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Q: With "The Da Vinci Code" still high on the best-seller list, it makes me wonder: What's the record for the longest a book has been on the best-seller list? -Patrick Ryberg, Mineral Springs, N.C.
A: Patrick, "The Da Vinci Code" has been a best-seller for years now. As of Feb. 1, Dan Brown's controversial historical novel about Christianity has been on the Publishers Weekly list for 146 weeks, since March of 2003. The No. 2 streak by a current best-seller is another of Brown's books, "Angels & Demons," at 143 weeks. In third place is Arthur Golden's "Memoirs of a Geisha," at 135 weeks. (All those numbers are as of the first of the month.)
"The Da Vinci Code" will probably stay on for a while. But it has a ways to go before it breaks the record.
"Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution" (subtitle: "Bacon is The New Celery!") was on Publishers Weekly's best-seller list for 368 weeks - or more than seven years. The No. 2 book on the all-time list is "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People." (First habit: Write a book that's a best-seller for years.) Stephen Covey's book was on PW's list for 346 weeks. In third place is "The Road Less Traveled," M. Scott Peck's book on spiritual growth, which was a best-seller for 335 weeks.
Gary Ink is the head librarian for Publishers Weekly. (Does he have a perfect name, or WHAT?) He told me a few things to keep this list in perspective:
-It's not historical. This overall list only goes back to 1980. "Who knows how long `Gone With the Wind' was on there?" Ink asks.
-Different lists have different results. Publishers Weekly and The New York Times are two of the biggies. But their results differ because of different criteria and reporting from bookstore chains and independent stores. For instance, the all-time streak for The New York Times best-seller list is "The Road Less Traveled," which was a best-seller for a jaw-dropping 694 weeks.
-Think diet books and self-help. The top book on the Publishers Weekly list is a diet book, and the next two are self-help. The first novel on the list? "Bridges of Madison County" at No. 14, which was on the list for 161 weeks.
So if you want to write a book that sells well for years and years, this might be the right formula: "How To Drink Milkshakes While Losing Weight, Getting A Promotion, And Making Friends." Chapter 1: Unwrap The Straw And Remember To Smile.
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Q: Mandarin oranges! All I know about them, is they're in a can, on the grocery store shelf. Tell me all about them, from start to finish. -Michael Swaringen, Albemarle, N.C.
A: Michael, here in the US of A, we sometimes call Mandarin oranges "tangerines," says Tracy Kahn, curator of the University of California at Riverside citrus variety collection. Kahn told me something cool: The word "tangerine" comes from Tangiers, the Moroccan port where the fruit was shipped out to Europe.
Did you know clementines are a variety of Mandarin orange? I didn't know that. Did you know Mandarin orange varieties range in size from as small as a golf ball to as large as a grapefruit? (Those big `uns are hybrids with some orange in their ancestry.) Did you know some Mandarin oranges are sour? Did you know most of the canned Mandarin oranges we see on store shelves are a Japanese variety called satsumas? Satsumas come out of their peels so easily that they're sometimes called "zipper skins" by the experts.
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NO SUCH THING AS A CUPID QUESTION
Send me your love queries - from "Who wrote the book of love?" to "How can I forget you if you won't go away?" On the week of Valentine's Day we'll fearlessly peer into the heart of darkness that is love.
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AND NOW FOR A QUIZ ON SUPER BOWL COMMERCIALS
1. How much did 30-second Super Bowl ads cost this year? a) About $1 million b) About $1.5 million c) About $2.5 million d) About $6.2 million
2. What legendary 1984 Super Bowl commercial did "Blade Runner" director Ridley Scott direct?
3. This year an ad for Degree antiperspirant depicted a city populated by: a) Stunt men b) Sweaty columnists c) Squirrels d) Fashion models
4. One-minute TV commercials during Super Bowl I in 1967 cost either $75,000 or $85,000. True or false.
ANSWERS: 1. c) About $2.5 million 2. Apple Computer's ad introducing the Macintosh 3. a) Stunt men 4. True.
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HAVE A QUESTION?
E-mail Jeff Elder at glad@charlotteobserver.com or call him at (704) 358-5032.
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(c) 2006, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.). Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service.
