2. BOOKS 7 - 5
7. World AlmanacAuthor: Who knows?
Copies sold: 40,000,000
This is not your Farmers' Almanac here. You will not be able to tell the weather from a variety of on-target predictions. Uh-uh. Ever since 1886, this book has provided tons of facts, collected together and organized for quick and easy reference. Yep, facts. Lots of them. Nothing but facts. Let's move on.
Author: Elbert Hubbard
Copies sold: 40-50,000,000
This book started out as an essay written all in one night in 1898 by Hubbard, who had a magazine to get out the next day and needed the material. It tells the story of a soldier who is given the task of bringing a message to (guess who?) Garcia, an insurgent leader deep behind enemy lines. But at the same time, it doesn't tell this story, but rather uses it as a launching pad for its diatribe against lazy workers and how best to serve corporate America. Managers loved it and printed thousands of copies for distribution to their staff as a motivational tool. One can only imagine the number of proto-Dilbert cartoons this must have spawned.
We must feel some pity for the author, however, as it must have been traumatic growing up with his mother always going to the cupboard, worrying more about the dog's needs than those of her only son. And Elbert's own son, L. Ron, spawned the whole Scientology cult. Scary stuff.
Author: William Holmes McGuffey
Copies sold: 60,000,000
The McGuffey Readers have been referred to as "the most influential books in the history of American education." In the nineteenth century, these readers were supposed to teach kids reading skills, but taught more about middle class values and McGuffey's ideas about the social order. Originally published in 1879 in six volumes, they were at first a requirement, and later a curiosity for educators across the country. Take that, Dick and Jane.
