What is a popular book that everyone buys but nobody reads?

The Bible

The trick is to jump around like a choose your own adventure.
Just popped in to find and upvote.
When I was in elementary school I actually tried to just read the bible. I didn't get very far through Genesis before I gave up.
- You didn't even make it to the part where a man of god uses nature magic to summon bears to kill 42 children, or where a guy is mad that a father gives him the wrong daughter as property that he combines genocide with animal abuse!

The bible

I don’t even need to buy them. They just pile up unread. One of them has nice art in it.
- I don’t even need to buy them. They just pile up unread
  How? I've read this many times, but I never understood it. Do people just hand them out on the street or is it customary to give bibles as a gift?
- I inherited a ton of books from my father, who was a minister & a Jungian psychologist. Lots of old interesting bibles, in a handful of languages. (Plus a Koran, and some Crowley, and of shelf full of Trotsky... ha ha. Lotta books.)
American? I haven't seen a bookstore selling a bible in ages, if ever
- I was going to contradict you, that bookstores always carry bibles...but then I realized the memory I was thinking of was from the 90s.
  I'd say this is just a good excuse for me to go to the bookstore and check...but they've all become so small and sad that I kind of don't want to. I just get depressed.
  I know ebooks and audiobooks have massively taken off so people are reading/listening still...I just miss my childhood refuge being stuffed chock-full of treasures.

The dictionary

lol
The ~~dictionary~~ dikshunary
Do they have those at the lie-berry?

The Silmarillon - the yellow pages of middle earth

Not in my experience. 100% of people I know that have it, also have read it. We buy that because we're Tolkien nerds. People who don't want to read it don't buy it. Also it's not at all like yellow pages for looking stuff up, it's more like the Bible I guess, a collection of mythological tales of old.
I guess there are some people that have inherited it, or just bought it for collecting, but I don't think this is the main case.
It might be different for The History of Middle Earth, it's huge and requires a lot of time, and it's more yellow pagey as far as I understand. I have them but have not read much of it yet. (Maybe you meant these?)
- I rarely check people’s bookshelves but my experience has also been that people either don’t even know what it’s really about or they absolutely love it.
  But I guess it’s possible that some people buy it after reading LotR expecting more of the same and then give up after reading the first few pages of the Ainulindalë.
- I sought that shit out and read every word. I gobbled that shit up. "The Middle Earth Bible" is 100% an accurate description of it.
- There is not much statistical evidence for my statement. Mostly from the people I know (though one actually read it, she is a true nerd) and myself (tried it but am probably not as much a middle earth fan as I thought)
- As someone who has read the Silmarillion several times, any attempt at reading The History of Middle Earth peters out quite quickly.
It is literally easier to read the KJV of the Bible than the Silmarillon.
- Easy != Fun
- Strong disagree. I've read The Silmarillion. Sure I don't remember much of it now, but at the time it was interesting and entertaining to me. It's also not that huge a book, on the same order as one or two of the main LoTR books. If the KJV were in the same (normal) font size+width and paper thickness it would be Gigantic.
This is the best description of it =]
Hey, I read half of it

Atlas Shrugged.

It's a massive paperback and looks impressive on a bookshelf but it's a dull narrative. I got about 200 pages in and was like fuck all these people and these stupid trains.

Read the whole thing. It's OK.
The worst part of the book is that stupid chapter in the last third. Which summarizes the previous 2/3.

Anything by Ayn Rand. She’s a terrible author and most people are more interested in showing that they could have read The Fountainhead than actually reading that unfun, meandering garbage.

I read The Fountainhead in a high school English class and then got super into Ayn Rand and read Atlas Shrugged and some of her other stuff on my own. What actually happened was that I was a child in the Florida Public School System and so 1) didn’t understand what capitalism was, 2) couldn’t recognize terrible writing, and 3) was enjoying how proud my dad was for once.
Now I’m in my 30s and I can’t bring myself to throw away books at all, but also refuse to give them away and put them back out into the world for other dumbasses and/or impressionable children to find. They live on a bookshelf in my back room strategically positioned so that even if someone did go into that room they’d have to dig through a bunch of French textbooks and ancient American Girl books to find them.
If anyone would like some garbage propaganda advocating for a society of psychopaths written in the style of your drunk uncle’s auto-transcribed voice memos, hit me up.
- You should burn them for warmth so they finally serve a purpose
- Jesus
I tried to read the Fountainhead twice when I was a teenager and I never got more than a third of the way. It felt like watching an old person try to remember their shopping list

