What book is read the most?

[Left Hand of Dorkness]

So I have a theory about what book is read the most number of times (cover to cover, not picked up and read from a bit). I'm curious what other folks think, or if anyone has a verifiable answer.

Anyway, my guess:

SPOILER:

Good Night, Moon

[Wendell Wagner]

Take a look at this list of best-selling books of all time, according to Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books

The books that I see that are the sort of thing that get read to children over and over are the following:

The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowery
The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Suess

There are other children's books on the list, but I believe that they are too long to read in one sitting.

[pulykamell]

Originally Posted by Left Hand of Dorkness

Anyway, my guess:

Huh. I had never heard of that book until just right now. Granted, I only recognize three of the titles in Wendell Wagner's list.

[AClockworkMelon]

.. really? I thought that the Bible would win, hands down.

[Covered_In_Bees!]

Nobody actually reads the damn thing cover to cover silly. It's there just as a fancy paper weight or coaster that happens to provide some hilarious reading material in case you're ultra bored.

[fusoya]

I don't think ANYONE reads the Bible cover to cover. Many people only read the parts which support the cause they are protesting/supporting while ignoring the rest of it. Hell, I don't think *I*'ve even read the whole thing during my lifetime (and I have little desire to, except MAYBE to further educate myself on certain issues while getting the big picture, but I really don't care THAT much).

Now I can't stop think about Christopher Walken reading goodnight moon.

[kenobi 65]

Originally Posted by Covered_In_Bees!

Nobody actually reads the damn thing cover to cover silly.

I'm assuming you're being at least somewhat facetious...while I'd wager that the vast majority of Bible-owners do *not* read it cover-to-cover (or even read a bit of it very often), I do know people who *have* read it all the way through. I attempted to do so, in college, using a booklet series that contained background on each day's section of the Bible for the entire year; I got about a third of the way through the Old Testament before I threw in the towel -- I'm a fast reader, but it still requires a lot of dedication on a daily basis, and I was trying to do it at the same time I had a lot of other reading for classes.

[Covered_In_Bees!]

Oh I don't doubt that people do read it all the way through, I just don't think it's anywhere near a majority of bible owners.

[Left Hand of Dorkness]

Originally Posted by Covered_In_Bees!

Oh I don't doubt that people do read it all the way through, I just don't think it's anywhere near a majority of bible owners.

I tried to phrase the question specifically to avoid your question, Clockwork: while I'm almost certain that the Bible is read most frequently when "read" is defined as "read any part of," I'm wondering about what book is read through completely most often. In our family, the title in the OP has been read about 500 times since December 31, 2008, and I'm guessing that there are millions of other people who read the book every single day for months or even years at a time. I doubt that there's any other book that is read more times in a year.

[AClockworkMelon]

All right, cool. Missed that specification in the OP.

[kenobi 65]

Originally Posted by Covered_In_Bees!

Oh I don't doubt that people do read it all the way through, I just don't think it's anywhere near a majority of bible owners.

I was simply responding to your statement that:

Originally Posted by Covered_In_Bees!

Nobody actually reads the damn thing cover to cover

I don't disagree that it's likely a very small minority of bible owners that do so...but it's not "nobody".

[Dancer_Flight]

What about the Qu'ran? Most (I'm tempted to say all) Muslims are required to memorize portions of it and I expect the proportion of Muslims who've read the entire text would be greater than the number of contemporary Christians who've read the Bible cover to cover. There are some 1.57 billion Muslims today according to wikipedia.

-DF

[Locrian]

Originally Posted by AClockworkMelon

.. really? I thought that the Bible would win, hands down.

I'm the only Catholic school educated person I know who's read the bible cover to cover, which is why I'm devout about atheism.

I would have guessed Hitchhiker's Guide or some Poe would be on the list of most read cover to cover.

[jackdavinci]

My guess would be the Bible, followed by Catcher in the Rye. Do you want the most read of all time, or the most read by people currently alive?

