Exploring the World’s Best in Top 10 Lists

1. The Bible is the most popular book ever, with approximately 5 billion copies sold to date. The book, which was written by multiple authors, can roughly be divided into two parts: the Bible’s Old and New Testaments. Between the 8th century BC and the first century CE, the Bible was written. While some of it was written in Aramaic, the majority of it was written in Hebrew. It is primarily used as the foundation for the largest religion in the world: Christianity.

2. The “Little Red Book,” also known as “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung,” is the second best-selling book in the world, with approximately 1.1 billion copies sold worldwide. The original Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and the leader of the Communist revolution in China in 1949, Mao Zedong (formerly translated as Mao Tse-Tung), is quoted 427 times in the book on 33 different subjects. Due to this latter fact, Zedong remained China’s most powerful individual and leader up until his death in 1976.

3. The Quran Another religious text that ranks among the top ten best-selling books of all time is the Quran. To date, it has sold around 800 million copies. The Quran, which was first written in Arabic in the seventh century CE, is the foundation of the world’s second-largest religion: Islam. The book is used by practicing Muslims as a source of guidance and as the foundation for their religious practices by understanding it to be a revelation from God (also known as Allah) that was sent by his earthly prophet Muhammad. The book was written by a number of authors, many of whom were witnesses at the time.

4. The Lord of the Rings John Tolkien’s (a.k.a. J.R.R. Tolkien) is the most popular book ever written. It has sold approximately 155 million copies worldwide to date. Despite the fact that it technically consists of three parts—”The Fellowship of the Ring,” “The Two Towers,” and “The Return of the King,”” the book is actually written as a single story and is not a trilogy. As a result, the book is sometimes misrepresented as a book series. The initial publishing house, Allen & Unwin, made the decision to promote three books.

5. The French aristocrat, aviator, journalist, and author Antoine de Saint-Exupery wrote the fifth best-selling book in history, The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince). With approximately 140 million copies sold worldwide, The Little Prince—originally titled “Le Petit Prince”—is still by far the best-selling children’s book of all time. In 1943, while living in exile in the United States following France’s surrender to Nazi Germany’s invasion in 1940, Saint-Exupery published the book. The French multi-talented author would publish The Little Prince, which would also be his final work. He crashed over the Mediterranean Sea in 1944, rejoining the French military.

6. The fantasy novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was written by British author J. K. Rowling and released in 1997. In some countries, it is also known as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. It is Rowling’s debut novel and the first of seven books in the acclaimed Harry Potter series. The story centers on Harry Potter, a young wizard who makes close friends at “Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry” and discovers his magical heritage while battling an evil wizard who wants to become immortal.

7. Scouting for Boys is a guide to the outdoors written specifically for young boys. Robert Baden-Powell, a British Army officer and the founder of the Scout Movement, wrote and published the book in 1908, and it is still available today. There are six parts to the book: Notes for Instructors, Scoutcraft, Woodcraft, Camp Life, Endurance and Chivalry, Saving Life and Patriotism, and finally.

8. And Then There Were None is a mystery-mystery novel written by British author Agatha Christie. It was first published in 1939 under the title “Ten Little N*ggers,” which was later changed to “Ten Little Indians,” and finally to “And Then There Were None.” It is still the most successful mystery-crime novel of all time, ranking eighth among all best-selling books. In addition, the book made history by becoming the first novel to sell one million copies.

9. J. R. R. Tolkien, a British author, wrote another fantasy novel called The Hobbit. It was published in 1937 and takes place in the fantasy world of Middle-earth, which Tolkien first introduced in his 1954 novel “The Lord of the Rings.”

10. The novel The Dream of the Red Chamber (Honglou Meng) was written in the 18th century by Cao Xueqin. It was first published in 1791. The novel was written by Xuequin over the course of about 20 years, beginning in the 1740s and concluding just before his death in either 1763 or 1764. The book’s original title was “The Story of the Stone,” which was later changed to “The Story of the Stone.” It is widely regarded as the most popular of China’s four great classical novels.