# Top 10 Most Read Books in the World



## Steerpike (May 7, 2012)

See them here:

The top 10 most read books in the world - Holy Kaw!


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## Aidan of the tavern (May 7, 2012)

Haahaha, I've read a grand total of 2 of them.


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## Steerpike (May 7, 2012)

5 1/2 for me.

Funny thing is, for all the great fantasy literature that is out there, what we see here, apart from Lord of the Rings, is Harry Potter and Twilight. No surprise, I suppose.


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## Aidan of the tavern (May 7, 2012)

Steerpike said:


> 5 1/2 for me.
> 
> Funny thing is, for all the great fantasy literature that is out there, what we see here, apart from Lord of the Rings, is Harry Potter and Twilight. No surprise, I suppose.



Oh dear.  I don't know how long Twilight will stay there though, but LOTR should still be there in 50 years.


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## Steerpike (May 7, 2012)

Yeah, I think Twilight will be a generational thing rather than something the stands the test of time. The same might be true for Potter as well, though I think it will have more staying power generally. I wonder how much of Lord of the Rings being on there is due to the movies? I think it belongs on any fantasy must-read list, but I wonder how many people worldwide were actually reading it before the movies came out. I know it was still a lot, but I wonder if enough to be in the top ten.


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## Ravana (May 7, 2012)

It appears that it would. As of 2001 (when _Fellowship_ came out), it had sold an estimated 100M copies, out of today's total figure of 150M. 

Well, _maybe_ it would. Kinda sorta. One problem is that, if you blow the table up, you discover that the figures given are for "the past 50 years"–and gives _LotR_ a sales figure of 103M during that time, which means that c. 47M copies would have had to have been sold _more_ than fifty years ago… which is certainly not the case. (The actual figure, as of 1962, is rather closer to 150k, from what I can determine.)

The problem is that there is no reliable data on total sales of hardly _any_ book–astonishingly, not even those written and published recently. And by "recently," I mean such things as the _Harry Potter_ and _Twilight_ books. (And you can imagine how surprised I was to discover _that_.)

There's also the problem of "sold" as opposed to "printed." (We'll ignore whether or not they've actually been "read"–which is impossible to assess: I'd have to guess that the _Bible_ is the least-read best-seller of all time.  ) Religious texts are often given away in bulk, and something like the _Bible_ is printed in so many different versions, in so many different languages, by so many different printers, that _any_ number assigned to it can only ever be purely speculative. 

Nor do the figures reflect actual readership in another way–the number of people who own pirated copies (or otherwise "unauthorized" printings/editions) can't be assessed. Nor, I suspect, do the figures includes "rentals" from online services… certainly not in all cases. Quite possibly they don't include any download data, even from such merchants as Amazon (and ought not to include "free" downloads, as these are not "sales"); unquestionably, they do not include downloads from non-commercial sites such as Project Gutenberg. (Nor, for that matter, can the number of people who have checked the books out from libraries be assessed, nor the number who've borrowed the books from friends, but at least in those cases, the total contribution to "readership" probably parallels sales figures–that is, if a book has sold more copies, it's probably been borrowed more frequently.) 

Then there is the problem that the person who assembled this list didn't provide the source(s) of his data. There isn't even a date on when the article the table was based on was published: it _appears_ to be from 2012, but that may not be the case. (By the way, if you read the author's comments on the _Bible_, it's fairly clear he has an agenda… which might be why his list doesn't mention any other religious texts.)

And of course the fact that the purported figures are limited to the past fifty years is also immensely deceptive. According to the Wikipedia article "List of best-selling books of all time" (which is at least sourced…)–a list that does not include Mao's quotations or the _Bible_ (or the _Quran_, or the _Bhagavad-Gita_, both of which probably _do_ rank in the top ten)–the best-selling book of all time is Charles Dickens' _A Tale of Two Cities_. And number two is _The Little Prince_. (_LotR_ is #3… and _The Hobbit_ is #4.) However, the majority of these sales took place more than fifty years ago… so they don't make this restricted list. _The DaVinci Code_ and _Think and Grow Rich_ come in at #9 and #10 respectively; next closest is _The Alchemist_ at #12. Mao's quotations suffer further from the fact that the majority of the copies printed were not "sold": they were given away (were, in fact, forced on people): since the Wiki list is sales-based, there's no way to place this accurately. 

