All-time World's Best Selling Book
 

The poetic majesty of these words...my comment could not elevate.

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Yes, I remember reading those words. Those are the famous words that got the Bible off to a good start. If it had kept up that way, I would have kept reading. Where I lost interest was when it soon got into all the many names of couples and who they "begat".

I only read non-fiction.

Sorry the Bible doesn't meet your needs. Why don't you try starting with the New Testament?

Spiderman #1

Mao's Little Red Book is #2, and Harry Potter is 3rd. :shrug:

The 10 Most Read Books In The World [Infographic] - Business Insider

I have a Chinese printing of Mao's little red book from the mid-sixties. It's is imprinted that it was not approved for the US. I bought it in the Harvard Coop while I was in college. I wonder if it is worth anything?

Of course the Bible is number one and if a third of the world is in Communist China the Little Red book feels right too.

But Harry Potter for number three?

"There are an estimated 1.6 billion Muslims around the world, making Islam the world’s second-largest religious tradition after Christianity, according to the December 2012 Global Religious Landscape report from the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life."

Yet more people read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone then the Koran. Are there more devoted Harry Potter fans then Muslims? Don't you wish Harry Potter was more enlightening and less entertaining? What does this reveal about humanity?

It makes me wonder.

I like the ending too...
16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Of course you had combine 50 years worth to get to number 1. It wasn't even in the top 100 last year. Times are a changing......

And how many books can you name that are even remotely sustainable for fifty years, let alone good enough to be read over and over, generation by generation?

As to the Koran, sadly, the answer is relatively simple -- many Muslims are impoverished and illiterate. They are taught the Koran orally, which leaves them open to gross misinterpretations, as is the case today. It is too easy to drop part of a phrase, to ignore chapters that do not fit the brainwashing being given by ISIL, the Taliban, etc.

Best-selling does not mean that every person who owns one actually read it

This is from Wikipedia.
"The Bible, the Qur'an, and Quotations from Chairman Mao are widely reported as some of the most printed and also some of the most distributed books worldwide,[1][2][3][4] with billions of copies of each of them believed to be in existence. Exact print figures for some such books may also be missing or unreliable since these kinds of books may be produced by many different and unrelated publishers, in some cases over many centuries. All books of a religious, ideological, philosophical or political nature have been excluded from this list of best-selling books for these reasons."

Don't shoot the messenger.

Isn't that true!
And probably no other book is so often read daily over years until the pages ruffle on the edges and the binding finally loosens.

And yes, times are changing. I have a Bible ap-free--And can drop a menu to locate the bookand chapter I want, view 2 of many versions in parallel, have most of them read to me, easy look up origin of greek and aramaic words....

Coffee, ipad, a warm throw and off to the morning sunlight for a read on the lanai. C'mere, Emma.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll keep it in mind. Perhaps the library has it and I can check it out.