Others says:

The Bible followed by Quotations from the Works of Mao Tse-tung and American Spelling Book and The Guinness Book of Records

The Bible 3.9 Billion Copies followed by Harry Potter – 400 Million Copies followed by Lord of the Rings – 103 Million Copies ... The Da Vinci Code – 57 Million Copies ... Twilight – The Saga – 43 Million Copies ... Gone With the Wind – 33 Million Copies ... Think and Grow Rich – 30 Million Copies ... Diary of Anne Frank – 27 Million Copies ... Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy – 17 Million Copies

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella (Twilight Saga)... The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Vintage) ... Dead in the Family: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel (Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood)

The Bible ... (Quotations from Chairman Mao) (the Little Red Book) ... ‎(The Qur’ān) (Koran) ... (Xinhua Zidian) (Xinhua Dictionary) ... (Chairman Mao's Poems) ... (Selected Articles of Mao Zedong) ... A Tale of Two Cities ... Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship ... The Lord of the Rings ... Book of Mormon ... The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life Jehovah's Witnesses
(Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York)

Doctor Who: the Forgotten ... The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo ... WHO Classification of Tumours of Haematopoietic and Lymphoid Tissues ... Osvaldo Borsani: Frammenti E Ricordi Di Un Percorso Progettuale ... The Phantom Tollbooth

[Rigamarole]

Children's books are obviously going to win this particular contest since you can read them cover to cover in about 5-10 minutes, generally.

[AClockworkMelon]

Those numbers represent the number of books sold, Jack. I seriously doubt that every person who's bought a Bible has read it cover to cover. I think they're in the overwhelming majority, actually.

[Left Hand of Dorkness]

Again, folks, I'm not asking about the book read by the greatest number of people, or the book sold the most. Those are interesting questions, but not the one in the OP.

The question is, what book has been read cover-to-cover the most number of times?

I'd be surprised to find that there are more than a couple dozen people on the planet who have read the Q'uran as many times as I've read Good Night, Moon, for example. But I'd be surprised if there are fewer than ten million people who've read GNM as many times as I have.

[calm kiwi]

Worldwide? I wouldn't have a clue but in New Zealand Hairy Maclary can be quoted by almost everyone under the age of 20 and their parents and grandparents.

[Attack from the 3rd dimension]

Originally Posted by calm kiwi

Worldwide? I wouldn't have a clue but in New Zealand Hairy Maclary can be quoted by almost everyone under the age of 20 and their parents and grandparents.

As well as a lot of the rest of us. This is the Hairy Mclary from Donovan's Dairy we're talking about, right?

[calm kiwi]

Originally Posted by Attack from the 3rd dimension

As well as a lot of the rest of us. This is the Hairy Mclary from Donovan's Dairy we're talking about, right?

Close. Donaldson's Dairy.

I always wondered how well they translated overseas. Glad to know they have fans!

For my money Lynley Dodd 's books are some of the best 'read to' books since Dr Seuss. Her illustrations are gorgeous and her rhyme is clever and very memorable.

[Wendell Wagner]

The Hairy Maclary books have only sold a total of a little more than five million books worldwide according to the Wikipedia entry on them. (That's the total sales for the entire series, not for any one book.) That's a total sales for the series that's not nearly as much as any of the seven children's books that I listed in my first post. If the question is which children's book has been read the most, it's one of those seven. If the question is whether the Bible (or some similarly old book) has been read cover-to-cover more than any of those seven children's books, there's probably no clear answer. Unless someone can give a citation for a definitive study of how often any of the best-selling books of all time have each been read cover-to-cover, there's no way that the question in the OP can be answered.

[Munch]

Originally Posted by Wendell Wagner

there's no way that the question in the OP can be answered.

Sure it can. The question in the OP is asking for opinions and thoughts on the matter, not just a definitive answer.

[Wendell Wagner]

That's not an answer. Swapping opinions and thoughts may be O.K., but they don't answer the question.

[SecondJudith]

Yeah, we don't do opinions on this board.

[Wendell Wagner]

We obviously do a lot of swapping opinions on this board. That's still not an answer to the OP.

[Attack from the 3rd dimension]

Originally Posted by calm kiwi

Close. Donaldson's Dairy.

I always wondered how well they translated overseas. Glad to know they have fans!

For my money Lynley Dodd 's books are some of the best 'read to' books since Dr Seuss. Her illustrations are gorgeous and her rhyme is clever and very memorable.

Typo. Damn. At least my memory is okay, evena smyt ypin gskill sdegrade.

There are some variant questions arising from the OP, in that there are the number of books sold, the number of books owned - (bibles get handed down), the number of books read, and the number of times books are reread, and the time frames we're working with. Those daily bible readers may be few in number now, but a couple of hundred years ago there wasn't much else to read. The bible and koran have had a dedicated rereading audience for centuries.

[jsgoddess]

I've read the Bible cover-to-cover, but lordy, it was just the once and I don't plan on repeating the feat.

