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.
Sure it can. The question in the OP is asking for opinions and thoughts on the matter, not just a definitive answer.
That’s not an answer. Swapping opinions and thoughts may be O.K., but they don’t answer the question.
Yeah, we don’t do opinions on this board.
We obviously do a lot of swapping opinions on this board. That’s still not an answer to the OP.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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…”
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Not when the little boogers question every. little. thing in order to postpone bedtime even more. 