The All-Time Best-Selling Books
We’ve discussed the top rated TV shows, most popular video games, best-selling albums, and the albums that topped the charts the longest. Today, let’s talk about the all-time best-selling books. If you’re a budding author, it looks like books outlining some sort of religious doctrine would be the way to go. Boy wizardry is another area rich with potential.
1. The Bible (6.7 billion copies)
2. Quotations from Chariman Mao, Mao Tse-Tung (900 million)
3. The Qur’an (800 million)
4. Xinhua Zidian (400 million — a Chinese dictionary, first published in 1953)
5. The Book of Common Prayer, Thomas Cranmar
6. Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan
7. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, John Foxe
8. The Book of Mormon, Joseph J. Smith, Jr. (123 million)
9. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling (107 million — UK title was …and the Philosopher’s Stone)
10. And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie (100 million)
11. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien (100 million)
12. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling (65 million)
13. The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown (65 million)
14. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling (60 million)
15. The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger (60 million)
The other three Harry Potter titles are 16, 17 and 18. The list continues at Wikipedia.
In case you want more lists of books, here are a few more, also courtesy of Mental Floss:
A few weeks ago, I posted a link to early reviews of the all-time best novels. In that case, the novels were chosen by the editorial board of the Modern Library. But there’s no shortage of ‘Best Books’ lists. Here are a handful.
• The Guardian’s 100 Best Books of All Time. “Full list of the 100 best works of fiction, alphabetically by author, as determined from a vote by 100 noted writers from 54 countries as released by the Norwegian Book Clubs. Don Quixote was named as the top book in history but otherwise no ranking was provided.”
• BBC – The Big Read – Top 100 Books. Results of a BBC search for the country’s most-loved novel. The Lord of the Rings edged out Pride and Prejudice for the top spot.
• The Book List (Or the 778 Best Books of All-Time). The 778 best books of all-time, as ranked by readers, visitors, friends, and the creator of the Blue Pyramid. To Kill a Mockingbird defeats Hamlet for the gold.
• The Sports Illustrated Top 100 Best Sports Books of All Time. The Sweet Science tops a list that includes Ball Four, Paper Lion, The City Game, North Dallas Forty and Whatever Happened to Gorgeous George?
• The 100 Best Children’s Books of All Time. Parenthood.com names 100 stories that will “excite your kids and remain in their memories for years to come. This list represents the views of parents, children’s literature experts and our own readers.”
• National Geographic Extreme Classics: The 100 Greatest Adventure Books of All Time. The Worst Journey in the World was named best book of the adventure genre.
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1 comment:
Did you forget Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities", with over 200 million copies sold?
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