The British buy books by television personalities, Americans are obsessed with self-improvement, French choices are more highbrow, the Germans like holidays while the Japanese have more eclectic tastes. If it were not for Harry Potter, the survey by Amazon of global reading tastes would look like a very lazy exercise in national stereotyping.

The internet retailer has listed the bestselling books on its sites in Britain, the United States, France, Japan and Germany. There are tens of millions of titles to choose from, but Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows tops the charts in four of the countries.

In Japan it nestles in third place, behind two health-and-beauty titles: Yukuko Tanaka’s Face Massage and Inspiring Exercise. The list embraces the first Michelin guide to Tokyo restaurants, a scientific treatise on (human) viruses, a comedian’s autobiography and three volumes of Manga.

The British prefer celebrity chefs, TV presenters and trivia, with a light sprinkling of literary fiction. Nigella Lawson pips Jamie Oliver to second place in the battle of the cookbooks. Richard Hammond’s 300mph crash while filming for Top Gear makes his the bestselling autobiography.

Kes Nielsen, head of book buying for Amazon.co.uk, said that the list reflected the increasing clout of celebrities in the book market. The pursuit of trivia had always had a place in Britain’s publishing scene, he added, but it was Ben Schott, a regular contributor to The Times, who turned it into a white-hot publishing trend with Schott’s Original Miscellany.

There are only three novels in the list, the fewest of any country: Harry Potter, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Orange Prize-winning Half of a Yellow Sun and Khaled Hosseini’s follow-up to The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns. Mr Nielsen believes that three quarters of the books on the bestseller list had been bought as Christmas presents. “People don’t tend to buy fiction as a present because it’s a very personal thing.”

The French have no such inhibitions. There are seven works of fiction in Amazon.fr’s Top Ten, most of them spectacularly French-sounding novels. They include: L’élégance du hérisson, about a suicidal girl and her apartment building’s philosophy-loving caretaker; Chagrin d’école, about a miserable student; and Un secret, set in the aftermath of the Nazi occupation and is the story of a sickly boy who invents an imaginary brother only to find out that such a brother did exist.

The only autobiography in the list is that of Simone Veil, the Auschwitz survivor who became the first female President of the European Parliament.

The American list is dominated by self-improvement: Eat, Pray, Love (one woman’s search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia); Good to Great (why some companies make the leap . . . and others don’t); Now Discover Your Strengths (how to develop your talents and those of the people you manage); and Deceptively Delicious (simple secrets to get your kids eating good food). The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne, which suggests that positive thought alone can generate health, wealth and happiness, features in the US, German and Japanese Top Tens.

Germans like books about travel and the outdoors. There are two in the Top Ten, both featuring Hape Kerkeling, a comic, actor and presenter. Ich Bin Dann Mal Weg is an account of his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. In Ein Mann, ein Fjord, he and his boyfriend head for Norway. Where the Germans really excel though is in the search for the driest bestseller. Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, in eighth place, is the country’s civil code.

Harry leads the way on a global odyssey

United Kingdom

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J. K. Rowling
2. Nigella Express Nigella Lawson
3. Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life Jamie Oliver
4. Do Ants Have Arseholes?: And 101 Other Bloody Ridiculous Questions Jon Butler
5. On the Edge Richard Hammond
6. My Booky Wook Russell Brand
7. QI: The Book of General Ignorance QI
8. Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
9. The God Delusion Richard Dawkins
10. A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini

United States

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J. K. Rowling
2. The Secret Rhonda Byrne
3. Eat, Pray, Love Elizabeth Gilbert
4. A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini
5. The Dangerous Book for Boys Conn Iggulden
6. Deceptively Delicious Jessica Seinfeld
7. Strengthsfinder 2.0 Tom Rath
8. Good to Great Jim Collins
9. Water for Elephants Sara Gruen 1
10. Now Discover Your Strengths Marcus Buckingham

France

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J. K. Rowling
2. I do not know how to lose weight Dr Pierre Dukan
3. The elegance of the hedgehog Muriel Barbery
4. School blues Daniel Pennac
5. Secret* Philippe Grimbert
6. Volume 18: The Irish Jean Van Hamme
7. Volume 19: The Last Round Jean Van Hamme
8. A Life Simone Veil
9. Fitness: 110 exercises without equipment Olivier Lafay
10.The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo* Stieg Larsson

Germany

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J. K. Rowling
2. I am off for bit, then Hape Kerkeling
3. For every solution a problem Kerstin Gier
4. Volume 3 of the Inkworld Trilogy Cornelia Funke
5. The Secret Rhonda Byrne
6. A Fjord Angelo Colagrossi
7. The Joy of Life – Calendar 2008
8. The Civil Code
9. The Cleaner*Paul Cleave
10. The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini

Japan

1. Yukuko Tanaka’s Face Massage Yukuko Tanaka
2. Inspiring Exercise Micaco
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J. K. Rowling
4. Michelin Guide to Tokyo 2008 Michelin
5. Nodame Cantabile 17 (Manga) Tomoko Ninomiya
6. The Homeless Junior High School Student Hiroshi Tamura
7. Between living organisms and inanimate objects Shinichi Fukuoka
8. Moyashimon Volume 6 (Manga) Masayuki Ishikawa
9. The Secret Rhonda Byrne
10. Nodame Cantabile 18 (Manga) Tomoko Ninomiya

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