The late detective novelist Agatha Christie is the most widely read novelist in history, according to the New Yorker, which has an essay on the popular author in the latest issue (August 16 & 23, 2010 p.82-88)

Back in the old days, we read a few dozen Agatha Christie books.

And for the most part, we enjoyed them. The Hercule Poirot series, the Miss Marple books and the other Agatha Christie novels were all easy reads that we could knock off in a couple of hours max.

Some of Christie’s books like Murder on the Oriental Express (Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael York and Anthony Perkins) were even made into popular movies adding to her fame.

Describing the authoress as a ‘broad cultural phenomenon,’ Joan Acocella writes in the New Yorker that Agatha Christie’s novels have been translated into 45 languages and sold over 2 billion copies.

Now, isn’t that 2 billion figure more than India’s population or have the desi mosquitoes been breeding more than usual lately? 😉