Then there's the top of the list of "no reliable sales figures available": _Don Quixote_. This book has been in print since 1605–_continuously_: it has _never_ been out of print. It is estimated to be the most widely-printed, and most widely-translated, book after the _Bible_… but we'll never know for sure. (One thing we do know is that there were a million copies printed _and given away_ by the government of Venezuela in 2005, the 400th anniversary of the book–one of the few things I can find admirable about Hugo Chavez.) Similar considerations apply to, for example, the _Alice_ books, _The Three Musketeers_, and a great many other titles. The _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_, the _Divine Comedy_, anything by Shakespeare… or collections of poetry, such as the _Rubaiyat_ of Omar Khayyam–the Fitzgerald translation alone has seen over 650 _editions_, and is one of only hundreds of translations. (In fact, Fitzgerald's translation has itself been translated into more than 70 other languages.) I'd be surprised if total sales of the _Rubaiyat_ exceeded, or even approached, those of _LotR_… but, again, we'll never know.

At any rate: in answer to the question, yes, as far as I can tell, _LotR_ would still occupy a top ten position (based on the criteria used) even without the movies. Unfortunately, that "criteria used" caveat has to be borne in mind. Tables of this sort are entertaining, and to the extent that they've been researched are informative… as with all such things, one must read the fine print.


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## Steerpike (May 7, 2012)

Yes, good points Ravana. I guess you saw the link cited in the graphic: 10 Most Read Books In The World . They guy doesn't give any real information as to how the numbers were determined, just says that they were the result of long research.

It would be interesting to have a more concrete list. I wouldn't be too surprised to see Potter and Twilight on it in the past number of years. The Diary of Anne Frank surprised me, frankly  as do The Alchemist and Think and Grow Rich. I guess The Da Vinci Code was popular enough at its height that it is plausible.


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## Ireth (May 7, 2012)

Heh. I've read five of them. XD Though I look upon _Twilight_ with shame.


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## gavintonks (May 8, 2012)

Ive read 7 thought the koran and bhgadavid should be here though


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## Aravelle (May 8, 2012)

I have a copy of Think and Grow Rich, but have yet to read it...

I don't think Twilight should be on here. gavintonks is right, what about the koran?


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## Steerpike (May 8, 2012)

I don't know, Aravelle. Twilight has sold A LOT of books. In the UK, it broke the record for the fastest book to ever hit one million sales, as measured by Waterstones. I wouldn't be surprised to see either that or Potter near the top in sales figures.


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## Aravelle (May 8, 2012)

True... I remember reading somewhere it had only sold 50 million copies...but I don't know if that's overall or in the U.S. ... if just in the U.S., I'd best shut up. I myself own two copies of Twilight. >.<


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## Steerpike (May 8, 2012)

I think the 50 million figure is from quite some time ago - 2008 based on the Google search I just did.

In any event, I wouldn't put the word "only" in front of 50 million copies


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## kennyc (May 8, 2012)

Holy Cow is right.... sheesh!


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## Steerpike (May 8, 2012)

Here's an interesting question: if you knew you could write a book that you personally believed was absolutely dreadful, and make millions on that one book, knowing that your name would forever be attached to a work you hated, would you write it?


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## shangrila (May 9, 2012)

Is that for the entire series though? That would be kind of lame, since Harry Potter is 7 books and Twilight is 4 (IIRC, although she may have crapped out another since I read them).

"In the world" is kind of misleading too. If the Bible is there I'm fairly sure the Quran should be as well. Seems more like a western list than a worldwide one.


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## gavintonks (May 9, 2012)

A Tale of Two Cities 	Charles Dickens 	English 	1859 	200 million[1]
Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) 	Antoine de Saint-ExupÃ©ry 	French 	1943 	200 million[2]
The Lord of the Rings 	J. R. R. Tolkien 	English 	1954–1955 	150 million[3]
The Hobbit 	J. R. R. Tolkien 	English 	1937 	100 million[4]
紅樓夢/红楼梦 Hong lou meng (Dream of the Red Chamber) 	Cao Xueqin 	Chinese 	1759–1791 	100 million[5]
And Then There Were None 	Agatha Christie 	English 	1939 	100 million[6]

Here is the wikki 100 million sales


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## gavintonks (May 9, 2012)

