Reading is a great hobby. It’s not just a way to pass time, books inform, educate, inspire and influence the personalities and lives of the readers.
The sales data of books portrays a very clear picture of what topics people want to read more. Here are ten books of our times with the highest recorded sales.
10. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
More than 80 Million Sold
A mystery-detective novel that explores an alternative religious history, whose central plot point is that the Merovingian kings of France were descended from the bloodline of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene.
9. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
More than 85 Million Sold
The novel tells the story of four English children completing their destiny in the land of talking animals and mythical beings.
8. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
More than 100 Million Sold
A personal development and self-improvement book. While the book’s title and much of the text concerns increased income, the author insists that the philosophy taught in the book can help people succeed in any line of work.
7. Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin
More than 100 Million Sold
A Chinese novel that revolves around the lives of two aristocratic families and their declining wealth and status.
6. SHE: A History of Adventure by H. Rider Haggard
More than 100 Million Sold
Two men find a lost kingdom in the African continent where a savage native tribe is ruled by a white queen.
5. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
More than 100 Million Sold
It’s a mystery novel that was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club in November 1939, as Ten Little Niggers.
It’s the story of ten criminals who have escaped justice. They are lured to come to an island they pay for their deeds and vanish one by one.
4. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
More than 107 Million Sold
The first novel in the Harry Potter series, it was first published in 1997 by Bloomsbury. The book reached the top of the New York Times list of best-selling fiction in August 1999.
This is one of the most sold fictions of our times but it might surprise you to know that twelve publishing houses refused to publish the book before one finally accepted it.
3. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
More than 140 million sold
It’s the story of an alien prince who fell to earth. Originally a French book and first published in 1943 as Le Petit Prince, the book has been translated in more than 250 languages.
2. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
More than 150 million sold
It’s a fantasy novel published in three volumes, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King.
1. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
More than 200 million sold
The author asserts his belief in the possibility of resurrection and transformation, both on a personal level and on a societal level.
- 10 Best Seller Books of Our Times - March 6, 2017
