Posted by Benjamin on: 07.09.2008 /
Today I found Wikipedia’s list of bestselling books. I was enormously intrigued. Some I’ve read, and others I haven’t, and some surprised me with their presence. Here’s a partial listing, with the ones I’ve read bolded: (although a couple of them I’m partially ashamed to admit I read. Ah well)
First, of course, is the The Bible, with an order of magnitude more sales than anything else on the list–an estimated 5 to 6 Billion copies. Except wait–there’s one other one in this category of 5 to 6 Billion copies–Quotations from Chairman Mao. That sort of … sets the cold war, for instance, in a slightly different perspective, doesn’t it? I feel glad, strangely, to have had such a … familiarization with the Bible. It’s kind of referenced everywhere, isn’t it?
The next interesting one is the Qur’an, with 200 million copies. Actually, I’m thinking that must be wrong. With a billion Muslims in the world, there *must* have been more copies than *that* sold.
Then Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, also with 200 million copies sold. I must read this, and … the Qur’an as well, methinks.
Then–the Boy Scout Handbook? 150 million copies sold. Fascinating. I was a boy scout briefly as a boy.
Ah–here’s an old favorite–the Lord of the Rings, with 150 million copies sold. Helen Dewitt, author of the brilliant “The Last Samurai”, references this fact in her new novel, “Your Name Here”. She says Tolkien only wrote LOTR to create a setting for the Elvish languages he had created, and wonders why someone hasn’t written a book selling over a hundred million copies to popularize languages that we English speakers would do well to know, like Arabic (which she is gently starting to teach us in the novel).
Then:
Which on this list, or the longer one at Wikipedia, have you read?
Which have you liked, or disliked, and why?
Leave a Reply
Comment by: martin gugino
1 07/9/08 8:05 AM | Comment Link |*I got down to Catch-22 before I hit a book that I actually cared about, at the time. It was a funny ridiculous book, and a contrast to the standard military stories. I remember that, early on, there was a throw-away line about unhooking a bra, a sentence I pondered.
*Our boss bought us all “Who Moved My Cheese”. I wanted to ask, if you move my cheese, can I collect unemployment?
*A friend recommended Terry Pratchett. I thought Monstrous Regiment was good - a story of misfits, or non-fits - all nice people.
*Junie b Jones is quite hysterical. Monkey Business has been done as a musical. I have affection for Handsome Warren.
*I listened to the Foundation series on audio. I have liked Asimov since high school - and World of Carbon. He is quite readable on all subjects, though his fiction rarely, if ever, soars. (That is, soars like Dark Tower:Susan of Stephen King. That proved to me that he can write, [snide]although he doesn’t often.[/snide])
*”A series of unfortunate” was a good movie.
So very little of the popular stuff have I liked. I didn’t mention “How to win friends..” which I thought was reasonable advice, but why would you want to?
Yes, the gospels are nice, and I did like the Hobbit, and I use the MW dictionary, and read JL Seagull.
Two people gave me copies of “A Purpose Driven Life”. Does that mean something? :-)
The rest leave me cold, or worse (eg Bridges of Madison). A little harsh, but close.
Comment by: Benjamin
2 07/9/08 9:55 PM | Comment Link |Hey Martin,
Maybe I should read Catch 22. It looks to be available at amazon marketplace for 48 cents plus about 3 dollars shipping. (or free at isohunt in about 30 seconds. Not that I would *ever* advocate illegally downloading books)
Love your snide html thing. I’m a big fan of King’s Dark Tower books as well. King ranks right up in there in terms of best selling fiction authors.
Have you checked out Bill Dahl’s response to Warren’s Purpose Driven life?
I don’t think it means anything that people gave you Warren’s book, other than that it was a Christian fad and one of the things that drive Christian fads is that people buy the book for someone else.
“Why would you want to win friends and influence people?” That’s a brilliant question, it speaks to your ability to get at underlying assumptions and … scratch at them, to see if they’re real. =) That was one of the two that I was a bit ashamed to admit I had read–the other being the Napolean Hill book.
Comment by: joe
3 07/10/08 2:12 AM | Comment Link |Catch 22 is OK but not great. Certainly not as good as The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Comment by: Staci
4 07/10/08 12:34 PM | Comment Link |I’m with you, Joe. The Very Hungry Caterpillar is excellent - as is Goodnight Moon.
Benjamin, I don’t think you should be ashamed of reading any of these books. But I look at reading sort of like a bumper sticker I saw about fishing that said “a bad day fishing is better than a good day at work.” Even when a book isn’t great, I still enjoy reading.
From by brief review it looks like people buy books they believe are “good for you,” are given away for free or some sort of reduced cost, and books for children. As with other things, what people seem to think is good for them can be pretty blah. Fortunately for children, reading almost anything is considered good for you so many people (perhaps randomly or perhaps trying to entice children with bright colors) have purchased some very good books for children that many adults enjoy as well. Maybe people would enjoy reading more if they made their selections more like they made selections for kids - because it looks like something that they actually want to read. I’d be interested to see a list of the books people actually read instead of just have.
I also noticed that most of the books are in English - with several in Chinese, a few in Spanish, and some other languages represented here and there. (Though the bible isn’t broken down by language translation.) So as I start to put my nose in the air about the quality of some of the books on the list, my thoughts turn to literacy and access to books in my first language. Wow - what enormous power and privilege. What will I do with it? How can I share it?
Comment by: Elaine
5 07/12/08 9:59 AM | Comment Link |Hmmmm - so many books, so little time.
Some of the books, I’ve bought and not read - still sitting on my shelves waiting for me…and of course, there are the movie versions.
Growing up I read all the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins, the Cat in the Hat. And later, To Kill and Mockingbird, Valley of the Dolls, Purpose Driven Life, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, 7 Habits of Effective People, Tuesdays with Morrie, Who Moved My Cheese?, The Chronicles of Narnia, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Roget’s Thesaurus (as needed),
With my kids, I read Anne of Green Gables, Goodnight Moon, The Outsiders, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Bearastain Bears, and Peter Rabbit.
With my grandkids, I’ve read all the Harry Potter books, Charlotte’s Web, Clifford the Red Dog, Winnie the Pooh, Junie B. Jones, Captain Underpants.
Did you know the average reading level in America is 7th-8th grade? (I hope this has changed) and that most people never read another book after graduating from high school?
I also ran across this interesting article on Americans’ reading habits.