I can't name very many people that have finished the whole dictionary

The book gave me a roller coaster of emotions, I never knew what was coming next!
I think kids might. I remember reading it front to back when I was first really getting into literacy, hoping to get adults' seemingly godlike intuition for spelling words. Still like to open it up from time to time to peruse a letter
- hoping to get adults' seemingly godlike intuition for spelling words.
  Dit you manege to sucseed dough?
When it defined Zyzzyva, I cried butterfly tears.

Literally 1984

Read this 2 years ago. Not the ending I was expecting but good book. Not a hard read.
They just look at it for their daily two minutes of hate haha
You can really tell that people who reference that thing have never read it. Honestly if you have a legitimate criticism of Western society to draw from a dystopian novel there's probably better choices. The totalitarianism in 1984 is in no way subtle or hidden from anyone, that's a big part of the point of it.
Of course, to reference something relevant you have to have read things other than rage clickbait.

The Bible

When was the last time you heard of someone buying a bible?
- My partner bought a study Bible for academic use a few months ago, and our roommate bought herself one (for actual worship use) a couple weeks ago?

For Christians, there's one called The Bible.

Heya fellow raccoon, raccoon Bible is much better than the one compiled by Roman bishops in 325AD in Nicea e.g. "let there be trash for all" and "give to racoons what belongs to the raccoons" :D

Not as relevant as it used to be regarding this question, but...

War and Peace

My Godfather tried to read that to me in it's entirety when I was 4 lol.
- I think I learned the naming stuff while reading Metro 2033, or maybe it inspired me to look it up. Much easier read than Tolstoy.
- It's actually not bad at all, especially if you're into military history like I am. It's basically just standard soap opera stuff interspersed with treatises on what war is really like. The worst part is that interminably long section about the fucking freemasons, thrown in for no apparent reason.
- Read Anna Karenina you won't regret it. I would argue it's the best love story ever written.
I wonder whether it would have been as highly acclaimed had it been published under it's original name War: What is it good for??
- Got me picturing Jackie and Chris now

Oh phew. I studied English Lit at university and had to wade through bits of both. I used to feel like I was some sort of uncultured swine for not "getting" them. But honestly, I just don't think they work as novels. As a piece of art, I guess, sure. Fine and modern art can look like nonsense without context, but often make sense when seen as part of a conversation with other artists and movements. If taken like that, fine, you do you, Joycey-boy, and write incomprehensibly. I'll be over here with my Iain Banks and Ned Beauman, enjoying them.

A Brief History of Time - a fair number of people do read it but there's a pretty big chunk of people that just want bookshelf clout.

I prefer the album "A Brief History of Rhyme" by MC Hawking.
I was looking for this. 15 years ago this would have been top of the list.

Infinite Jest

Fuck me it is dense.
I’m an avid reader and I find I have to take breaks every 20-30min with IJ and just let stuff settle. Otherwise I find myself reading the same passage several times while my mind wanders.
My mom is reading it! She said that it is confusing and messy, but wants to finish it anyway.
- It honestly feels like something he wrote as a joke
Read it twice, absolutely love that book.

Definitely the bible for most christians.

Non christians, probably To Kill a Mockingbird.

I read it in school, but honestly did not find it to be all that special. Its a good book, but its message was pretty simple and i think modern audiences would agree with the premise immediately.
I found "The Catcher in the Rye" to be the most thought-provoking of high schools books. However, i dont think it really would improve society if more people read it.
If i could think of a book everyone should read to improve humanity, it would have to be something akin to either statistics for dummies, moral philosophy for dummies, or wealth management for dummies.

I need to go back and finish Gödel, Escher, Bach

You’ll actually never finish reading it.
I have reread it several times, I know I’m far from done. So much I still need to return to.
You got me. I'm sitting next to my bookshelf, looking at it right now, but diddling my phone instead of reading a book. RIP, me 😑

Dictionaries or lexicons. Who reads those from start to finish?