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe 	C. S. Lewis 	English 	1950 	85 million[7]
She 	H. Rider Haggard 	English 	1887 	83 million[8]
The Da Vinci Code 	Dan Brown 	English 	2003 	80 million[9]
Think and Grow Rich 	Napoleon Hill 	English 	1937 	70 million[10]
The Catcher in the Rye 	J. D. Salinger 	English 	1951 	65 million[11]
O Alquimista (The Alchemist) 	Paulo Coelho 	Portuguese 	1988 	65 million[12]
Steps to Christ 	Ellen G. White 	English 	1892 	60 million[13]
Lolita 	Vladimir Nabokov 	English 	1955 	50 million[14]
Heidis Lehr- und Wanderjahre (Heidi's Years of Wandering and Learning) 	Johanna Spyri 	German 	1880 	50 million[15]
The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care 	Dr. Benjamin Spock 	English 	1946 	50 million[16]
Anne of Green Gables 	Lucy Maud Montgomery 	English 	1908 	50 million[17]
Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions: The autobiography of a horse 	Anna Sewell 	English 	1877 	50 million[18]
Il Nome della Rosa (The Name of the Rose) 	Umberto Eco 	Italian 	1980 	50 million[19]
The Eagle Has Landed 	Jack Higgins 	English 	1975 	50 million[20]
Watership Down 	Richard Adams 	English 	1972 	50 million[21]
Between 30 million and 50 million copies
Book 	Author(s) 	Original language 	First published 	Approximate sales
The Hite Report 	Shere Hite 	English 	1976 	48 million[22]
Charlotte's Web 	E.B. White; illustrated by Garth Williams 	English 	1952 	45 million[23]
The Ginger Man 	J. P. Donleavy 	English 	1955 	45 million[24]
The Tale of Peter Rabbit 	Beatrix Potter 	English 	1902 	45 million[25]
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows[26] 	J. K. Rowling 	English 	2007 	44 million[27]
Jonathan Livingston Seagull 	Richard Bach 	English 	1970 	40 million[28]
A Message to Garcia 	Elbert Hubbard 	English 	1899 	40 million[16]
Sofies verden (Sophie's World) 	Jostein Gaarder 	Norwegian 	1991 	40 million[29]
Angels and Demons 	Dan Brown 	English 	2000 	39 million[30]
Как закалялась сталь (Kak zakalyalas' stal'; How the Steel Was Tempered) 	Nikolai Ostrovsky 	Russian 	1932 	36.4 million copies in USSR[31]
Война и мир (Voyna i mir; War and Peace) 	Leo Tolstoy 	Russian 	1869 	36.0 million copies in USSR[31]
Le avventure di Pinocchio. Storia di un burattino (The Adventures of Pinocchio) 	Carlo Collodi 	Italian 	1881 	35 million[32]
You Can Heal Your Life 	Louise Hay 	English 	1984 	35 million[33]
Kane and Abel 	Jeffrey Archer 	English 	1979 	34 million[34]
Het Achterhuis (The Diary of a Young Girl, The Diary of Anne Frank) 	Anne Frank 	Dutch 	1947 	30 million[35]
In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do? 	Charles M. Sheldon 	English 	1896 	30 million[16]
To Kill a Mockingbird 	Harper Lee 	English 	1960 	30 million[36]
Valley of the Dolls 	Jacqueline Susann 	English 	1966 	30 million[16]
Gone with the Wind 	Margaret Mitchell 	English 	1936 	30 million[37]
Cien AÃ±os de Soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude) 	Gabriel GarcÃ­a MÃ¡rquez 	Spanish 	1967 	30 million[38][39]
The Purpose Driven Life 	Rick Warren 	English 	2002 	30 million[40]
The Thorn Birds 	Colleen McCullough 	English 	1977 	30 million[41]
The Revolt of Mamie Stover 	William Bradford Huie 	English 	1951 	30 million[42]
MÃ¤n som hatar kvinnor (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) 	Stieg Larsson 	Swedish 	2005 	30 million[43]
The Very Hungry Caterpillar 	Eric Carle 	English 	1969 	30 million[44]
Between 20 million and 30 million copies
Book 	Author(s) 	Original language 	First published 	Approximate sales
The Late, Great Planet Earth 	Hal Lindsey, C. C. Carlson 	English 	1970 	28 million[45]
Who Moved My Cheese? 	Spencer Johnson 	English 	1998 	26 million[46]
The Wind in the Willows 	Kenneth Grahame 	English 	1908 	25 million[47]
Nineteen Eighty-Four 	George Orwell 	English 	1949 	25 million[48]
The Celestine Prophecy 	James Redfield 	English 	1993 	23 million[49]
The Godfather 	Mario Puzo 	English 	1969 	21 million[50]
Love Story 	Erich Segal 	English 	1970 	21 million[51]
狼图腾 (Wolf Totem) 	Jiang Rong 	Chinese 	2004 	20 million[52]
The Happy Hooker: My Own Story 	Xaviera Hollander 	English 	1971 	20 million[53]
Jaws 	Peter Benchley 	English 	1974 	20 million[54]
Love You Forever 	Robert Munsch 	English 	1986 	20 million[55]
The Women's Room 	Marilyn French 	English 	1977 	20 million[56]
What to Expect When You're Expecting 	Arlene Eisenberg and Heidi Murkoff 	English 	1984 	20 million[57]
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 	Mark Twain 	English 	1885 	20 million[58]
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13Â¾ 	Sue Townsend 	English 	1982 	20 million[59]
Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft 	Thor Heyerdahl 	Norwegian 	1950 	20 million[60]


