Thoughts on Harry Potter and America's best-seller

More than a half-million new books are published every year, amounting to 1,369 new titles hitting the shelves...daily.  There are more books than ever before contending for the title of "Bestseller."  So how is the Bible faring in the sea of competition?  Let's put the Bible head to head against the most impressive book series of our time: Harry Potter.

The Rise of Potter began in 1997, when J.K. Rowling released the first book in a 7 book series in the U.K. called, "The Philosopher's Stone."  In 1998, it was released in the U.S. under the title, "The Sorcerer's Stone."
(Timeline)  The first print run was just 50,000 copies.  Rowling used the initials J.K. because she was afraid boys wouldn't read the book if they knew a girl wrote it.  "Potter fever" truly began in 1999, when the second book, "The Chamber of Secrets," shot to the top of the best-seller list.  Since then, Potter has been smashing records like they were ordinary broomsticks.

All 7 of Rowling's books are best-sellers.  In fact, they are 7 of the top 10 best-selling books of the past 15 years (1).  When the final book was released in 2007, it sold 8.3 million copies in the U.S. in one day, or 96 books every second (2).  By June of 2008, the entire Potter series had sold over 400 million copies worldwide (3).  At the release of the final book in 2007, the total print count for all books in the series was 133.5 million in the U.S. (4). Divide by 9 years since the first book debuted in the States, and you get 14.8 million copies sold in the U.S. each year.  Impressed?

What if I told you the Bible was selling 14.6 million copies per year...in 1907! (5)  In fact, the Bible currently sells 20-25 million copies each year in the U.S. (6).  The Bible is America's best-selling book of the year, every year.  And not just in the U.S.  The Bible holds the title for "Bestseller on Earth."  The Guinness Book of World Records estimates at least 2.5 billion Bibles were sold between 1815 and 1975 (7), and more recent tallies reach 5 billion in sales.  It is estimated today that 100 million copies of the Bible are sold or given away around the globe each year (8).

So, outnumbered seven books against one, the Bible outsells the entire Potter series every year.  Considering "The Sorcerer's Stone" now slouches at #485 on Amazon.com's list of the most popular books, the Bible simply sits on its throne and waits for the next challenger to be utterly dominated by the undisputed best-seller of the ages.

Have you read the Bible?  Several Bible reading plans are posted HERE.