4. THE MOST POPULAR BOOK OF ALL TIME

1. The Bible

Author: God
Copies sold: 6,000,000,000

OK, maybe not 6 billion, but a WHOLE lot. The Bible was clearly a page-turner from the start, and it benefited from good word of mouth publicity, flying off the shelves. The basic plot is that there's this omnipotent deity who creates a planet and some beings to inhabit it. These beings screw everything up, He washes them out with a flood, and then they come back and screw everything up again. As a character, He's a little bit inconsistent; He's a vengeful Guy one minute, then He's answering prayers the next. But you have to give it a chance.

The first chapter is called "Genesis," named after the rock group with the same name (the author was a huge Phil Collins fan). Then comes "Exodus," and in no time we have plagues, sacrifices, miracles, and holy wars all over the place. There's so much blood, gore, and sex, that we're surprised that the thing hasn't been banned by one of those moralistic groups that are always trying to ban something.