# 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:** 13\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/81 "2010-05-01T03:30:20Z")
> [@kfraser34](#): > > As for the Torah vs The Bible… > > I just don’t think that the global population of Orthodox Jews has ever rivaled the number of dejected that, each day, reach for the bible for salvation… > > You gotta remember, one thing the bible has going for it is a lot of desperate people who pick it up and somewhere in between “In the beginning…” and “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen” they are saved… 😕 I agree that the number of Christians vastly outnumbers the number of Jews over the last 2000 years, but as far as I know, there has never been a Christian ritual or tradition of reading the Bible from end to end on a regular schedule. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/82 "2010-05-01T11:03:33Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > I’ve read the Bible cover to cover. I don’t recommend it. I totally agree, I thought that the butler was the murderer but he vanished from sight in the second half. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/83 "2010-05-02T12:57:41Z")
My kids are in their twenties now, but two of the books we REFUSED to have in the house were Pat the Bunny and Good Night, Moon. But we read dozens and dozens of other books for bedtime, and by far, hands down, my daughter’s favorite was the Little Engine That Could. We finally had to set a limit on 5 repetitions a night. We did a lot of the One-Minute and Two-Minute bedtime story books, but the Little Engine was the favorite. Oh, and The Very Bad Bunny, and Poky Little Puppy. Don’t believe we even owned Where The Wild Things Are. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/84 "2010-05-02T13:04:23Z")
Saying that The Bible has been in print since the 1400’s is overlooking the fact that 99% of the people who actually came across it were too illiterate to read it up until fairly recently. ---
**Author:** ![fjohns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ee7513/32.png) [@fjohns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fjohns)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/85 "2010-05-02T23:19:33Z")
My first post, greetings all. As I see it, the question should have been a bit more specific. As for GN Moon, I had never heard of it until this thread and I had worked a summer in a childrens’ library- Wiki says a total of 4mlln sold. And worked in a bookstore for four years going through University. A recent library survey, and I am not certain of the criteria, listed Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged as either the most read or most influential; this excluding the Bible. It appeared in 1958 [?] and in 2007 sold 185,000 copies and is listed as increasing in sales. Total, approximately, 6mlln sold. Modern Library put out a list of 100 novels: their Board list and a Reader’s list. In the ML Board’s list, Atlas Shrugged is not even listed. However, in the readers’ list it is noted as #1. Three other Ayn Rand books are listed in the top ten [Readers]. I have read many of the Board’s list, some as literature requirements and the others as electives. The books on the ML list I could read, set aside, and pick up where I left off one or two days later. With Atlas Shrugged, I recall reading until I could no longer remain awake and fairly put everything else aside until the book was finished. And, nearly as captivated by Fountainhead. However, with 180 language translations and more than 80 million copies sold, Little Prince has to be up there at the top somewhere if we are also considering children’s books. It speaks to child and adult. Also a film and an opera which was performed in 2003. The enthusiasm for these two books has not waned in 50 years- for me. I was suprised that neither had been mentioned, if not only as ‘honorable mentions.’ ---
**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:** [May 3, 2010, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/86 "2010-05-03T00:28:24Z")
fjohns, _Good Night Moon_ has apparently sold 16 million, not 4 million, copies. Could you post a link to a source claiming that it only sold 4 million copies? The survey you’re talking about that claims that _Atlas Shrugged_ is the second most influential book (after the Bible) for Americans apparently came from a poll asking people what was the most influential book for them. That’s because it has a lot of hardcore fans. That’s not equivalent to being the book with the largest number of books sold. If it only sold a total of 6 million copies, that’s not remotely close to the largest number of books sold. The reason that neither _Atlas Shrugged_ nor _The Little Prince_ was mentioned before is that they are in the same league as far as total number of times read. ---
**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:** [May 3, 2010, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/87 "2010-05-03T01:36:27Z")
> [@fjohns](#): > > My first post, greetings all. > > As I see it, the question should have been a bit more specific. Greetings! I actually think my question in the OP was sufficiently specific. I invite you to reread it; on doing so, you’ll almost certainly see that there’s no way **Atlas Shrugged** would possibly be in the running. What you’re proposing is a different interesting question, but the specifics of the OP preclude it. ---
**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:** [May 3, 2010, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/88 "2010-05-03T02:12:09Z")
Excuse me, what I meant to write was “The reason that neither _Atlas Shrugged_ nor _The Little Prince_ was mentioned before is that they aren’t even in the same league as far as total number of times read.” ---
**Author:** ![fjohns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ee7513/32.png) [@fjohns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fjohns)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/89 "2010-05-03T02:13:53Z")
W. Wagner: What book is read repetitively the most by the same reader? Is this, or something similar to, what was meant by the question? In that case, perhaps Cat in the Hat; short, ease of reading, and entertainingly instructive. It certainly beat the Dick, Jane, Spot readers. As stated, Wiki[pedia] group listed _Good Night Moon_ at 4mlln. “. . .total number of times read,” [by the same reader]. Guess I misunderstood the truncated question. :smack: fj ---
**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:** [May 3, 2010, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/90 "2010-05-03T17:30:41Z")
> [@fjohns](#): > > W. Wagner: What book is read repetitively the most by the same reader? Is this, or something similar to, what was meant by the question? In that case, perhaps Cat in the Hat; short, ease of reading, and entertainingly instructive. It certainly beat the Dick, Jane, Spot readers. > > As stated, Wiki[pedia] group listed _Good Night Moon_ at 4mlln. > > “. . .total number of times read,” [by the same reader]. Guess I misunderstood the truncated question. :smack: > > fj On the contrary, the brackets change the question. I just said “total number of times.” If I read it 500 times, that’s 500 additional readings added to the total. ---
**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:** [May 4, 2010, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/91 "2010-05-04T01:19:34Z")
The Wikipedia entry for _Goodnight Moon_ says that it had sold 4 million copies in 1990. That’s twenty years ago. Now go back to the beginning of this thread. You’ll see that I gave a link to the Wikipedia entry on best-selling books of all time. It says that _now_ it has sold 16 million copies. Various people in this thread have argued that _Goodnight Moon_ is more likely to be read over and over than _The Cat in the Hat_, since _Goodnight Moon_ is bedtime book specifically designed to be read over and over, while that isn’t true of _The Cat in the Hat_. I don’t know if that is true or not. fjohns, it’s not a good idea to not carefully read a long thread, since you will miss points that have been made earlier in the thread. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/92 "2010-05-04T04:34:28Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > 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. NO one gets through the beGATS… mwaaahahaha ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148/93 "2010-05-05T16:11:28Z")
Bolding mine: > [@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). Not sure why the Bible theorist are having such a hard time understanding this part of the OP. Anyway (having raised a child), my guess would be The Cat In The Hat. I’d never heard of [GM until Shivaree.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRqUONe_aAI&a=oeOJpK8rEXY&playnext_from=ML) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-is-read-the-most/536148.md?page=4)