The Cat in the Hat? A Comic Book? Nothing?!

If only everybody read I Sold My Soul on eBay like I told them to, this wouldn’t be an issue…

One in four adults say they read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday.

To pick out the religious bits:

… those who said they never attend religious services read nearly twice as many as those who attend frequently.

…

The Bible and religious works were read by two-thirds in the survey, more than all other categories.

…

Those likeliest to read religious books included older and married women, lower earners, minorities, lesser educated people, Southerners, rural residents, Republicans and conservatives.

Of course, these are just the numbers, and we have to be careful to jump to conclusions about what it all means…

But is anyone surprised by these results?

And because we have to get an obligatory joke in here…

Of those who did read, women and seniors were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices.

I didn’t know religious works and popular fiction were two separate categories.

[Cue laugh track]

(Thanks to Susan for the link!)

[tags]atheist, atheism, Christian, literature[/tags]

Bjorn Watland

I chuckle every time I walk through B&N past the Religious Fiction section, and assume to find the Bibles there.

O.K., that wasn’t very friendly.
Maria

I don’t think the bible is total fiction, in that it tells us what the times were like when it was written-brutal. as far as taking a lot of it seriously as dogma, however, I’m finding that increasingly laughable. There are some good ideas in it of course, but there are some good ideas in lots of stuff.
Reed Braden

When did you get a laugh track? I want one of those for UA!
writerdd

Amazing. I read a book every week, often several.

My husband, who prefers newspapers, magazines, and the internet usually reads at least 1 or 2 books a year. Hard to believe that so many people never, ever, read a single book.
PrimateIR

Amazing. I read a book every week, often several.

Me too writerdd! My life would be very gray without them….it makes me sad, actually, for all of the people that haven’t visited other planets or had a time traveling husband. 🙂
Vincent

Did they define “religious books?”
Is “the God Delusion” a religious book?
Dale McGowan

“…we have to be careful to jump to conclusions about what it all means…”

I nearly wet myself. Oh wait, I did…
kristi

Oh, I’m always careful to jump to conclusions about what it all means. And thanks to all my reading, I always come up with conclusions that amuse me.
Effeminem

Of course, you could also interpret the results to mean that atheists are illiterate. The thing is, I read fewer books now that I have blogs and wikipedia. And if I read the first half of Faust and get bored, well, does that count as anything?