Have you been reading the BESTSELLERS list?

Some working definitions.....

fic·tion

1.

a. An imaginative creation or a pretense that does not represent actuality but has been invented.

b. The act of inventing such a creation or pretense.

2. A lie.

3.

a. A literary work whose content is produced by the imagination and is not necessarily based on fact.

b. The category of literature comprising works of this kind, including novels and short stories.

Non-fiction is an account or representation of a subject which is presented as fact. This presentation may be accurate or not; that is, it can give either a true or a false account of the subject in question. However, it is generally assumed that the authors of such accounts believe them to be truthful at the time of their composition.

Let's begin.... it's a tad long but I hope it's interesting. I found it interesting to write.

The LifeStyle's compilation of the week's bestseller lists from Borders, Kinokuniya, MPH, Page One, Popular and Times bookstores gives them the weekly BESTSELLERS list in the Sunday Edition of Life! section of The Sunday Times - our national paper's Sunday Edition.

Let's take a look at a past week's list...

Ok, so it's divided into the Fiction and Non-fiction lists (see above for definitions).

Ficition: The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, The Last Templar, The Templar Legacy....wow...so much stuff that is either by Dan Brown or related. Like, who would read about the Templar Knights if not for the Da Vinci Code right? Amazing power of fiction. And Dan Brown himself, except for Digital Fortress and Deception Point, is on the list for 50% of work. Barring from debutants (that'll be 100%), that's pretty good for an author, right?

Alright, let's turn our attention to the Non-fiction list. Hmm....interesting...The Da Vinci Code: A Quest for Answers.....is it just me or does it seem weird? It's like when JK Rowling wrote The Philosopher's Stone and somebody wrote another book related to the truth behind the Philosophers's Stone - surely the latter will be talking about the merits of the Nimbus 2000?

Why should a novel classified as "fiction" warrant a book of answers classified as "non-fiction"? Leave me to my imagination and I will be thinking that since The Da Vinci Code is written about the existence of Jesus and Mary's royal bloodline (hence fiction), thus the "answer" which of course is to say that the bloodline is absolute rubbish would be non-fiction? I'm not questioning anybody's religion. Just the limitations of classifying books under "ficiton" and "non-ficition". Moreover, Dan Brown really believes in what he wrote in The Da Vinci Code. So shouldn't that make his novel a work on non-fiction?

The limitations are even more glaring when you see another example. Two books by Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet In Heaven and Tuesdays With Morrie, simultaneously in the list. That was before he wrote For One More Day. Hence his output is 100% and he is not a debutant. Truly powerful. What's more? He is on both list. But seriously, exactly how many Tuesdays did Mitch spend with Morrie Schwartz? How much of the book was based on real Tuesdays and how much of it was based on figments of imagination? That's still ok actually. Tuesdays With Morrie was marketed as a non-ficiton book. No problem. Nonfiction novel. It's happened before. In Cold Blood by Capote for example.

The most controversial on the list must the the non-fiction chart-topper - Secrets of Self Made Millionaire by Adam Khoo. I mean, seriously? Fiction for some surely?

And if we flip to this morning's Sunday Times, wowee zowee, Mitch Albom's For One More Day is top of the fiction list while his other two books are still on the list. Three books and still 100%. Not only that, he occupies the top two spots on the fiction list. Dan Brown is no where to be found. You've got to give it to him, this former sportswriter named Mitch.

Is he unbelievable or what? (haha...I know, not a very good joke)

The Adam Khoo book is still there. Ok, well, debatable, fiction or not.

But the two chart-toppers of the non-fiction list take the cake - Lillian Too's Get Rich With Water and Feng Shui for 2007: The Year of The Fire Boar by Joey Yap. Well, I suppose since a book written about a personal quest to debunk a work classified as fiction can be on the non-fiction, why not books on Feng Shui?