King’s History of New Zealand most popular book

The Penguin History of New Zealand has beaten the ever popular Edmonds Cookery Book to become New Zealand's favourite book for 2004.

The book, written by the late historian Michael King, has topped the New Zealand Non-Fiction Bestsellers list every fortnight for the past 12 months and appeared on the Bestsellers list more times than any other book.

Geoff Walker, from the book's publisher Penguin Books, said it had achieved huge sales of 150,000 since its October 2003 release and had gained iconic status.

The Edmonds Cookery Book was shifted into second place (23 appearances) after having appeared on the Bestsellers list more than any other book during 2002 and 2003.

Witi Ihimaera's Whale Rider (the movie tie-in edition) topped the New Zealand Adult Fiction category and had 22 appearances on the Bestsellers list.

Other winners were: International Adult Fiction; The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown (17 appearances); International Adult Non-Fiction; It's Not About the Bike, by Lance Armstrong (22 appearances); Children and Teenagers; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon (9 appearances).

- NZPA