It’s the third day of the ‘blog every day for a whole week on bookstains challenge’ and I’ve been wondering which is the worlds most best-selling book.. The answer is surprising. I would have thought it was the bible – but it isn’t. The sales of these best-selling books are over 1 million copies. They are-
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 1859 sold over 200 million
The Lord of the Rings by J RR Tolkien 1854-1855 sold 150 million
The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien 1937 sold over 100 million
(Dream of the Red Chamber) Cao Xuegin 1759 -1791 sold over 100 million
And then there were None by Agatha Christie 1939 sold over 100 million
You could say that I have contributed to those sales, having bought and read ‘A Tale of Two Cities’, ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’. Also rans (between 50 million and a million) are;-
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’ by C S Lewis
She by H Rider Haggard
Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger
The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho
Steps to Christ by Ellen G White
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Heidi’s years of wandering and learning by Johanna Spyri
The Common Sense book of baby and Childcare by Dr Benjamin Spock
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Out of those, I’m surprised to find that I’ve actually read The Lion the Witch and the wardrobe, The Little Prince, Heidi, Catcher in the Rye, Lolita, Anne of Green Gables, Black Beauty and The name of the Rose. I might add, that most of these books were read years ago and of my choosing – not through required reading. My relationship to Dr Spock is a bit tenuous. I am a product of his advice 😀
Well how many of these particular books have your read? More than me I bet 😀 – and what did you think of that list?
List from here and includes other interesting book lists
Bookstains 
These are the sort of lists that get people arguing long into the night…
I’m surprised that Dickens’ book is top. Had it been Oliver Twist or the such like I would have not.
LOTR is one of the few books I’ve read twice. When I first heard classmates mentioning the name I thought they were talking about an opera or something, so took no notice. Then I came across it in a bookshop and the rest is history. My Number 1 book.
The Hobbit is a lovely book to read to children.
The Da Vinci Code I hate to say I bought and read. I quite enjoyed it but have since read so many derogatorary comments about Brown’s style that I could never read it again!
Heidi, Green Gables and Black Beauty are not really MY type of story so that’s my excuse for only knowing them from film or TV.
The Lion, Lolita, The Catcher and She I have perused.
Fascinating post. I’m surprised other Dickens’ books aren’t there, or maybe an Archer or Cartland! Maybe Stig Larsson will be in future.
I imagine some other sources may suggest alternative lists?
Great to see you have read most of those. I too was surprised by a tale of two cities (though it was required reading at school – so that may have something to do with it) TLOTR I think you may have got confused with the Wagner opera called The Ring :-). 4ome good books in there and a few surprises. Glad you enjoyed this post 😉 -km answering this on my new phone so excuse spelling mistake (I’ve just noticed)