London, Aug 9 : Sebastian Faulks' 'Birdsong' and Eric Carle's 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' are the top two publications of a dozen that booksellers must keep on their shelves at all times, says market research firm Nielsen.
The firm's BookScan research of 1.8 million titles reveals that only 12 have appeared in the top 5,000 selling books every week for the last decade, making them the most consistent sellers.
Some books on the wide-ranging list might make the odd literary editor weep.
No Booker Prize winners have made the cut, while only three titles from the BBC's 2003 Big Read poll of the nation's 100 favourite books have been represented.
However, the self-help book 'The Road Less Travelled' by American psychiatrist M Scott Peck is included, as is James Redfield's New Age tome, 'The Celestine Prophecy' - which the author originally published himself.
Perhaps more predictably, JRR Tolkien comes a respectable third with 'The Hobbit' while Delia Smith makes an appearance at number four for her 'Complete Cookery Course'.
Fantasy author Terry Pratchett, who recently revealed he has early onset Alzheimer's disease, makes the list three times for novels from his Discworld series.
These books have what is termed in retail a 'long tail' - they sell for a long time after the initial peak.
Tom Tivnan, features editor of The Bookseller magazine, said none of his colleagues had guessed any of the titles on the list.
Most thought Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' would feature, he said.
"A lot of these books are quite niche, for example The Celestine Prophecy. "But maybe that's the secret - many are books of which people say, 'Have you heard about this?' " Telegraph quoted him, as saying.
--- ANI
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