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## gavintonks (May 9, 2012)

Bestselling books of 2011: the top 100 listed

Nielsen's bestselling books of 2011 are dominated by paperbacks and elderly novels. See what came top
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2011, ONE DAY
Elderly bestseller: Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess in the film version of One Day. Photograph: Allstar/Focus Features/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

What were the most popular books in the UK in 2011? Thanks to Nielsen Bookscan, we have the answer. Which is? By and large, books we've already read.

Of the nearly 5,000 books detailed in the 2011 charts so far, 35% of them, or 1,695, were published before 2010. In an analysis published today, John Dugdale writes that the charts are dominated by movie tie-ins and older books with the number one slot held by One Day, followed by Christmas number one chef Jamie Oliver's Jamie's 30-Minute Meals .

    Glance at 2011's chart, and you could be forgiven for wondering if 12 months have really passed. For this was a year when old books saw off new ones, and paperbacks sent hardbacks packing. The same seven titles merely change places, with Larsson's musty trio and David Nicholls's and Kathryn Stockett's two-year-old novels all given renewed sales muscle by movie versions.

Of the 4,838 books on the list, the vast majority are paperbacks - 1,176, or 24%. And, if you look at the charts by numbers of books sold, you can see how far ahead the top-sellers are from the rest of the pack.

But look at it it again by value, and a different picture emerges.

Nielsen Bookscan is the world's largest book tracking service - they collect total transaction data directly from the tills and dispatch systems of all major book retailers. The data covers over 90% of all retail book purchases in the UK – 6,500 retailers in the UK each week. It monitors more than 220,000 different titles selling in a week and the consumer value is on average Â£30m each week.

So, what types of books are they? Nielsen categorises all the titles by type, the biggest of which is 'F1.1 General & Literary Fiction', which is a catch-all category covering books as diverse as Wuthering Heights, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Chris Ryan's Who Dares Wins.

But after that, you can see where the money is: Â£87.6m in crime and thrillers and Â£48.1m in children's fiction.


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## gavintonks (May 9, 2012)

The top-100 selling books of 2011

Click heading to sort table. Download the spreadsheet here
Pos.

Title

Author

Imprint

Volume

Value, Â£

SOURCE: NIELSEN BOOKSCAN
1 	One Day# 	Nicholls, David 	Hodder Paperback 	935,355 	5,157,015.10
2 	Jamie's 30-Minute Meals 	Oliver, Jamie 	Michael Joseph 	484,338 	6,617,423.26
3 	Tiny Bit Marvellous,A 	French, Dawn 	Penguin Books 	413,800 	2,013,459.89
4 	Room 	Donoghue, Emma 	Picador 	402,108 	2,153,688.64
5 	Help,The# 	Stockett, Kathryn 	Penguin Books 	383,467 	2,004,365.48
6 	Guinness World Records 2012 	  	Guinness World Records 	381,175 	3,613,236.28
7 	Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,The: Millennium Trilogy# 	Larsson, Stieg 	Quercus 	329,389 	1,626,448.44
8 	Confession,The 	Grisham, John 	Arrow Books 	314,471 	1,582,868.17
9 	Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest,The: Millennium Trilogy# 	Larsson, Stieg 	Quercus Publishing Plc 	311,529 	1,511,433.36
10 	Girl Who Played with Fire,The: Millennium Trilogy# 	Larsson, Stieg 	Quercus Publishing Plc 	288,706 	1,392,112.


