# What book is read the most? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 15, 2010, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148 "2010-04-15T01:35:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/21 "2010-04-16T14:16:26Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/22 "2010-04-16T14:20:09Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/23 "2010-04-16T14:32:07Z")
That’s not an answer. Swapping opinions and thoughts may be O.K., but they don’t answer the question. ---
**Author:** ![SecondJudith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@SecondJudith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecondJudith)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/24 "2010-04-16T14:33:06Z")
Yeah, we don’t do opinions on this board. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/25 "2010-04-16T14:39:19Z")
We obviously do a lot of swapping opinions on this board. That’s still not an answer to the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/26 "2010-04-16T17:20:44Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/27 "2010-04-16T19:34:37Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/28 "2010-04-16T19:43:20Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/29 "2010-04-16T19:51:51Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2010, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/30 "2010-04-17T05:16:23Z")
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…” ---
**Author:** ![Rala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@Rala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rala)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/31 "2010-04-18T14:49:56Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2010, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/32 "2010-04-19T22:24:45Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2010, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/33 "2010-04-19T22:55:09Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/34 "2010-04-20T02:29:59Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/35 "2010-04-20T03:28:18Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/36 "2010-04-20T04:05:11Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/37 "2010-04-20T15:12:47Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/38 "2010-04-20T16:20:53Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/39 "2010-04-20T17:49:54Z")
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. ’ ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/40 "2010-04-20T20:39:35Z")
> [@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. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148.md?page=3)