To be honest. I did.
- I found another of my kin.
I had a dictionary of etymology that I truly loved. Can't say I'd read it from start to finish like a novel, it's not meant to be used that way, but I did spend time jumping from word to word learning about their histories.
But I'm a writer so I'm one of the few that would genuinely be into that.

Sometimes I buy physical copies of books I've read digitally.

Sometimes I buy physical books, then listen to them digitally instead

I came to answer "the Bible", but it seems that was already taken. Multiple times.

It would seem that the people complaining about Christians not studying their scripture, commented without reading the comments ... that's somehow very meta

I suspect not many people go and buy religions texts. Most people seem to get them for free or as a gift, so I'll skip that.

Dictionaries and reference books like encyclopædia don't get read much, but that feels like cheating, because that's not really what they are for.

I'd guess something from classic children's literature? I bet a lot of adults have never read Robinson Crusoe but buy it for kids. Or they pass on the copy that someone bought them as kids, that they never read. As a kid I managed to get through some classic literature, but I'd sometimes encounter one that was actually less interesting than just... doing nothing and waiting for time to pass.

As an aside, I don't think there's anything wrong with having books around that you haven't read! It seems most of the value of a library is in the books you haven't read yet. Or refer to, without fully reading, to inspire you as you need. Or even just have because you think they are interesting or contain ideas of value, and hope to get to someday. The books I've actually read just get shoved in boxes somewhere dark and dusty. On my shelves or on display are all the things I haven't gotten to yet!

For some reason, you mentioning Robinson Crusoe makes me want to either reread it again after all these years, or to see if there is a movie adaptation.
- Haha, that's the one classic I couldn't get through as a kid -- I'm essentially immune to boredom, but after the 20th time ol' Rob thanked God for stranding him on an island, I was done with it.

I got a really good one that I've seen everywhere but most people read summaries of it at best.

How To Win Friends and Influence People

Own it and read it, probably 25 years ago. Just ask all my friends I've influenced!
Haha, one ai bought and actually read. It's a good book
- Whats the tl;dr? Is it 'be hot and/or rich'?

Most of friedrich nietzsche's books

Why exactly would you buy a book and not read it ?

The same reason anyone buys anything that they don’t use, they think they’ll enjoy it but in reality they don’t find time or lose interest.
- But those things aren't the answer to OP's question, are they? I'm sure that out of all the Harry Potter or DaVinci's Code or whatever whatever popular book you look at there'll be a nice % of books that haven't been read, but I'm pretty sure that a majority of.peoole that buy them also end up reading them.
  The more reasonable answer would probably be something that's popular but not necessarily something you read. Like others have said, a dictionary, cookbook, or book related to some other skill. Those are a lot more likely to go unread
Looks good on the book shelf. Many people decorate with books. Look at all those old mansions you see in movies, where there is a giant library.
- I guess it's never crossed my mind. I never thought someone would get a book for a reason other than reading it. They do look good in a living room
So other people think you did read it. Perhaps for the binding color in a background. Maybe to impress people while holding it in a cafe. To burn.
I have a pretty decent sized library. My fiction section is about 95% read, but the non-fiction sections are much less. You sometimes buy non-fiction as reference materials, to flip through, etc. Not necessarily to read cover-to-cover. (I'd guess my non-fiction is 25% read.)
I’ve purchased many books that I haven’t physically read.
I mostly read on my Kindle, or I listen to audiobooks. But for books I really love, I will also buy the physical copy to display.
- Fair enough, I've never considered that before, but I understand it
Because the book is boring ? Or poorly written ?
- The OP seemed to imply that not reading the book was always the plan, not because it was dropped halfway through because it's boring. But perhaps I'm reading too much into it

I don't remember having bought even a single copy but somehow I have 5 copies of Catcher in the Rye, and I've never I've read it.

How many people have you assassinated?
Did you sign the inside of any of these books?
- I always forget Patrick Stewart was in that film.
I tried to read it, I really did. I have a rule -- read the first 10% of the book, and if it doesn't hook me, I can give up. Catcher in the Rye is the only book I've given up on
- Good on ya. The whole book is like that.
I read it. I read the whole damn book. I kept waiting for something to happen. Nothing really did. 1/10
I think I'm in the minority here, but I read it and thought it was great. Worth a go IMO.
I enjoyed it as a teenager, I don’t know if I would like it now.
Maybe you could you read 8too!