I would guess the one that has been read the very most, cover-to-cover, historically is The Cat in the Hat. It was groundbreaking for its time, so I bet it racked up a few gazillion reads before anything else really was in the running.

[jackdavinci]

Originally Posted by AClockworkMelon

Those numbers represent the number of books sold, Jack. I seriously doubt that every person who's bought a Bible has read it cover to cover. I think they're in the overwhelming majority, actually.

That's why I listed runners up. I think the Bible is probably the exception here, and most other books that get sold get read at fairly comparable rates.

[jackdavinci]

Another way to look at this might be which books are checked out of the library most. An initial search online turns up only results for the past week or past year, both of which always have new books in prominence. We'd have to find some kind of longer term statistics to get a good idea.

If children's books really are the answer, why aren't they selling more also? Do kid's books as library books, school books, and hand me downs make up the difference?

[Peremensoe]

Read the way the OP was intended, I think Dorkness could well be correct--counting multiple rereadings of the same book by the same person. A few million children (since 1947) have each had that book read to them a few hundred times.

More than a few parents don't even need the book in hand anymore to "read" it.

Remember Kima reciting a variation in The Wire to little Elijah? "Good night po-pos. Good night fiends..."

[Rala]

I've read the Bible from cover to cover three times.

What? Three chapters a night before I go to bed for the last few years ... it's not that long.

Anyway, I agree that the most read has got to be a children's book. No idea which one, though.

[Left Hand of Dorkness]

I thought maybe there'd be some short tract that religious people read, well, religiously, and can get through hundreds of times during their lives, like maybe an extra-popular Jack Chick tract or something. But from the responses, I'm guessing there's not.

So we can narrow it down probably to a children's book. Can anyone find any stats, maybe a poll or something, suggesting which book might be read most often? Obviously sales stats won't due: Harry Potter may sell more copies, but each copy is likely to be read less than (random guess) five times on average, whereas each copy of Good Night Moon might be read more than two hundred times on average.

Are there other children's books in serious contention for the #1 spot?

[Bijou Drains]

There is a group of Muslims who not only read the entire Koran but they are supposed to memorize all of it. Not sure how many actually do memorize the whole thing.

[Peremensoe]

I think you nailed it to start with.

Bedtime for Frances might be a distant second.

Goodnight, Moon had almost a 30-year head start, and is also more suited for the very littlest ones who are most likely to get bedtime readings every night. People read that to babies that don't even know words yet; just the cadence of it is restful.

[Wendell Wagner]

Left Hand of Dorkness, in my first post, I listed the seven top-selling children's books of all time that are short enough to read in one sitting:

The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, 45 million copies
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, 29 million copies
Love You Forever by Robert Munsch, 20 million copies
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, 19 million copies
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, 16 million copies
The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowery, 15 million copies
The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Suess, 10 million copies

If the book with the most readings-all-the-way-through is indeed a children's book that is read over and over by parents to children, then it's almost certainly one of these books, I think. I don't know whether the Bible (at least 2.5 billion copies sold over the past 2000 years) has been read all the way through more or less than The Tale of Peter Rabbit (45 million copies over the past century). If we assume that it's a children's book, then I can't see it being a book other than one of those seven above. Maybe it's true that because of it being a book about going to bed that Goodnight Moon is read the most. I don't know, and I don't know how anyone could find out.

[JoelUpchurch]

In my library, it is easy to identify the most read books. They are the ones held together by Scotch tape and rubber bands. Even if I buy a new reading copy, I usually keep the old one.

I remember H.L. Mencken writing that he pulled out his copy of Huckleberry Finn at least once a year and reread it.

What is amazing, is that you can read an old favorite and notice things you never noticed before. The book doesn't change, but you do.

[ITR champion]

Originally Posted by Left Hand of Dorkness

I tried to phrase the question specifically to avoid your question, Clockwork: while I'm almost certain that the Bible is read most frequently when "read" is defined as "read any part of," I'm wondering about what book is read through completely most often. In our family, the title in the OP has been read about 500 times since December 31, 2008, and I'm guessing that there are millions of other people who read the book every single day for months or even years at a time. I doubt that there's any other book that is read more times in a year.

While I understand the logic of what you're saying, I still think that the Bible is the winner for three reasons. First, while it's true that not every Bible owner reads the Bible, I think that folks in this thread generally underestimate the number of people who do. When I first converted to Christianity I read the entire thing, and I've done so repeatedly since then. I know many other converts who have done the same and I don't doubt that many lifelong Christians also read it through multiple times. Second, the Bible is read all over the world, and while I'm sure Peter Rabbit has been translated into many languages, I doubt it's achieved the same popularity worldwide as in the English-speaking world. Third, the Bible has been around for a lot longer than any of the other competitors.

