Medical Best Sellers

John Pearn

Tenth International CongressOn

Medical LibrarianshipBrisbane 2009

BEST SELLERS

Sale of BooksEnduring Influence

MEDICAL TEXTBOOKS

. Galen – more than 20 books;Dominant for 1500 years

. Bibliography of his own booksin 2nd Century AD De Libris Propriis LiberFirst printed in 1525

. The primary medical reference text until 1521when Berengario da Carpi published Commentaria in Bologna

MEDICAL TEXT BOOKS

. Osler’s The Principals & Practice of Medicine

. Gray’s Anatomy

. Cunningham’s Textbook of AnatomyFrom 1819, 58 editions in English

. Cunningham’s Manual of Practical Anatomy1879-1989; 4 languages; 135 editions

BOOKS—Top Quality and Quantity

Sale of BooksEnduring InfluenceFastest selling books

HARRY POTTER SERIES

As of June 2008

. 400 million copies printed

. 67 languages

. Fastest-selling books in history

. Brand – 15,000,000,000 pounds

BEST SELLERS

Sale of BooksEnduring InfluenceFastest selling booksMost stolen books

MOST STOLEN BOOKS

United States

. The Bible

. The Guinness Book of World Records

. Police Entrance Examination Guide

GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS

.World’s most-sold copyrighted book

.In 2008, 2,244 new valid records

.Ethical removal of some records

Liquor-drinking records; eating trees and bicycles; fattest cats.

MOST STOLEN BOOKS

United Kingdom

. The Works of Beatrix Potter

. The Coins of England and the UK

. The Qur’an

BEST SELLERS

Sale of BooksEnduring InfluenceFastest selling booksMost stolen booksImpact Factors

BOOKS WRITTEN BY DOCTORS

. Hippocratic Corpus c. 380 B.C.

. Galen c. 200 A.D.

. Michael CrichtonJurassic Park: “E.R.” Television Series150 million books sold

The “TOP 10” Medical Best Sellers1 The Bible

2.5 – 6 billion copies2 Quotations from Chairman Mao – The Little Red Book

Printed 1966 to 1973800 million to 6.5 billion

3 The Qur’an 800 million

4 Scouting for Boys by Lieut-Gen Baden Powell, 190860-150 million

5 The St. John Ambulance First Aid BookEst. 50-100 million, from 1879

The “TOP 10” Medical Best Sellers

6 The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Careby Benjamin Spock, 1946

50 million7 You Can Health Your Life

by Louise Hay35 million

8 Alcoholics Anonymous Big Bookby Bill Wilson, 1939

9 South Beach Dietby Arthur Agatston, 2003

22 million10 La Peste [The Plague]

by Albert Camus, 194712 million

The Common Sense Book of Baby andChild Care

. Dr. Benjamin Spock , 1946

. 50 million copiesInfluenced 100 million

. Dignity of childhood

. A foil to rigid disciplinarianism

. Empowered parents in childrearing

BEST SELLERS

Sale of BooksEnduring InfluenceFastest selling booksMost stolen booksImpact Factors

BEST SELLING NOVELS

“The most widely published fictionIs publishers’ own sales figures”

Internet Public Library 2009

RANKED LIST OF THE WORLD’S BESTSELLERS

. Internet Public Library List

. Russell Ash’s The Top Ten of Everything

. The Guinness Book of World Records

. Wikipedia

TOP “5”

1 The Bible2 Quotations from Chairman Mao3 The American Spelling Book4 Guinness World Records5 The McGuffey Readers

Internet Public Library

TOP “5”

1 The Bible2 Quotations from Chairman Mao3 The Qur’an4 The Xinhua Dictionary5 Chairman Mao’s Poems

Wikiipedia 2009

“If God spare my life,Ere many years I will cause a Boy that driveth the plough [to]Know more of the Scripture . . .”

William Tyndale, c. 1536

The Bible

1 Most printed book in history

2 Written texts of Hebrew components 168 BC

3 Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria 367 AD

4 1526 the Tindale Bible in English

The Bible. Causation of disease

. Accounts of miraculous healing

. Health injunctions, forbidden foods

. References of diseasesWeakness, paralysis, plague, fever,atrophy, dysentery

Healthcare under Chairman Mao Zedong

. Access of healthcare for all

. Direct nexus between patient and doctor

. Abandonment of paternalistic-eliteststatus of the clinician

. Red Guard Doctors; Barefoot Doctors

Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong

. 5 – 6.5 billion copies printedfrom April 1964 to 1976

. 33 chapters, 427 quotations

. 1968 – Peking banned the publicationof medical journals

. 1968-1971 Healthcare remained totallyinternalized in China

The Little Red Book

. Aphoristic preventive medicine

. Promoted moderation in eating and drinking

. Political non-compliance regardedas a sickness

The Qur’an

. Flawless, immutable, literal and final Revelations of God

. Revealed to the Prophet Muhammad 610-632 CE

. Hand-written books circa 750 CE

. First printed from wooden blocks in 10th century CE

. First Qur’an printed in moveable type, Venice 1537 CE

. 800 million copies

The Qur’an – Medical Themes

. Moderation in diet and lifestyle

. Emphasis on hygiene

. Forbidden foods

. Dispensation for the ill and the disabled

. Causation of disease

. Compliance with medical care

Scouting for Boys

. Written in Northumberland and in LondonBy Lieut-General Robert Baden-Powell

. Published in 1908

. 80-150 million copies sold. Read by 350 million

. Moderation in diet and lifestyle

. Preventive medicine

Scouting for Boys

. Health-giving habits

. Military medicine to civilian practice

. Abstinence from smoking andModeration in Alcohol

. Dental Care

Life-saving and First Aid

Medical Best-Sellers – Common Themes

. Importance of personal health

. The altruistic, charitable and philanthropicduty of healthcare

. Emphasis on preventive medicine

. Specific rules and guidance on matter of diet,Hygiene and lifestyle

“Who is so persistent a preacher of abstinence, sobriety,Restraining anger, fleeing care, avoiding gluttony,Rejecting love, moderating sex, as the Doctor?”

Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469-1536)

Medical Best Sellers

John Pearn

Tenth International CongressOn

Medical LibrarianshipBrisbane 2009