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## gavintonks (May 9, 2012)

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced the top 10 best-selling books of 2011 overall (print and Kindle combined). “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson, “Bossypants” by Tina Fey and “A Stolen Life” by Jaycee Dugard take the top three spots on the list. “The Mill River Recluse” by Darcie Chan and “The Abbey” by Chris Culver come in at #4 and #9. Both titles made the list based solely on Kindle sales and were independently published using Kindle Direct Publishing. This list takes into account first editions that were published in 2011, and considers only paid units. To see all of Amazon.com’s best-selling books of 2011, or to buy or gift any of them, go to Amazon.com: Best-Selling Books of 2011: Customer Favorites.
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“After the year of recommending books to our customers, it’s always fun to see what books really resonated with them,” said Chris Schluep, Senior Editor of Books, Amazon.com. “We chose ‘Steve Jobs’ as one of the Top 10 best books of the year, and even though it was published in October, the sales have been phenomenal in both formats. And we’re really excited that Kindle Direct Publishing authors have taken two of the top spots this year for book sales overall.”

The top 10 best-selling books overall are:

    “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson
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About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. The new latest generation Kindle is the lightest, most compact Kindle ever and features the same 6-inch, most advanced electronic ink display that reads like real paper even in bright sunlight. Kindle Touch is a new addition to the Kindle family with an easy-to-use touch screen that makes it easier than ever to turn pages, search, shop, and take notes – still with all the benefits of the most advanced electronic ink display. Kindle Touch 3G is the top of the line e-reader and offers the same new design and features of Kindle Touch, with the unparalleled added convenience of free 3G. Kindle Fire is the Kindle for movies, TV shows, music, books, magazines, apps, games and web browsing with all the content, free storage in the Amazon Cloud, Whispersync, Amazon Silk (Amazon’s new revolutionary cloud-accelerated web browser), vibrant color touch screen, and powerful dual-core processor.


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## gavintonks (May 9, 2012)

This is the splurge from the guy who I think made this list, he is dreaming if he is looking at copies of 50 million when there are 6 books with up to 200 million copies sold

Most Read Books Review
My name is James Chapman, I am your host at A Passion For Writing and I have compiled this list of the 10 Most Read Books In The World after completing a long project of research to establish exactly which are the most read books in the world.

Over many years I have been a writer and avid reader of books, so it gave me great pleasure to undertake this task of the most read books review.

You will find in this list a varied array of subject matter, covering a considerable number of years of some truly talented author's work.

Some of the authors are no longer with us, but the majority are still producing their masterpieces for our ongoing delight.

In this modern fast paced world that we all now live in it is good to see that the enjoyment of reading is still firmly a part of our everyday activities.

Browse through the most read books review and if there are any books that you have not read, but would like to, just click.

Then you can sit back in a comfortable chair with a full glass and do your own personal review of some wonderful literature.

Enjoy your reading.


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## gavintonks (May 9, 2012)

Top 10 Best Selling Books Of All Time - YouTube


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## charleshudgen (May 9, 2012)

Those books are great and very recommended for those who loves reading. Just like me I am fond of reading and this is just my hobby, so I will try the books you posted and would love to read this. Keep on posting the best books and definitely we will surely like it and follow your posts.


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## Twilight Flyer (May 10, 2012)

6 myself and yes, I too, look at my reading of Twilight with some shame.  So let's put an astericks by that one.


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## Feo Takahari (May 10, 2012)

For the second time in my life, I'm now wondering what the hell _The Alchemist_ is. I found a copy of it once, but it was in another language, so I only thumbed through it. I had no idea it was so popular.



> An allegorical novel, The Alchemist follows a young Andalusian shepherd named Santiago in his journey to Egypt, after having a recurring dream of finding treasure there.



Could be interesting . . .



> Early into his journey, he meets an old king, Melchizedek, who tells him to sell his sheep to travel to Egypt, and his Personal Legend: what he always wanted to accomplish in his life. And that "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." This is the core philosophy and motto of the book.
> 
> Along the way, he encounters love, danger, opportunity, disaster and learns a lot about himself and the ways of the world. During his travels, he meets a beautiful Arabian woman named Fatima who explains to him that if he follows his heart, he shall find what it is he seeks.
> 
> Santiago then encounters a lone alchemist who tells about personal legends. He says that people only want to find the treasure of their personal legends but not the personal legend itself. He feels unsure about himself as he listens to the alchemist's teachings. The alchemist states "Those who don't understand their personal legends will fail to comprehend its teachings." It also states that treasure is more worthy than gold.



Pass.


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## ArielFingolfin (May 11, 2012)

Oh Twilight. Then again, it gives me hope that I can be published someday because I know my stories are at least better than that!


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## Steerpike (May 11, 2012)

ArielFingolfin said:


> Oh Twilight. Then again, it gives me hope that I can be published someday because I know my stories are at least better than that!