I thought maybe there'd be some short tract that religious people read, well, religiously, and can get through hundreds of times during their lives, like maybe an extra-popular Jack Chick tract or something. But from the responses, I'm guessing there's not.

There are all kinds of devotionals that various groups read on a daily or weekly basis, but I haven't a clue which one is the most popular.

[pancakes3]

was peter rabbit short enough to read in one sitting?

also what about the different versions of the same story - like fairy tales. if it's a golden book classic, or part of an anthology, etc?

i say "where the wild things are" for single BOOK.

[TruCelt]

I agree that the most liekly answer is a children's book. Maybe Le Petite Prince if your'e counting worldwide as opposed to US figures. f I had to pick the children's book we've read most, and are likely to keep doing so for the highest number of years, I'd say "Green Eggs and Ham." In fact, I'm kinda surprised that there have been other answers. . .

"Good Night Moon" is fairly popular, but with most kids you stop reading it around 9-12 months. Also, I think "Pat the Bunny" is more the standard than GNM, as it seems to be included in almost all the Layette sets. We got three copies of PtB as gifts.
'

[Casey1505]

Originally Posted by Rigamarole

Children's books are obviously going to win this particular contest since you can read them cover to cover in about 5-10 minutes, generally.

Not when the little boogers question every. little. thing in order to postpone bedtime even more.

[Left Hand of Dorkness]

Originally Posted by Wendell Wagner

Left Hand of Dorkness, in my first post, I listed the seven top-selling children's books of all time that are short enough to read in one sitting:
...
Maybe it's true that because of it being a book about going to bed that Goodnight Moon is read the most. I don't know, and I don't know how anyone could find out.

I agree with your logic for the most part. And yeah--because it's so easily a nightly read, I'm thinking GNM is a likely winner.

Incidentally, it freaks me out that "Love YOu Forever" is on that list. That's a terribly freakish book; I'd love to see it re-illustrated by someone with a vaguely Lovecraftian sensibility to the art.

Originally Posted by ITR Champion

While I understand the logic of what you're saying, I still think that the Bible is the winner for three reasons. First, while it's true that not every Bible owner reads the Bible, I think that folks in this thread generally underestimate the number of people who do. When I first converted to Christianity I read the entire thing, and I've done so repeatedly since then.

Repeatedly like 500 times, so one Christian like you equals one parent like me? Repeatedly like 50 times, so for every parent like me there need to be 10 Christians like you? Repeatedly like 10 times, so for every parent like me there need to be 50 parents like you?

And I'm not done reading GNM: these 500 readings (approximately) comprise one child. If I have another kid, there are likely to be another 500 readings.

And I don't think that's uncommon.

Le Petit Prince is an interesting idea; I love that book a lot more than I love GNM. But I've read it half a dozen times: it's nowhere near as quick a read as GNM.

[Dangerosa]

I think you nailed it in one as well. Goodnight Moon was our bedtime book for about three years around here. The rest of the kids bestsellers:

The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, 45 million copies - I'm not sure if this is a habitual book for anyone. A good book, but not for "putting kids to bed" so that breaks the ritualized bedtime.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, 29 million copies - We read this a lot, it just wasn't a bedtime book.

Love You Forever by Robert Munsch, 20 million copies - this gets bought a lot, but unless you like crying in front of your kids, I doubt it gets read aloud a lot. (Yeah, I agree, its a creepy book).

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, 19 million copies - this would be my number two guess, but it doesn't have Goodnight Moon's advantage of being unisex - its a great bedtime book, but a little too "boy" for a lot of people looking to put girls to bed.

The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowery, 15 million copies - again, lacks the bedtime book advantage.

The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Suess, 10 million copies - lacks the bedtime book advantage. In fact, this one always seemed to get my kids wound up. Its also longish. Not as longish as Fox in Socks - the Fox in Socks stage was hell.

Goodnight Moon is very short, ritualized and near perfect for bedtime. I bet I'm not the only parent that ritualized it. And for parents who ritualize their toddlers bedtime, I'd guess this is the most popular.

(Not releated to the OP, but "How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight" eventually replaced Goodnight Moon as our ritualized book for similar reasons - short, gender neutral, and bedtimey in topic).

