The Best Selling Books of All Time
In case you need a new read, here's a list of the best selling books of all time, including fiction and nonfiction best sellers. What are the best selling books of all time? Since religious and political books, such as The Holy Bible, are often given away for free, they have not been included on this list. These top selling books of all time span multiple centuries, covering many genres (like horror and romance), writers, and original languages. And if you think Harry Potter or Twilight top this list, think again, they're not even close. What books sell the most? That said, the most popular books are indeed novels, with the most popular published volumes going through multiple editions and reprints. What are the best selling books in history? A few nonfiction texts can also be found, but they are few and far between. If one enjoys reading, these are the best sellers of all bestsellers, as well as the answer to the question "what are the best selling books of all time?"
If you like this best seller book list, be sure to check out Ranker's other lists like the 100 Books with the Catchiest First Lines.
- Copies Sold: 200 millionA Tale of Two Cities is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralised by the French ...more
- Copies Sold: 150 millionThe Lord of the Rings is an epic high-fantasy novel written by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 fantasy novel The Hobbit, but eventually developed into a ...more
Copies Sold: 140 million
The Little Prince, first published in 1943, is a novella and the most famous work of the French aristocrat, writer, poet and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The novella is both the ...moreCopies Sold: 120 million
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is the first novel in the Harry Potter series and J. K. Rowling's debut novel. The plot follows Harry Potter, a young wizard who discovers his magical ...more- Copies Sold: 100 millionThe Hobbit, or There and Back Again is a fantasy novel and children's book by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published on 21 September 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the ...more
Copies Sold: 100 million
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl ...more- Copies Sold: 100 millionDream of the Red Chamber, also called The Story of the Stone, composed by Cao Xueqin, is one of China's Four Great Classical Novels. It was written sometime in the middle of the 18th century during ...more
- Copies Sold: 100 millionAnd Then There Were None is a mystery novel by English writer Agatha Christie, described by her as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the ...more
- Copies Sold: 85 millionThe Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a high fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1950. It was the first published of seven novels in The Chronicles of Narnia ...more
- Copies Sold: 83 millionShe — subtitled A History of Adventure — is a novel by H. Rider Haggard, first serialised in The Graphic magazine from October 1886 to January 1887. She is one of the classics of imaginative ...more
- Copies Sold: 80 millionThe Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery-detective novel by Dan Brown. It follows symbologist Robert Langdon and cryptologist Sophie Neveu after a murder in the Louvre Museum in Paris, when they become ...more
Copies Sold: 80 million
The Adventures of Pinocchio is a novel for children by Italian author Carlo Collodi, written in Florence. The first half was originally a serial in 1881 and 1882, and then later completed as a book ...more- Copies Sold: 65 millionThe Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger. A controversial novel originally published for adults, it has since become popular with adolescent readers for its themes of teenage angst ...more
- Copies Sold: 65 millionThe Alchemist (Portuguese: O Alquimista) is a novel by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho that was first published in 1988. Originally written in Portuguese, it became a widely translated international ...more
Copies Sold: 65 million
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh and final novel of the Harry Potter series, written by British author J. K. Rowling. The book was released on 21 July 2007 by Bloomsbury Publishing ...more- Copies Sold: 60 millionSteps to Christ is an evangelistic book written by Ellen G. White, co-founder and prophetess of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It was first published in 1892 by Fleming H. Revell Company. The ...more
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Heidi's Years of Wandering and Learning
Copies Sold: 50 million - Copies Sold: 50 millionThe Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care written by Benjamin Spock, is a manual on infant and child care first published in 1946. The book, along with Dr. Spock, attained fame almost instantly, ...more
- Copies Sold: 50 millionAnne of Green Gables is a 1908 novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. Written for all ages, it has been considered a children's novel since the mid-twentieth century. It recounts the ...more
- Copies Sold: 50 millionBlack Beauty is an 1877 novel by English author Anna Sewell. It was composed in the last years of her life, during which she remained in her house as an invalid. The novel became an immediate ...more
- Copies Sold: 50 millionThe Name of the Rose, a novel by Umberto Eco, is a murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327. First published in Italian in 1980 under the title Il nome della rosa, it appeared in ...more
Copies Sold: 50 million
Charlotte's Web is a children's novel by American author E. B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams; it was published on October 15, 1952, by Harper & Brothers. The novel tells the story of a ...more- 23
The Hite Report
Copies Sold: 50 million
- Copies Sold: 45 millionThe Tale of Peter Rabbit is a British children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter that follows mischievous and disobedient young Peter Rabbit as he is chased about the garden of Mr. ...more
- Copies Sold: 40 millionJonathan Livingston Seagull is 1973 film directed by Hall Bartlett.
