I found myself idly wondering this morning what the most popular book of all time was. I did a Google search, and Soyouwanna.com listed the ten most popular, so I checked it out. They freely admit that their stats are only on books with available sales figures, but their list still provides a general idea of what folks have preferred. Here it is:*
10.
In His Steps: “What Would Jesus Do?”
Author: Rev. Charles Monroe Sheldon
Copies sold: 28,500,000
9. 
Valley of the Dolls
Author: Jacqueline Susann
Copies sold: 30,000,000
8. 
The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care
Author: Dr. Benjamin Spock
Copies sold: 39,200,000
7. 
The World Almanac
Author: Who knows?
Copies sold: 40,000,000
6. 
A Message to Garcia
Author: Elbert Hubbard
Copies sold: 40-50,000,000
5. 
The McGuffey Readers
Author: William Holmes McGuffey
Copies sold: 60,000,000
4. 
The Guinness Book of Records
Author: Who knows?
Copies sold: 81,000,000
3. 
American Spelling Book
Author: Noah Webster
Copies sold: 100,000,000
2. 
Quotations from the Works of Mao Tse-tung
Author: Mao Tse-tung
Copies sold: 800,000,000
1. 
The Bible
Author: God
Copies sold: 6,000,000,000
What I find interesting is that only one of the books would be categorized as fiction.** Reference books, religious works, “how to” manuals and dogma all outrank the imagination for supplying a good read. That Valley of the Dolls must be some book!
*To see the complete annotation, go to their website.
**For those of you who — like me — have never heard of A Message to Garcia, it is a motivational true story.
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