Fictions, particularly thrillers with chilling suspense and explosive action, enjoyed the largest readership in China's largest metropolitan city last year, a survey has found.

In 2005, fictions were most popular with Shanghai readers, while sales declined for Who Moved My Cheese type of parables, self-help guides and books on economics, finance and computer, the People's Daily reported Wednesday, quoting results of the survey conducted by the Shanghai Institute for Book Industry Development.

Of the top 10 best-selling books in Shanghai in 2005, four were fictions, including Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and Digital Fortress, it said.

Despite a sales boom brought by J. K. Rowling's latest blockbuster novel Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, sales of children's books were largely sluggish last year. The Shanghai survey found sales of children's books and computer books together accounted for only 25 percent of fiction sales.

The People's Daily said online bookstores that debuted in the late 1990s are prospering with climbing sales and have become a major resort for China's young readers.

(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2006)