This infographic comes courtesy of lovereading.co.uk and highlights the most popular books sold and translated throughout history. It includes number of editions, number of translations and units sold.
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What a great infographic! Beautifully displayed and very engaging.
I do have a bone to pick, though – you’ve given the original of every book listed except for The King James Bible. That in itself is already a translation! The Bible itself predated 1611 by a long shot. Even the first English translation was in the 1380s. Why did you choose to display it this way and make it seem less ancient than other texts?
Thanks.
Author
Hi Susie. Yes, agree that including the King James Bible in this way is a bit odd. The infographic comes from lovereading.co.uk. We’ve sent them a message for further information and will let you their response.
Thanks, Aerogramme! Can’t wait to hear back. I’m curious.
And further, thanks as always for the stream of interesting articles, ideas, insights and encouragement. As a writer, your site is invaluable for me to keep learning and growing.
Boy! are there some bad books on the list. List of popular, not necessarily good literature, it is.
500 million copies of Don Quixote sold? I’m astonished.
Geeze, who’da thunk Harry Potter would sell more copies than LOTR?
Why is there a Pakistan flag next to the holy Quran? Pakistan wasn’t even a country then. Should be Arabia.
I was wondering the exact same thing! Pakistan, as a country, is about 66 years old haha. Besides, Pakistanis can’t/don’t speak Arabic – the main language (apart from all the regional languages and English) spoken in that country is Urdu.
Aerogramme, any news back from lovereading.co.uk on why they chose to display The King James Bible version rather than the original in this list?
Author
I’m afraid not. Looking around at other blogs that shared this most, it looks like a lot of other people are asking the same question though!
Thanks for following up though! You’re awesome!! Keep the great articles coming!!!