When it comes down to it, no one knows how many books have been published. Since the first Gutenberg Bible rolled off the presses, an estimated 130 million unique books were published by 2010. But with the rise of digital formats and easy self-publishing, this number has easily exploded to 150 million or more. Amazon‘s Kindle Direct Publishing churns out over 1.4 million self-published titles a year, or over 3,800 titles a day. As a reader, where do you even begin? Maybe with the world’s all-time best-sellers. We’ve got your reading list right here.

Challenges to Counting Books

Determining the total number of books of a particular title sold is near-impossible. Popular books come in innumerable variations of editions, translations, and adaptations. Once their copyright expires, anyone can throw the text into an e-book with some royalty free photos and a bit of commentary and sell it as a new book.

Religious and Philosophical Texts

Religious texts have been copied, printed, and distributed over many centuries and are impossible to count. They are often purchased or printed in bulk and distributed for free by religious institutions, so high production rates do not necessary reflect the popularity of the text, but the funding and evangelistic zeal of the organizations that want to distribute it. And religious groups also tend to inflate estimates of the popularity of their texts. So we have separated religious texts out to a separate list and given you, based on the best data we can find, some reasonable starting points if you want to start reading some of the most-printed, most-distributed, and/or most-read books in history.

1. The Bible

Written starting at least 1200 BCE and maybe earlier, the Bible, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is the undisputed world’s best-seller, with about 5 billion copies sold and distributed. It contains the Jewish scriptures, known as the “Old Testament” to Christians as well as the writings of the followers of Jesus.

2. Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung (“The Little Red Book”)

The People’s Liberation Army put out this little book of 267 sayings by Mao Zedong in 1946 during the Chinese Civil War. It became required reading and anywhere from 800 million copies to more than 6.5  billion were disseminated over the years.

3. The Qur’an

Compiled around 650 CE, the Qur’an contains revelations of the prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam. Muslims believe it is the Word of God only in the original Arabic and that translations in other languages are just interpretations of it. This is why translations in other languages often contain the Arabic text as well. An estimate 800 million copies have been distributed.

4. The Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita is a sacred Hindu text written sometime between 200 BCE and 200 CE. It describes a conversation between Prince Arjuna and the god Krishna on the eve of a battle. It’s popular because it take place in a thrilling dramatic context and touches on timeless themes of duty, fate, and responsibility to the gods and to others. That’s why well over 500 million copies have been distributed.

5. The Book of Mormon

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints considers the Book of Mormon a sacred text revealed to Joseph Smith and published in 1830. It tells the story of a prophet and his family who sailed from Israel to the Americas and developed into a civilization, who Jesus appeared to in order to proclaim the Gospel message. About 200 million copies of this book have been published.

All-Time Best-selling Fiction

The best-selling fiction books of all time include some perennial classics and children’s stories as well as some newer titles. An interesting aspect of all of these is that they stir up thoughts about deeper questions of life, much as religious and philosophical texts, but in imaginative and narrative forms that intrigue people of all ages. And they just make rousing good stories, whether you think about their meaning or not. That’s why they’ve been made into movies as well . . . which fuels book sales to people who were captivated by what they experienced on the big screen.

1. Don Quixote

• Author: Miguel de Cervantes
• First published: 1605
• Copies: 500 million

2. A Tale of Two Cities

• Author: Charles Dickens
• First published: 1859
• Copies: 200 million

3. The Little Prince

• Author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• First published: 1943
• Copies: 200 million

4. The Alchemist

• Author: Paulo Coelho
• First published: 1988
• Copies: 150 million

5. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

• Author: J.K. Rowling
• First published: 1997
• Copies: 120 million

6. And Then There Were None

• Author: Agatha Christie
• First published: 1939
• Copies: 100 million

7. Dream of the Red Chamber

• Author: Cao Xueqin
• First published: 1791
• Copies: 100 million

8. The Hobbit

• Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
• First published: 1937
• Copies: 100 million

9. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

• Author: Lewis Carroll
• First published: 1865
• Copies: 100 million

10. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

• Author: C.S. Lewis
• First published: 1950
• Copies: 85 million

So, how many of these have you read . . . and how many will be on your reading list now?

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