This has been discussed elsewhere, but Twilight was a rarity before it ever became popular, given the very large advance paid out to a first-time author when the publisher bought the book. If you're writing YA (or maybe even if you're not) and writing a popular story is your goal, it is probably useful to look at works like Twilight (and Potter, and Hunger Games, and so on) to see why they work so well for so many  readers.


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## ArielFingolfin (May 11, 2012)

Well that post was more sarcastic than anything else. I really don't care about being the next big name or having an entire franchise based off my stuff. I mean, sure it'd be nice, but my goal of just being published is big enough for me at the moment


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## Steerpike (May 11, 2012)

ArielFingolfin said:


> Well that post was more sarcastic than anything else. I really don't care about being the next big name or having an entire franchise based off my stuff. I mean, sure it'd be nice, but my goal of just being published is big enough for me at the moment



Yeah same here.

Though I think if I could write something that made hundreds of millions of dollars, even if it was complete dreck, I'd do it. Once you did that, just once, you could write whatever you wanted for the rest of your life. It could be literary, artsy, commercial, non-commercial, or whatever. It wouldn't matter.


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## Aidan of the tavern (May 11, 2012)

I'd like to be popular in the fantasy fiction world, but honestly not to the point of J K Rowling.  That would be just to much pressure for me.


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## Aravelle (May 11, 2012)

Steerpike said:


> Yeah same here.
> 
> Though I think if I could write something that made hundreds of millions of dollars, even if it was complete dreck, I'd do it. Once you did that, just once, you could write whatever you wanted for the rest of your life. It could be literary, artsy, commercial, non-commercial, or whatever. It wouldn't matter.



...ohmygawd. I never thought of that. IMAGINE IF YOU COULD JUST WRITE A PIECE OF GARBAGE. Then everyone will read or at look at what you write after that, and you can really indulge... my gawd.. I wish I could bring myself to do it. xD


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## Ravana (May 12, 2012)

Steerpike said:


> Here's an interesting question: if you knew you could write a book that you personally believed was absolutely dreadful, and make millions on that one book, knowing that your name would forever be attached to a work you hated, would you write it?



Hell, yes. Just not under my own name.


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## Feo Takahari (May 12, 2012)

It's not enough to write garbage. You have to know how to _market_ garbage. (E.L. James in particular, though disclaiming her own writing skill, turned out to be surprisingly good at rallying her fanfiction fanbase and gaining more readers through them. She hasn't reached _Twilight_ levels of success yet, but she'll likely have more direct influence over fictional trends than Meyer did.)


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## ArielFingolfin (May 12, 2012)

Ravana said:


> Hell, yes. Just not under my own name.



Absolutely  As much as I'd like to say I'd choose a quality little known book to money making trash, I just don't know.


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## gavintonks (May 12, 2012)

need a good marketing team too true


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## J.P. Reedman (Jul 24, 2012)

The only one I've read through is LOTR. I have tried to get into the Harry Potter series twice but it's just not my kind of fantasy. I read the first Twilight just to see what the fuss was about...thought it was very poorly written.


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## J.P. Reedman (Jul 24, 2012)

Half of me (the mercenary side) is screaming 'yes, yes, yes!' but tbh I am not sure if I could. Many friends have said 'Why don't you do fantasy romance, it's a huge market, more open to new authors, and you could do it in your sleep!' But, so far, I just don't have the interest...


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## Estralyia (Jul 24, 2012)

I loved the first three Harry Potters books as they were just magical but then the other books became darker and darker and I didn't enjoy them at all.


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## Shockley (Jul 24, 2012)

I'd say this would be better represented as 'Top Ten Most Owned Books.'

 To answer the question posed later, I'd absolutely sell out for a quick, massive profit. Then I could get a little place somewhere and write whatever I wanted for the rest of my days.


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## Kevlar (Jul 24, 2012)

I've read the Harry Potters, though the last few only because I wanted to see it concluded. I've read Lord of the Rings. One summer my mom had bought Twilight because people were saying good things about it, though she was in the middle of another book at the time. Bored as I was I picked it up and read a portion of it before I realized I was reading garbage and put it down, never to pick it up again. I'm not sure what the fraction of the saga that would be.

For a while I'd considered buying The Da Vinci Code until I read Dan Brown's page of the Dan Browned trope. Now I plan to avoid it.

I do agree that this graphic appears to be serving a specific purpose, else the Quran would definitely appear.


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## Rikilamaro (Jul 24, 2012)

Hmmm... I've read 8 1/2 of those on the list.


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