[Wendell Wagner]

pancakes3, yes, The Tale of Peter Rabbit is short enough to read in one sitting. It's 28 pages long, and they are typical short children's book pages. You can find it online. It's long out of copyright, so various websites include the whole text.

Left Hand of Dorkness, you are assuming that most people who own a copy of Goodnight Moon read it the same way that you do. I don't know if that's true. I suspect that if my parents had tried to read a book to me even five times when I was even as young as a year old, I would have told them, "What's wrong with you people? Are you trying to bore me to death?" Furthermore, if I had asked my parents to read me a book even five times when I was a year old, they would have said to each other, "This child has major problems. Let's put him up for adoption." I'm not saying that I know that that is more typical of what parents and children do. I'm just saying that you have no proof that the way you read children's books is typical.

Similarly, I don't think people here have any idea what the typical way that the Bible is read is. There were societies over the past 2000 years in which it was common to read it all the way through several times. There have been at least 100 times as many copies of the Bible sold as of Goodnight Moon and perhaps as many as 300 times as many. I see no way to estimate the number of readings of each.

[jsgoddess]

Originally Posted by Wendell Wagner

Left Hand of Dorkness, you are assuming that most people who own a copy of Goodnight Moon read it the same way that you do. I don't know if that's true. I suspect that if my parents had tried to read a book to me even five times when I was even as young as a year old, I would have told them, "What's wrong with you people? Are you trying to bore me to death?" Furthermore, if I had asked my parents to read me a book even five times when I was a year old, they would have said to each other, "This child has major problems. Let's put him up for adoption." I'm not saying that I know that that is more typical of what parents and children do.

Well, I'll say it: It's not even close to remotely, conceivably typical for a one-year-old to be bored by five readings of a book.

[Wendell Wagner]

Do you have any statistical studies on this or are you speaking just from your experience with your children?

[pancakes3]

i am just too embarrassed for words that my childhood memories had so distorted peter cottontail to remember it as a book too long to be read in one sitting. i just read it online, in probably less than 2 minutes. i've read SDMB posts with more words in it.

also, people may have, and still do read the bible, but it's a collection of 66 books. exponentially harder to wade through than a quick go-through of goodnight moon. however, it also has the benefit of extensive translation. maybe a specific book of the Bible like Exodus, Lamentations, or one of the gospels can contend? the entire Bible, would have problems of versions, omitted books, just not wanting to read marginal books like say... Habakkuk.

[raindog]

It is my opinion that the vast majority of people who have bibles haven't read them cover to cover. I would be stunned if that number reached 5% of all people who own bibles. In fact, I'd be surprised if it was 2.5%.

The percentage of people who read them regularly I would say is also quite low---I would guess 10% or lower.

OTOH, I think there is a much larger group who have read the bible in part, or who read it irregularly.

The largest group, IME, are those who have simply been exposed to it; through church attendance, or parochial school, or TV, culture or-----and I'm not being facetious------things like Google or internet message boards.

Strangely, however, many people claim to have read it cover to cover. Some have made outrageous claims of having read it cover to cover many, many times, or having read it in numerous translations, or even if different languages. Those claims have been made here many, many times. I strongly suspect that the vast majority are simply untrue.

IMO/IME the few whose command of the bible in clearly manifest------evidence that they have read the bible, or have spent significant time considering the texts----- have never made claims like those. (Polycarp comes to mind....)

It wouldn't surprise me if the bible wasn't the largest distributed book year to year even right now. The most widely read is much harder to believe.

[Left Hand of Dorkness]

Originally Posted by pancakes3

maybe a specific book of the Bible like Exodus, Lamentations, or one of the gospels can contend? the entire Bible, would have problems of versions, omitted books, just not wanting to read marginal books like say... Habakkuk.

Ooh, now THAT's an interesting idea.

Wendell, your ideas about one-year-old behaviors are just wildly inaccurate, based on my experiences, the market for children's books, and childhood psychology courses I've taken. And that's all I'll say on that.

[Wendell Wagner]

Is there any evidence that reading a book over and over to a child is well known anywhere and at any time except among college-educated parents born after World War II? I suspect that it's a recent habit and not as widespread as you think.

[Reepicheep]

My guess is Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Suess. I pick this over GNM, because not only has this been the book that I've read as bed time book more times than any other, this is also the book most adults I know say is their favorite Dr. Suess. They read it more than GNM to their kids. I have no way of proving this guess. It comes only from conversations at work, when we talk about kids.