As of this writing, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson has risen to the top of Amazon’s Most Highlighted Books of All Time list for Kindle books. To put things in perspective, the Bible now occupies second place.

Our Popular Passages feature uses  list to track the most underlined parts of bestselling books–exploring what kinds of writing inspire eBook readers. Here are a few popular and strange quotes from Larsson’s book…

388 Kindle users underlined this branded passage: “The family was so extensive that he was forced to create a database in his iBook. He used the NotePad programme (www.ibrium.se)”

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Earlier this week, ABC News spotted novelist Jonathan Franzen visiting the White House: “Asked how his meeting with the president went, the celebrated author of ‘Freedom’ said ‘delightful.’”

We wonder if they talked about the most popular passages in Freedom. Our Popular Passages feature uses  list to track the most underlined parts of bestselling books–exploring what kinds of writing inspire eBook readers.

According to Amazon, 300 Kindle users underlined this passage in Freedom, the perfect election season quote: “He became another data point in the American experiment of self-government, an experiment statistically skewed from the outset, because it wasn’t the people with sociable genes who fled the crowded Old World for the new continent; it was the people who didn’t get along well with others.”

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As of this writing, The Shack by William P. Young has risen to the top of Amazon’s Most Highlighted Books of All Time list for Kindle books. The bestselling religious mystery seems to have provided plenty of relationship advice for Kindle readers.

Our Popular Passages feature uses  list to track the most underlined parts of bestselling books–exploring what kinds of writing inspire eBook readers. Here are a few popular quotes…

1,570 Kindle users highlighted this passage: “Grace doesn’t depend on suffering to exist, but where there is suffering you will find grace in many facets and colors.”

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This morning Oprah Winfrey announced that she picked Jonathan Franzen‘s Freedom for her book club. We decided to focus on an earlier Oprah book club pick for today’s edition of Popular Passages.

Years ago, she picked A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle–now the 7th most underlined book in the Amazon Kindle store.

Our Popular Passages feature uses Amazon’s Most Highlighted Books list to track the most underlined parts of bestselling books. 440 Kindle users loved this sentence by Tolle:  “The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.”

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With his final traditionally-published book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?, author Seth Godin has risen quickly on Amazon’s list of popular Kindle book highlights.

Using Amazon’s Most Highlighted Books feature, we can actually track which passages these eBook readers enjoyed. For our new Popular Passages feature, we study the most underlined passages from bestselling books.

Out of Godin’s entire book, 396 Kindle users loved this passage in particular: “The only way to get what you’re worth is to stand out, to exert emotional labor, to be seen as indispensable, and to produce interactions that organizations and people care deeply about.”

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Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese has rocketed up the Amazon Kindle bestseller list, currently ranked 18th out of the Top 100 paid Kindle titles.

According to Amazon, one passage from the book has grabbed the second-place spot on the Most Highlighted Passages of All Time list for Kindle books–only topped by Malcolm Gladwell. Our new Popular Passages feature uses Amazon’s Most Highlighted Books list to track the most underlined parts of bestselling books.

So far, 1,571 Kindle users have highlighted this passage from Cutting for Stone: “The key to your happiness is to own your slippers, own who you are, own how you look, own your family, own the talents you have, and own the ones you don’t. If you keep saying your slippers aren’t yours, then you’ll die searching, you’ll die bitter, always feeling you were promised more. Not only our actions, but also our omissions, become our destiny.”

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Hundreds of Amazon users have underlined passages in Michael Lewis‘s new book, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine–focusing almost exclusively on the author’s thoughts about loans.

Negative Amazon Kindle critics overwhelmed the reviews section for the book in March, urging customers to boycott his book for its lack of a Kindle edition. Now that the Kindle edition is out, readers have been underlining passages throughout the book.

Our Popular Passages feature uses Amazon’s Most Highlighted Books list to track the most underlined parts of bestselling books. In Lewis’ book, 325 Kindle users pondered this passage: “How do you make poor people feel wealthy when wages are stagnant? You give them cheap loans.”

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As Eat Pray Love hit theaters around the country, Elizabeth Gilbert‘s follow-up memoir Committed has held a high spot on the NY Times‘ nonfiction hardcover bestseller list. Gilbert’s book is also the 32nd most highlighted book on Kindle–so we searched for readers’ favorite passages.

Using Amazon’s Most Highlighted Books feature, we can actually track which passages these eBook readers enjoyed. For our new Popular Passages feature, we will track the most underlined passages from bestselling books.

An impressive 645 Kindle users highlighted this passage: “Sometimes life is too hard to be alone, and sometimes life is too good to be alone.”

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Sh*t My Dad Says is the 377th most highlighted book on Kindle, loaded with foul-mouthed quotes from blogger Justin Halpern and cursing parents. This profane title has dominated the NY Times‘ nonfiction hardcover bestseller list for weeks, so we went searching for readers’ favorite passages.

Using Amazon’s Most Highlighted Books feature, we can actually find out which passages these eBook readers enjoyed. For our new Popular Passages feature, we will track the most underlined passages from bestselling books.

Read the most popular passages below. Warning–these quotes, while censored, are not for the faint-of-heart.

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Hundreds of readers underlined life lessons sprinkled throughout Jennifer Weiner‘s novel, Fly Away Home.

Using Amazon’s Most Highlighted Books feature, we can actually find out which passages these eBook readers enjoyed. For our new Popular Passages feature, we will track the most underlined passages from bestselling novels. Meet Weiner in Mediabistro’s So What Do You Do? feature.

In Fly Away Home, 44 Kindle readers underlined this helpful advice: “People will want you to behave a certain way, to make a certain choice because it reinforces the way they see the world.”

152 Kindle users loved this passage: “Sometimes the worst thing that happens to you, the thing you think you can’t survive … it’s the thing that makes you better than you used to be.”

Finally, 190 Kindle users highlighted this passage: “‘In Chinese,’ said Selma, ‘the word for crisis is the same word as opportunity.’”