Over the past month, major bookstores in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, have reportedly sold more than 100,000 titles about the Olympics but this is misleading - most are for young readers, such as cartoon book series about Fuwa, the Beijing Olympics mascot's adventures in previous Olympic Games.

Liu Yan, a marketing manager with the Zhongguancun Book Mansion, reckons the most popular Olympic books are ones for children, guide books and maps for tourists coming to Beijing during the Olympics and those on the history of the Games.

Liu estimates books sales have witnessed a staggering 75 percent growth this year.

China has so far published more than 1,000 Olympic books but some readers are still not satisfied.

"I have been to several big bookstores but have failed to find a single guidebook that offers a detailed, bilingual introduction to the newly constructed Olympic venues with clear pictures," says Wang Liming, an overseas Chinese from the United States.

Wang is now gathering materials for his friends back home. "I want to share my Olympic experience here in China with them," he says. "Well-compiled English-Chinese books are what I am looking for.

"So far, though, I have only found a set of maps with small icons of Olympic venues and bilingual explanations.

"Yes, there are many new books with English explanations about Beijing's history, culture and the Games. But the English versions are too simple and short, or obviously 'Chinglish' with grammatical errors."