Given all the hype surrounding E.L. James's "Fifty Shades Of Grey," you might think that's the most popular book in the world. But you'd be wrong.
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The most read book in the world is the Bible.
Writer James Chapman created a list of the most read books in the worldbased on the number of copies each book sold over the last 50 years.
He found that the Bible far outsold any other book, with a whopping 3.9 billion copies sold over the last 50 years. "Quotations from the Works of Mao Tse-tung" came in second with 820 million copies sold, and "Harry Potter" came in third with 400 million copies sold.
Designer Jared Fanning created an infographic (below) on the most read books in the world, based on Chapman's research. ![The 10 Most Read Books In The World [Infographic] (1)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw== "The 10 Most Read Books In The World [Infographic] (1)")
![The 10 Most Read Books In The World [Infographic] (2024)](data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mP8/h8AAvMB+NzmkbcAAAAASUVORK5CYII=)