This is a list of the 10 most read books in the world over the last fifty years. The figures show the number of books printed and sold but does not take into account multiple readings of the same book.

 There are a few book titles that have had more copies printed than some of these books, but a vast number of those books were not sold, which of course means that they did not get read.

The Bible – 3.9 Billion Copies

 The Bible still remains at the top as the most read book in the world.

 The Bible is the account of God’s action in the world and his purpose with all creation. The writing of the Bible was accomplished over sixteen centuries and is a quite amazing collection of sixty six books containing the messages of God.

Quotations from the Works of Mao Tse-tung – 820 Million Copies

 The Quotations from the Works of Mao Tse-tung, or as it was commonly called, the ‘little red book’ of Mao Tse-tung, was a personal explanation to the people of China of the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party.

Harry Potter  – 400 Million Copies

 The Harry Potter books are a fantasy series of seven novels by British writer J. K. Rowling. The majority of which have been made into action packed movies.

 Children and adults alike have been fascinated by this fiction character and cannot get enough of the young hero’s adventures.

Lord of the Rings – 103 Million Copies

 The Lord of the Rings is an epic fantasy story written by the philologist J. R. R. Tolkien. The novel started out as a sequel to his earlier, far less complex children’s fantasy story The Hobbit, but evolved into a much larger work.

 The Lord of the Rings has been made into a film trilogy that consists of three live action fantasy epic films; The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King.

The Da Vinci Code – 57 Million Copies

 The Da Vinci Code is a fiction novel written by American author Dan Brown. The story follows the investigations of Robert Langdon after a murder in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

He discovers an intriguing possibility that Jesus Christmay have been married to Mary Magdalene and fathered a child with her. The Da Vinci Code has been made into a movie starring Tom Hanks.

Twilight – The Saga – 43 Million Copies

 Twilight is the first book in an extremely popular young adult series written by Stephenie Meyer. The story is about a young girl who falls in love with a vampire. This is a saga that is full of romance and action.

She says ‘First, he was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him’.

Gone With the Wind – 33 Million Copies

Gone With the Wind, a romantic drama by Margaret Mitchell. It is set in Georgia during the American Civil War and follows the life of Scarlett O’Hara, the daughter of an Irish immigrant plantation owner.

 The novel won the coveted Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into a film of the same name that won an Academy Award.

Think and Grow Rich – 30 Million Copies

 Think and Grow Rich is a motivational book written by Napoleon Hill. It is a personal development and self improvement novel that was inspired by a suggestion that he received from the Scottish-American billionaire Andrew Carnegie.

Diary of Anne Frank – 27 Million Copies

 The Diary of a Young Girl is the English version book that is based on the writings from a diary, which was written by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The book is now considered one of the key texts of the twentieth century.

Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy – 17 Million Copies

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. The story follows the adventures of Arthur Dent, a hapless Englishman who, with his friend Ford Prefect, an alien from a small planet somewhere and the researcher for the guidebook, escape the demolition of Earth by a bureaucratic alien race called the Vogons.

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