Tag: Bible

Authors and publishers, take note. We all know that some have been pronouncing the death of reading books for quite some time now, but how true is that? Writers keep writing, publishers keep publishing, and retailers keep selling printed (and now digital) literature of all kinds. So, what’s the truth?

According to The Barna Group’s latest survey about what Americans are reading, the answer to this question of “Is reading books dead?” is, “No.” However, I would like to qualify that “No” with a statement of my own: “Book reading is not dead, but the number of readers is definitely small compared to the general population.” Perhaps Mark Twain’s infamous comment about a rumor of his own death is apropos here (with a slight twist for application to the subject of reading books): “Rumors of the demise of reading are greatly exaggerated.”

As a Christian researcher for decades, The Barna Group has analyzed just about everything from frequency of church attendance (or maybe infrequency would be a better description) to the moral decline of American culture and much more. Their latest research on Americans’ reading habits is interesting, but perhaps the one fact that caught my attention as a Christian minister is that a sizable number of non-Christians are reading the Bible, maybe even more so than nominal Christians. By “nominal” I mean the less committed ones. Furthermore, since this latest survey was conducted with a random selection of participants (with a few questions directed at ferreting out Christians within the selection), it seems to me it is skewed more toward non-Christians’ reading habits. Nevertheless, the results of the survey are certainly noteworthy, especially for an author-turned-independent-Christian-publisher like myself.

If you’re an author, publisher, or retailer of printed and/or digital content (whether Christian or not), this research ought to give you some new ideas on how to make your profession more profitable. If you’d like to read Barna’s review of the results of their survey, just click on the following link: The Books Americans Are Reading–And What That Reveals About Us.

Perhaps you might consider checking out some of my writings and publications (both for myself and for others) as well. You’ll find a list of my personally authored and published books at my author’s Website (be sure to scroll down to the “Works in Progress” heading for details about my current and upcoming writing projects, too). For a list of the books I’ve published for others (in addition to my own) check out The Parson Place Press Bookstore. Of course, all of these books — both mine and those I’ve published for other authors — may be purchased from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million, etc.