single, thirty-something girlie Brit, from personal appearance to the perfect man.

Last Week: 1 ; Weeks on List: 3

2. A WIDOW FOR ONE YEAR by John Irving (Random House: $27.95) From childhood to middle age, a woman learns that one must wait a long time to fall in love.

Last Week: 2 ; Weeks on List: 8

3. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur Golden (Knopf: $25) The life and loves of a teahouse entertainer growing up in Kyoto during World War II.

Last Week: 3 ; Weeks on List: 33

4. I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE by Wally Lamb (ReganBooks: $27.50) A man with a twin brother and dysfunctional parents finds his ancestral roots in Sicily.

Last Week: 4 ; Weeks on List: 2

5. SUMMER SISTERS by Judy Blume (Delacorte: $21.95) Friendship between two unlikely girls blossoms and grows through years of hardship and maturity.

Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 6

6. FREEDOMLAND by Richard Price (Broadway Books: $25) The hunt for an abducted child turns up the heat in a hellish New Jersey town.

Last Week: 8 ; Weeks on List: 6

7. THE KLONE AND I by Danielle Steel (Delacorte: $17.95) Finding the right chemistry in a story of high-tech love among the test tubes.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

8. THE STREET LAWYER by John Grisham (Doubleday: $27.95) After being confronted on a city street, an arrogant lawyer becomes a hero for the homeless.

Last Week: 12 ; Weeks on List: 20

9. CITIES OF THE PLAIN by Cormac McCarthy (Knopf: $25) A New Mexico rancher duels with a pimp to save the life and win the love of a 16-year-old girl.

Last Week: 9 ; Weeks on List: 7

10. THE LAST FULL MEASURE by Jeff Shaara (Ballantine: $25.95) The final novel in a trilogy about the Civil War in the years after the Gettysburg turning point.

Last Week: 6 ; Weeks on List: 4

11. ABOUT A BOY by Nick Hornby (Riverhead: $22.95) A London bachelor’s comfy existence is upended by a needy youngster who squeezes into his life.

Last Week: 7 ; Weeks on List: 6

12. THE VOLUNTEER by Carter Coleman (Warner: $24) A Peace Corps member saves a Tanzanian girl from a barbaric ritual but puts their lives in danger.

Last Week: -- ; Weeks on List: 1

13. IDENTITY by Milan Kundera (HarperFlamingo: $23) Portrait d’une femme craving new sensations. Reviewed by Susan Salter Reynolds, Page 4.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 4

14. YOU BELONG TO ME by Mary Higgins Clark (Simon and Schuster: $25) A psychologist’s interest in a missing woman attracts a killer with an ear for music.

Last Week: 15 ; Weeks on List: 10

15. BLACK AND BLUE by Anna Quindlen (Random House: $23) A battered wife’s past looms menacingly on the horizon of her new life in another town.

Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 18

PAPERBACK FICTION

1. DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD by Rebecca Wells (HarperCollins: $13) Sisterhood in the South.

2. THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS by Arundhati Roy (HarperPerennial: $13) The rise and fall of an Indian family.

3. UNNATURAL EXPOSURE by Patricia Cornwell (Berkley: $7.99) Kay Scarpetta hunts for a killer in cyberspace.

4. THE ANGEL OF DARKNESS by Caleb Carr (Ballantine: $7.99) In this sequel to “The Alienist,� the victims are infants.

5. SHE’S COME UNDONE by Wally Lamb (Pocket: $14) A woman’s painful journey of self-discovery.

6. BREATH, EYES, MEMORY by Edwidge Danticat (Vintage: $11) A struggling young woman finds affirmation on returning to Haiti.

7. HIGH FIDELITY by Nick Hornby (Riverhead: $12.95) A 35-year-old man squelches heartbreak with pop music.

8. THE CLUB DUMAS by Arturo Perez-Reverte (Vintage: $13) An old text to summon the devil creates a hell for a book dealer.

9. FAT TUESDAY by Sandra Brown (Warner Vision: $8.99) Lust, greed and murder converge in New Orleans.

10. ASYLUM by Patrick McGrath (Vintage: $12) Murderous sculptor meets psychiatrist’s wife in a mental hospital.

NONFICTION

1. TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE by Mitch Albom (Doubleday: $19.95) A sportswriter’s empowering story of his weekly visits to see an older dying friend.

