I’m not a follower of Scot McKnight, but he links to this fascinating bar graph of the Top Ten Most Read Books In The World:
Guess What The Top Ten Read Books Are?
Dr. Reluctant.
musings of a "reluctant" dispensationalist
musings of a "reluctant" dispensationalist
I’m not a follower of Scot McKnight, but he links to this fascinating bar graph of the Top Ten Most Read Books In The World:
3 comments On Guess What The Top Ten Read Books Are?
I’m always skeptical (insert period here if you like) about such presentations as this. First, where do those numbers come from?…Seriously, how do we determine how many people have “read” the Bible? What does “read” mean……looked at once? cover to cover 43 times? Most of the other titles seem pretty representative of Western culture in the past 100 years….but I wonder are they really symptomatic? Does this really have any connection to the shape were in?…..or is it random. Could we have learned as much from a chart showing the 10 most popular pets?
Ha! I know, it doesn’t prove much. But the very fact that the Bible is so popular shows something of its ongoing influence. How many actually read the Bible? In my experience very few. As a matter of fact in my experience few pastors have read the Bible through more than once or twice!
Sad but true…..I picked up that “43 times” from my wife, who puts me to shame–she’s on her 44th reading since 1994. A closer reading of the graph post shows that they’re talking about the past 50 years, and as some of the commenters point out–clearly a Western lit bias….plus it’s solely “books printed” not necessarily “read” That rubbish which makes up most of the “other nine” still beggars belief…..what about Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, even Hemingway & Steinbeck? Not an encouraging picture of Western culture, wot?