BESTSELLERS / PAPERBACKS

*--* SO. CAL. RATING Fiction

*--*

*--* 1 The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead: $14) A writer returns to Kabul to rescue the son of a childhood friend.

2 Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Vintage: $12) An autistic teen seeks a killer.

3 Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (Pocket Books: $7.99) A scholar uncovers a vendetta against the Roman Catholic Church.

4 The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (Harvest: $14) A time traveler falls in love with a teen heiress.

5 The Murder Room by P.D. James (Vintage: $13.95) Adam Dalgliesh investigates an unpopular museum trustee’s murder.

6 The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler (Ballantine: $14.95) A mismatched couple struggles to make life bearable.

7 Deception Point by Dan Brown (Pocket Books: $7.99) A president’s reelection rests on an object buried in the Arctic.

8 Skipping Christmas by John Grisham (Dell: $6.99) A couple’s decision to skip Christmas comes back to haunt them.

9 Oracle Night by Paul Auster (Picador: $14) A Brooklyn novelist is trapped by eerie premonitions and bewildering events.

10 Absolute Friends by John le Carre (Back Bay Books: $13.95) Cold War spies are drawn into opposing the Iraq invasion.

*--*

*--* SO. CAL. RATING Nonfiction

*--*

*--* 1 Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (Random House: $13.95) A professor keeps literature alive for her students.

2 The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (Vintage: $14.95) How a serial killer haunted the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

3 1,000 Places to See Before You Die by Patricia Schultz (Workman: $18.95) Trotting the globe.

4 The Bush Survival Bible by Gene Stone (Villard: $9.99) A humorous take on surviving the next four years.

5 Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter (TechPress/Warner: $15.95) Fiscal parenting.

6 The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2004 by Dave Eggers (Houghton Mifflin: $14) Must-reads of 2004.

7 World Almanac and Book of Facts 2005 (World Almanac Books: $11.95) Just the facts, ma’am.

8 The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States (Bantam: $2.95)

9 Cool Restaurants Los Angeles by Karin Mahle (TeNeues: $14.95) L.A.’s 35 most fashionable restaurants.

10 Destination: Morgue! by James Ellroy (Vintage: $13.95) Crime, real and imagined, in this latest Ellroy collection.

*--*