101 Best Selling Books of All Time

"A list of the best selling books of all time, 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 span multiple centuries, covering many genres and original languages. And if you think Harry Potter or Twilight top this list, think again, they're not even close." 

This list appeared on the page List Challenges .

It is interesting to see which books are bought most often and then see how many of them you have read or even know. I was surprised how some of them made it onto the list but I guess that's life. So far, I have read 43 of them.

1. Dickens, Charles "A Tale of Two Cities"
2. Tolkien, J.R.R. "The Lord of the Rings"
3. Tolkien, J.R.R. "The Hobbit"
4. Tsao Hsueh-Chin "Dream of the Red Chamber"
5. Christie, Agatha "And Then There Were None"
6. Lewis, C.S. "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"
7. Rider Haggard, Henry "She: a History of Adventure"
8. Saint-Exupéry, Antoine "The Little Prince" 
9. Brown, Dan "The Da Vinci Code"
10. Salinger, J. D. "Catcher in the Rye"
11. Coelho, Paulo "The Alchemist"
12. White, Ellen G. "Steps to Christ"
13. Spyri, Johanna "Heidi" (German: Heidi)
14. Spock, Benjamin "The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care"
15. Montgomery, L. M. "Anne of Green Gables"
16. Sewell, Anna "Black Beauty"
17. Eco, Umberto "The Name of the Rose"
18. Hite, Shere "The Hite Report"
19. White, E.B. "Charlotte’s Web"
20. Potter, Beatrix "The Tale of Peter Rabbit"
21. Rowling, J.K. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"
       (only read "Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone")
22. Bach, Richard "Jonathan Livingston Seagull"
23. Hubbard, Elbert "A Message to Garcia"
24. Brown, Dan "Angels and Demons"
25. Ostrovsky, Nikolai "How the Steel Was Tempered"
26. Tolstoy, Lew Nikolajewitsch "War and Peace"
27. Collodi, Carlo "The Adventures of Pinocchio"
28. Hay, Louise L. "You Can Heal Your Life"
29. Archer, Jeffrey "Kane and Abel"
30. Frank, Anne "The Diary of a Young Girl"
31. Sheldon, Charles M. "In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do?"
32. Lee, Harper "To Kill a Mockingbird"
33. Susann, Jacqueline "Valley of the Dolls"
34. Mitchell, Margaret "Gone With the Wind"
35. García Márquez, Gabriel "One Hundred Years of Solitude"
36. Warren, Rick "The Purpose Driven Life"
37. McCulloch, Colleen "The Thorn Birds"
38. Hill, Napoleon "Think and Grow Rich"
39. Bradford Huie, William "The Revolt of Mamie Stover"
40. Larsson, Stieg "The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo"
41. Carle, Eric "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"
42. Lindsey, Hal "The Late, Great Planet Earth"
43. Johnson, Dr. Spencer "Who moved my cheese?"
44. Grahame, Kenneth "The Wind in the Willows"
45. Orwell, George "Nineteen Eighty-Four"
46. Redfield, James "The Celestine Prophecy"
47. Puzo, Mario "The Godfather"
48. Segal, Erich "Love Story"
49. Rog, Jiang "Wolf Totem"
50. Holander, Xaviera "The Happy Hooker"
51. Benchley, Peter "Jaws"
52. Munsch, Robert "Love You Forever"
53. Gaarder, Jostein "Sophie's World"
54. French, Marilyn "The Women's Room"
55. Murkoff, Heidi "What to Expect When You're Expecting"
56. Sendak, Maurice "Where The Wild Things Are"
57. Byrne, Rhonda "The Secret"
58. Jong, Erica "Fear of Flying"
59. Wise Brown, Margaret "Goodnight Moon"
60. McBratney, Sam "Guess How Much I Love You"
61. Covey, Stephen R. "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People"
62. Clavell, James "Shogun"
63. Sebring Lowrey, Janette "The Poky Little Puppy"
64. Follett, Ken "The Pillars of the Earth"
65. Carnegie, Dale "How to Win Friends and Influence People"
66. Süskind, Patrick "Perfume"
67. Evans, Nicholas "The Horse Whisperer"
68. Ruiz Zafón, Carlos "The Shadow of the Wind"
69. Young, William Paul "The Shack"
70. Adams, Douglas "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"  
71. Albom, Mitch "Tuesdays with Morrie"
72. Caldwell, Erskine "God's Little Acre"
73. Tamaro, Susanna "Follow Your Heart"
74. Hinton, S.E. "The Outsiders"
75. Dahl, Roald "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"
76. Murakami, Haruki "Norwegian Wood"
77. Metalious, Grace "Peyton Place"
78. Herbert, Frank "Dune"
79. Camus, Albert "The Plague"
80. Dazai, Osamu "No Longer Human"
81. Morris, Desmond "The Naked Ape"
82. Waller, Robert James "The Bridges of Madison County"
83. Alighieri, Dante "The Divine Comedy"
84. Achebe, Chinua "Things Fall Apart"
85. Gibran, Khalil "The Prophet"
86. Blatty, William Peter "The Exorcist"
87. Donaldson, Julia "The Gruffalo"
88. Heller, Joseph "Catch-22"
89. Follett, Ken "Eye of the Needle"
90. Hawking, Stephen "A Brief History of Time"
91. Dr. Seuss "The Cat in the Hat"
92. Sebold, Alice "The Lovely Bones"
93. Chang, Jung "Wild Swans"
94. Eloy Martínez, Tomás "Santa Evita"
95. Wiesel, Elie "Night"
96. Hosseini, Khaled "The Kite Runner"
97. Confucius "Yu Dan's Insights on the Analects of Confucius"
98. Morgan, Marabel "The Total Woman"
99. Tsakaiya, Taichi "The Knowledge-value Revolution"
100. Hua Guofeng "Problems in China's Socialist Economy"
101. Bolles, Richard H. "What Color Is Your Parachute?"