Having sold more than 80 million copies of The Da Vinci Code and had all four of his novels on the New York Times bestseller list in the same week, it's hardly surprising that Brown's hefty tomes are being donated to charity by readers keen to make some room on their shelves. The success of the Dan Brown's latest is a boost to publisher Knopf Doubleday and booksellers, which have endured sliding sales in the midst of the recession. Booksellers have anxiously awaited a popular title that will resonate with readers and fuel the same sort of frenzy seen earlier this decade with the "Harry Potter" series, from author J.K. Rowling.
– The Da Vinci Code has sold so many copies—that would be at least 80 million—that it's bound to turn up in book donation piles. But at one charity shop in the UK, it's been donated so heavily that the shop has posted a sign propped up on a tower of Da Vinci Code copies that reads: "You could give us another Da Vinci Code... but we would rather have your vinyl!" The manager of the Oxfam shop in Swansea tells the Telegraph that people are laughing and taking pictures of the sizable display: "I would say that we get one copy of the book every day." He says people buy them "occasionally," but with vinyl sales up 25% in the past year, they'd rather take records. Dan Brown's book isn't the only one that shops like Oxfam struggle to re-sell. Last year, Oxfam was hit with a large and steady supply of Fifty Shades of Grey, and it similarly begged donors: "Please—no more." But Brown has a particular kind of staying power. The Da Vinci Code was published in 2003, and within six years Brown had booted John Grisham from the No. 1 slot on the list of writers whose books were most often donated to Oxfam's 700 shops, reported the Guardian at the time. The Independent in 2012 reported Brown's best-seller was the most-donated book for the fourth year running. (See why Dan Brown took heat from the Philippines.)