Last Week: 1 ; Weeks on List: 26

2. EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS by Peter Biskind (Simon & Schuster: $25) How the sex-drugs-and rock ‘n’ roll generation of filmmakers saved Hollywood.

Last Week: 4 ; Weeks on List: 11

3. TITAN by Ron Chernow (Random House: $30) A biography of John D. Rockefeller Sr. that draws upon unpublished interviews with the industrial tycoon.

Last Week: 5 ; Weeks on List: 4

4. THE NINE STEPS TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM by Suze Orman (Crown: $23) Practical tips for avoiding stress, making good savings plans and managing money.

Last Week: 3 ; Weeks on List: 12

5. SHIP OF GOLD IN THE DEEP BLUE SEA by Gary Kinder (Atlantic Monthly: $27.50) A modern-day adventure to retrieve $450 million from a sunken steamer.

Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 4

6. A MONK SWIMMING by Malachy McCourt (Hyperion: $23.95) The brother of Frank McCourt offers a bawdy antidote to a sad childhood.

Last Week: 8 ; Weeks on List: 3

7. RANTING AGAIN by Dennis Miller (Doubleday: $21.95) A collection of 46 “rants� first delivered on Miller’s HBO specials.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

8. A PIRATE LOOKS AT FIFTY by Jimmy Buffett (Random House: $24.95) The songwriter-author reflects on his ventures around the globe aboard his seaplane.

Last Week: 7 ; Weeks on List: 2

9. CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, BOOK ONE by Neale Donald Walsch (Putnam: $19.95) Channeling messages from Mr. Big about good, evil and the meaning of life.

Last Week: -- ; Weeks on List: 56

10. PHILISTINES AT THE HEDGEROW by Steven Gaines (Little, Brown: $26.95) A social history of the elite living on walled estates in the Hamptons.

Last Week: --; Weeks on List: 1

11. THE MILLIONAIRE NEXT DOOR by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Lanko (Longstreet Press: $22) Lives of the rich and famous, including golden parachutes.

Last Week: 13 ; Weeks on List: 23

12. WE ARE OUR MOTHERS’ DAUGHTERS by Cokie Roberts (Morrow: $19.95) Female activists, soldiers and others challenging the role of women in society.

Last Week: 9 ; Weeks on List: 8

13. THE MAN WHO LISTENS TO HORSES by Monty Roberts (Random House: $23) Homespun philosophy from a trainer who turns wild horses into pussy cats.

Last Week: 14 ; Weeks on List: 23

14. RAT PACK CONFIDENTIAL by Shawn Levy (Doubleday: $23.95) What happened when Sinatra asked his buddies to party in a place called Las Vegas.

Last Week: -- ; Weeks on List: 3

15. STORY by Robert McKee (ReganBooks: $25) Plot techniques and and other methods of writing for the silver screen from a veteran screenwriter.

Last Week: 12 ; Weeks on List: 20

PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger (HarperPerennial: $13) Fishermen trapped in the fury of an Atlantic storm.

2. INTO THIN AIR by Jon Krakauer (Anchor Books: $7.99) Risk and recklessness on Mt. Everest.

3. NAKED by David Sedaris (Little Brown: $12.95) Autobiographical essays from the NPR commentator.

4. UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN by Frances Mayes (Broadway: $13) Making a home in a glorious Italian landscape.

5. BRAIN DROPPINGS by George Carlin (Hyperion: $9.95) The comedian’s look at the humorous absurdity of modern life.

6. NEWS OF A KIDNAPPING by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Penguin: $12.95) A Colombian drug cartel’s abduction of a journalist.

7. TEAM RODENT by Carl Hiaasen (Ballantine: $8.95) The greed behind the gleam of the Walt Disney company.

8. FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS by Hunter Thompson (Vintage: $11) A gonzo-journalist on a magic carpet ride.

9. THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY Jean-Dominique Bauby (Vintage: $11) Glimpses of oblivion from a stroke victim.

10. WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Fireside: $13) Growing up a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

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Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores.