The book also gave us the idiom 'tilting at windmills' to indicate a noble but futile endeavor. Originally published in two parts in 16, Quixote's misadventures as he travels across the Spanish countryside seeking wrongs to right and downtrodden people to uplift have amused and enthralled generations of readers and made best sellers lists for years. Miguel de Cervantes' novel about a man who becomes so infatuated with tales of knights that he decides to become one is believed to serve as the foundation for modern novels. The fact is, any worldwide sales figures for a book more than a few years old are probably an educated guess at best.Ĭervantes' 'Don Quixote de la Mancha' was originally published in two parts, in 16. Older works that are in the public domain may be published simultaneously by several different companies. It gets even more complicated when you consider that popular books often are released in multiple editions, sometimes by entirely different publishers. Publishers may not share sales numbers for individual books, or their reported numbers may be inaccurate. There is no central repository or current list for total sales numbers for books. Unfortunately, this turns out to be quite a challenge itself.

We can just look at the sales numbers and rank them for a current list. Scholars can debate endlessly over which book is the 'best' of all time, but finding out which ones have enjoyed the most commercial success should be a more concrete endeavor. Rowling's Harry Potter series would be a good guess when it comes to best-sellers of all time, and although every one of the books makes this list, none of the Potter books appears in the top five. Publishing phenomenon and perennial New York Times bestseller J.K.

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