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List of the best-selling books of all time:

No. Book Author Original language First published Copies sold
1 The Bible Documentary hypothesis, The Prophets, David, Jewish court scribes,
Four Evangelists, Saint Paul, some of the Apostles, and others		 Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek - ~ 5 to 6,000,000,000
2 毛主席语录 (Quotations From Chairman Mao Zedong) Mao Zedong Chinese 1966 ~1,000,000,000
3 Harry Potter (series) J.K. Rowling English 1997 ~350,000,000
4 The Lord of the Rings (usually published as three volumes) J. R. R. Tolkien English 1954 - 100,000,000
5 The Chronicles of Narnia (series) C. S. Lewis English 1949 - 1954 -100,000,000
6 American Spelling Book (Webster's Dictionary) Noah Webster English 1783 - 100,000,000
7 Guinness Book of World Records - English 1955 - - 94,000,000
8 World Almanac - English 1868- - 73,500,000
9 The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown English 2003 - 60,500,000
10 The McGuffey Readers (series) William Holmes McGuffey English 1853 -60,000,000
11 The Common Sense Book of
Baby and Child Care		 Dr. Benjamin Spock English 1946 ~50,000,000
12 O Alquimista (The Alchemist) Paulo Coelho Portuguese 1988 ~ 50,000,000
13 A Message to Garcia Elbert Hubbard English 1899 ~ 40,000,000
14 Valley of the Dolls Jacqueline Susann English 1966 - 30,000,000
15 Gone With The Wind Margaret Mitchell English 1936 - 28,000,000

Note

This list was originally compiled in 1997, and has been updated using the sources shown. The Qur'an has been printed since the 10th century CE and the number of copies presumably numbers hundreds of millions. Six billion Bibles is also an estimate. The Guinness Book of World Records has had many editions; no single edition would likely make this list. The McGuffey Readers is a series of books, not just one. The Harry Potter books are also a series, not just one book (though any single book would most likely also make the list, just at a lower spot).

Gone With The Wind is estimated at 28,000,000 copies sold (May 1993).

The Little Prince is estimated at 50,000,000 copies sold.

The Three Musketeers needs counting.

The Truth That Leads To Eternal Life 120,000,000 copies sold (1968 to 1982, Published by Jehovah's Witnesses )

You Can Live Forever In Paradise On Earth 105,000,000 copies sold (Published by Jehovah's Witnesses )

The Lord of the Rings books, although regarded as one book split into multiple parts for their length, are considered to be a series because they are sold as a series. The number of the copies sold for the books listed as a series is the combined number of all the books released in those series.

Best-Selling Authors

Agatha Christie: it is estimated that one billion copies of her novels have been sold in English, and another billion in 103 other languages. [1].

Danielle Steel has sold more than 550 million copies of her novels.

Enid Blyton's books have sold more than 400 million copies worldwide and been translated into at least 90 languages. More than 300 of her titles are still in print and her books continue to sell in 2 million copies every year. The Noddy books have sold more than 200 million copies worldwide, making Noddy one of the most beloved and popular fictional characters ever.

Richard Scarry children's books (especially the "Busytown" series) have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide.

Regularly updated list of best-selling books

[2] Current topsellers

Sources

1.[3] The Internet Public Library

2.[4] Russell Ash's bestseller list from 2002

3.[5] Ask Men's top ten bestseller list

4.[6] How 'Harry Potter' and 'The Rings' measure up

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