What have been the most widely read books in history? No two lists seem to agree.

Thanks, Corey. It's surprising how many of the great books failed to make the cut but main be explained by mass producing for a larger readership these days. 

Those three are either on top, or near the top of quite a few lists. 

Yeah, my question was definitely vague. I asked a question about the Guinness Book of Records and one reply said that one JW book was second to the Bible in the list of the world's "most circulated" books. I checked out a few lists and, although I didn't find that one, found a lot of surprising entries -- including rubbish like Fifty Shades of Grey. It was clear that with a larger market created by the population explosion, modern marketing was pushing books to the top of the list that probably weren't there on merit. Hence the question.

The "most popular" lists were nothing like I expected. I also wondered about Mein Kampf although it had a relatively limited market. Webster's also has some limitation since it's a dictionary of American English. Loved your last sentence! :D

Without a doubt. It's the long time champion. Even so, you should read the final sentence in Z's answer. :)

Which raises another question... the Bible is probably the most bought book... but read?

It probably depends on which branch of the religion they belong to. The evangelicals tend to read it every day. The Catholics recommend it but I doubt if it's kept up as much. When the world was about 60 years younger I read the preface to the Douay version (which was then the Catholic recommendation) and while it encouraged Catholics to read the Bible every day, for which they would receive time off Purgatory, it warned against truing to interpret it because "only the church can do that". 

A few comments from this Catholic---

One of my college electives was the Pentateuch.  We read it of course, but it became perfectly clear to me that I would have probably gotten very little out of it (or received "enlightenment") without the additional information about the time, place, culture, etc. that was part of the course.

(And it turns out that theology in general is not really the best subject for self-study without some direction when you first start.)

Catholics receive a lot of information about the bible over the course of their education.  (Sunday school, if not parochial school.)

And the proper interpretation of what one is reading can be quite useful---imagine this:  Most of us humans use the phrase "the sun sets in the West," and most of us know that phrase is an inaccurate description of what we know about our solar system.  And a person reading that phrase without the appropriate additional information would drawn erroneous conclusions (interpret incorrectly) what he saw in writing.

This post was edited by tom jackson at March 8, 2017 2:55 PM MST

Tom, I'd have been surprised if you hadn't been able to comment intelligently on that. As a young man I was astonished to read that cautionary remark. Do you know if Douay is still the official version, or if more recent versions carry the same warning? 

I haven't bought a bible in about 50 years.

And I remember at the time checking that I did in fact buy an approved version---made much easier by having access to a monastery and a priory full of priests who had a minimum of one Ph.D each.

I also have a Ryrie Study Bible---which I use like I use the 2 volume Syntopicon of the Great Books of the Western World.

If I wanted to get the "latest, best" translation available of the Catholic bible for reading at home, I would simply seek out a Catholic book store.  (50 years is a long time.)

That sounds like am exceptional monastery. I've been even less supportive of the Bible publishing industry than yourself. It's gotta be nearly 60 years for me. 

Well, the original edition has no updates---I guess god already has said what he meant.

You only need one bible in your lifetime. This post was edited by tom jackson at March 9, 2017 6:10 PM MST

I think the general opinion is that while the original is sacrosanct the translations have improved. 

Personally I prefer the King James version and whenever I quote Scripture on one of these sites, that's the only I always use. 

Oh, I agree, I just put out a one liner there.

Of course the King James version is not approved by the Catholic Church---after all, it is the official bible of the Church of England.

I am told (without reference) that the bible is also the most shoplifted book.

Yes. It is the most read, bought and stolen book every year.

Thanks, Jewels. You certainly surprised me with that one. I know it's the most published textbook ever but wouldn't have placed it so close to the top of the list. 

Yes, Pearl. That's unarguably #1.