SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness... and of curling up on the sofa with a good book, maybe.

September is all those things. It's also the start of the autumn book campaign, when publishers launch their newest finds and worthiest tomes, and the Man Booker prize announces its shortlist.

Among the 2007 nominees, published this week, are Ian McEwan's highly-acclaimed On Chesil Beach, a story which takes its theme of a bleak and loveless relationship from the lonely atmosphere of the iconic Dorset shore of its title.

And local connections pop up too, in a new survey of what the book (and CD and DVD) buying public rate as their top sounds and reads.

More than 20,000 customers of Borders voted Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything as their favourite book, followed by William Golding's disturbing classic, Lord of the Flies, in second place. Both Bryson and Gerald Durrell, whose sunny memoir My Family and Other Animals is the fourth most popular read, drew inspiration from Bournemouth: Bryson worked at the Daily Echo and Durrell lived here before his family set off on the adventure to Corfu, described in his novel.

Other top reads include The Color Purple, Alice Walker's epistolatory story of life as an African-American woman in the earlier part of the 20th century, and Atonement, the Ian McKewan novel which forms the basis for the new Kiera Knightly film.

If this is what we read, who do we most like to listen to? Solid classics, it would appear. Top CD is Sgt Pepper, with Dire Straits' 1980s blockbuster, Brothers In Arms, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours and Michael Jackson's Thriller in the top five. Favourite modern sounds include Scissor Sisters and Maroon Five's haunting Songs About Jane.

When it comes to DVDs, the classics reign again, with Breakfast at Tiffany's, Some Like it Hot and The Sound of Music right in there. Top DVD is the Shawshank Redemption, followed by the Lord of the Rings.

However, keen bookworms and DVD-watchers could be forgiven for thinking that the survey differs enormously from others that have been published in recent years which places the Lord of the Rings and, variously, Pride and Prejudice as Britain's favourite books and The Godfather as one of the top three films.

Dom Kippin, of Bournemouth Borders believes he has the answer.

"I think that many of these other surveys are conducted for the BBC and that our customers are maybe a bit younger, with their list reflecting that."

He says the survey threw up differences between different stores.

"In Bournemouth the Nigel Slater book, Toast, which was number nine in the national list didn't register. Our readers preferred Touching the Void and Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom."

What the list does do, he says, is back evidence from all Britain's booksellers that far from being a dumbed-down nation, we love reading books.

"There will always be an appetite for great stories, well-told, and wonderful music and films," he says.