All of us love to read a good book, but could you name the 10 most read books in the world? Over the last half century hundreds of thousands of books have been produced, but only a select few have become the most popular and most read books in the world. Here you will discover some of the greatest pieces of literary work by highly talented authors.
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.
Here's the 10 to 1 countdown of the Top 10 Most Read Books In The World
| 10. Diary of Anne Frank By 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. |
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| 9. Think and Grow Rich By Napoleon Hill - 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. |
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| 8. Gone With the Wind By Margaret Mitchell - 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. |
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| 7. Twilight - The Saga By Stephenie Meyer - 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'. |
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| 6. The Da Vinci Code By Dan Brown - 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 Christ may 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. |
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| 5. The Alchemist By Paulo Coelho - 65 Million Copies The Alchemist was published in 1987 and became a Brazilian bestseller, it has gone on to sell 65 million copies world-wide, becoming one of the best selling books in history. The Alchemist has been translated into more than 67 languages, winning the Guiness World Record for most translated book by a living author. Paulo Coelho is not only one of the most widely read, but also one of the most influential authors writing today. |
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| 4. Lord of the Rings By J. R. R. Tolkien - 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. |
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| 3. Harry Potter By J. K. Rowling - 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. |
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| 2. Quotations from the Works of Mao Tse-tung By 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. |
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| 1. The Bible - 3.9 Billion Copies 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. |
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