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February 8, 2011 5:24 PM   Subscribe

According to the S.E. Hinton wikipedia page, The Outsiders is the second best-selling young adult book of all time. What's the first?
posted by donpardo to Media & Arts (10 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton
posted by 2bucksplus at 5:27 PM on February 8, 2011 [1 favorite]


Well, here's Wikipedia's overall List of best-selling books page.

Everything I've ever seen about "Young Adult" as a classification makes it really murky, but I can find several titles there that easily beat The Outsiders.
posted by Su at 5:33 PM on February 8, 2011


...that said, I'd guess it's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
posted by Su at 5:34 PM on February 8, 2011 [1 favorite]


Also guessing it's one of the books in the Harry Potter series.
posted by Bron-Y-Aur at 5:53 PM on February 8, 2011


I'm going with Catcher in the Rye (it's the only YA title in the best selling fiction list on that page). Depending on how you feel about The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, wikipedia concurs.
posted by oddman at 6:37 PM on February 8, 2011 [1 favorite]


If it's Harry Potter, it must be the first - anyone who bought the last books read the first one, plus tons of people bought it who never made it all the way through.
posted by you're a kitty! at 6:57 PM on February 8, 2011


If it's Harry Potter, it must be the first - anyone who bought the last books read the first one, plus tons of people bought it who never made it all the way through.

Not necessarily - if you've got people in the same unit (generally, children in a family, although friends in a house works too), the early adopter (the oldest, in the children scenario) will read HP1 first, and then pass it on to the next, who will pass it onto the next. However, as they all get hooked, none will want to wait to read the later ones, and so each will buy (or be bought) them when they come out new. This is especially so for the later ones as the hype builds, and as each person (in this example children) can read them (i.e. is of reading age). Second hand/library versions of the old ones are also more readily available.
posted by djgh at 10:04 PM on February 8, 2011


I'm going with Catcher in the Rye

"Originally published for adults"

I second Deathly Hallows.
posted by Joe Beese at 7:17 AM on February 9, 2011


Best answer: Although the Wikipedia article claims that it's the second best-selling YA novel, the provided link doesn't make that claim (although it does confirm the number of copies sold). I suspect it's something that "everyone just knows" without it actually having any firms facts to back it up.

YA is sort of a wierd classification. It seems to mean books that teenagers read and that adults *don't*. Or, more cynically, books that teenagers like that aren't good literature (so Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird don't count).
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 7:59 AM on February 9, 2011


Response by poster: There seems to be no standard for YA. My curiosity is sated.
posted by donpardo at 8:18 AM on February 9, 2011


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