1984

You're missing out. It's one of the few books I've read and I've thoroughly enjoyed it.
I think that was one of the books that I had already read when we were assigned it in high school...

If you're Gen X, the entire three fucking ton collection of whatever encyclopedia itanica set out there and fifty time life books about random shit with pictures. Maybe sex by Madonna.

My parents, and those before them loved to appear as if they could ready but only really recognized the logos of gas stations and liquor bottles.

1984

Fahrenheit 451

In my experience a lot of people have read 1984...
You definitely got me on Fahrenheit 451 though :)
- Fahrenheit 451 is highly readable.
Do people not read 1984? They should, it's great.
I've not read F451, but I also haven't bought it, so I'm off the hook! :-)

I think no one has read Manufacturing Consent beyond the first chapter.

I swear I had all the best intentions, but that book literally taunts me from it's place on the bookshelf where it's been sitting for the past 2 years. Not sure I even made it to chapter 2....
- Well the first chapter is very good and reading it will explain why this book is so influential. It's also not very long. You can do it 💪
I've read the whole thing, but all the interesting bits were definitely in the first chapter. I didn't know anything about the political situation in Nicaragua in the 80s, so it didn't make much sense to me as an example. Was reading more Wikipedia than Chomsky at one point.
All his examples also seemed like very local problems? Like, the New York Times' reporting on the Nicaraguan situation may have been biased, but international NGOs were reporting the truth (which is how Chomsky himself got his information) and newspapers all over the world were reporting that information. I checked the newspaper archives from my own country and when they reported on the cases from the book (which wasn't that often, because South America is pretty far away), they had the same narrative as Chomsky.
So the interesting mechanical bits were definitely in the first chapter and the rest of it was only relevant to 1980s Americans who got all their information from national media.

The Wheel of Time: Eye of the World

Not for a lack of trying

If you can get through it, the rest of the series is fantastic. TEotW suffers from a period of time when fantasy publishers pretty much demanded LotR, so everyone wrote LotR.
Are you kidding? This is a great book! I've probably read it about 10 times.
- I'm not saying nobody desires to read it, I'm referring to how difficult it is to read because it's so wordy for some people. It's longer than the Deathly Hallows, has hundreds of characters, and the main characters only scratch the surface. Not negative things if you ask me, just these are complaints other people have.
I think that if you are willing to buy something like that, you're probably also willing to read it.
That series took me something like 5-6 years to read, broken in the middle with Game of Thrones. WOT gets extremely dry by book 9 and Robert Jordan is tied up in something like two dozen plot lines with no way out.
I only finished the series because I was overseas with nothing to do except listen to audiobooks on my time off for a year and a half. The last 3-4 books being written by Brandon Sanderson was the best thing that could have happened to the series.

Atlas Shrugged.

This book gets a lot of shit, probably deservedly so, but I enjoyed the story, but skip over the monologue.

Atlas Shrugged

Gravity's rainbow

A lot of hipsters have Bukowski or Hunter Thompson on their shelves that they haven't read. They place them strategically on the corner of their $8,000 coffee table or bookshelf.

What the fuck kind of hipsters do u hang out with lmao
Here’s my molten hot take:
Hell’s Angels was his only good book. All the rest were him just huffing various substances and ranting. We get it, you don’t like Nixon.
Very few people can credibly dispute this because nobody actually reads the books.

Among my friend group it's House of Leaves.

"Wow, it's such an eerie unsettling journey. I really love it." "you started it last year, did you finish it?" "well ..."

I saw another lemmy user claim they had to take a 17 year break from it.

I read it, and while it's something different, it was more confusing than anything else. Definitely something I never read before though.

Probably meditations or some popular philosophy book.

For certain sets of people:

Das Capital by Marx

A Critique of Pure Reason by Kant

Ulysses by James Joyce

Faust. It's a pain in the ass to actually read. You're better off watching a play.

harry potter mabye

The Dostoyevsky novel? I don’t think that qualifies as “popular.” I’d bet money there are far more copies of Crime and Punishment that sit unread on pretentious peoples’ bookshelves thank Demons.