A terrible week for the overall market and it really didn’t take much to get into the top ten. That said, nice to to see Poolbeg there with leaving Claire, the first Irish published book (as opposed to Irish written) to make the top rank for some time.

1: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, Stieg Larsson, 2,188
2: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson, 1,456
3: The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson, 1,162
4: Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days, Derek Landy, 1,076
5: Roadside Crosses, Jeffery Deaver, 776
6: The Best of Times, Penny Vincenzi, 646
7: The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold, 629
8: 9th Judgement, James Patterson, 611
9: Leaving Claire, Geraldine O’Neill, 586
10: 61 Hours, Lee Child, 584

Some notable news arrivals in the Top Ten this week including Douglas Kennedy and Val McDermid’s titles but the continuing strength of Stieg Larsson surely must be running towards the end soon.

1: Leaving The World, Douglas Kennedy
2: The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
3: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
4: Maths Tables
5: The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson
6: Gone Tomorrow, Lee Child
7: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, Stieg Larsson
8: Invictus: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation, John Carlin
9: The Fever of the Bone, Val McDermid
10: Stolen, Lesley Pearse

Source, Nielsen Bookscan ICM Figures

Alice Sebold's, movie driven success continues. It is surely one of those books that nearly EVRYONE has read by now. As 2009 was the year of Stephanie Meyer, 2010 is shaping up to be Stieg Larsson, though it is early days yet and a contender may emerge

1: The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
2: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
3: The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson
4: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, Stieg Larsson
5: The Missing, Jane Casey
6: Maths Tables
7: Stolen, Lesley Pearse
8: Invictus: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation, John Carlin
9: One Day, David Nicholls
10: The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold

Source, Nielsen Bookscan ICM Figures

The power of the Stieg Larsson brand is really quite phenomenal. Again his book dominate the top ten, but woth some interesting new arrivals, most notably Mick McCaffrey’s Cocaine Wars. Real life and fictional thrillers being equally popular in Ireland.

1: The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
2: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
3: Cocaine Wars:’Fat’ Freddie Thompson and the Crumlin/Drimnagh Feud, Mick McCaffery
4: The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson
5: Invictus: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation, John Carlin
6: Mathematical Tables
7: The Missing, Jane Casey
8: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, Stieg Larsson
9: Stolen, Lesley Pearse
10: Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann

Source, Nielsen Bookscan ICM Figures

No doubt fuelled by the heavy promotion of the film, Invictus makes an appearance in the top ten, which is overall dominated by the talented but departed Mr Larsson. Colum McCann is still selling well as is Sebold and the seemingly unstoppable rise of the Mathematical Tables continues!

1: Mathematical Tables
2: The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
3: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
4: Stolen, Lesley Pearse
5: The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson
6: Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann
7: Invictus: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation, John Carlin
8: Don't Tell, Karen Rose
9: Living with Evil, Cynthia Owen
10: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, Stieg Larsson

Source: Nielsen Bookscan

We have the somewhat odd situation at the end of February where Alice Sebold occupies two slots with one book (in different editions), a product of the motion picture hype and the impressive performance of Irish actress Saoirse Ronan. Colum McCann makes a return after a somewhat strange disappearance driven I suspect by poor restocking or perhaps a rushed reprint. Larsson remains strong and two weeks in a row without Meyer. If Meyer’s fading sales are consistent worldwide, Hachette may need to find something soon for 2010 if their figures have any hope of matching the results from 2010.

1: The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
2: State Mathematical Tables
3: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
4: Living with Evil, Cynthia Owen
5: The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson
6: Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann
7: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, Stieg Larsson
8: The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
9: Stolen, Lesley Pearse
10: The Lovers, John Connolly

Source: Nielsen Bookscan, ICM

McCann's, Let The Great World Spin is selling well.

Larsson continues his posthumous domination of the Irish book market in 2010. Though it is nice to see the presence of McCann’s book which did well in 2009 and Brooklyn by Toibin no doubt helped by his Costa win last week, I wonder how it will do if he wins the overall award?

1: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
2: The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson
3: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, Stieg Larsson
4: Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann
5: The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
6: Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer
7: Brooklyn, Colm Toibin
8: Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer
9: The Brightest Star in the Sky, Marian Keyes
10: Run For Your Life, James Patterson