BOOK NEWS FOR OCT 7: STEPHEN KING , AMERICA’S FAVOURITE AUTHOR AND SCI FI AND RELIGION

Stephen King is America’s Favorite Author

Source: multivu.prnewswire.com

Mystery, Crime and Thriller Novels are the genre most read

New York, N.Y., October 7, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — The choices are endless—fiction or non-fiction, then, maybe science fiction, a thriller or a chick-lit book? Finally, which author? A recent Harris Poll showed that Americans are reading, but what are they reading? And, who are their favorite authors?

Among those who say they read at least one book in an average year, eight in ten have read a fiction book in the past year (79%) while a similar number say they have read a non-fiction book (78%). Among those who read fiction, almost half (48%) read mystery, thriller and crime books, while one-quarter read science fiction (26%) and literature (24%). One in five say they read romance novels (21%) and one in ten have read graphic novels (11%) in the past year. Less than one in ten read chick-lit (8%) and western (5%) books, with 36% saying they read other types of fiction.

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Religious Science Fiction?

Source: Spectator.org

A magazine I frequently write for (not this one) recently published a review of a book of essays advocating atheism. The reviewer pointed out with some enthusiasm that a large number of the contributors were science-fiction writers.

This left me somewhat nonplussed. I publish a good deal of science fiction myself, I have also read quite a lot of it, and I am quite unable to see why writing it should be held to particularly qualify anyone to answer the question of whether or not there is a God.

I don’t know if it is an actual requirement for the job, but certainly a number of astronauts are believers and Buzz Aldrin, the second man to set foot on the moon, is a lay preacher.

I would be inclined to take their feelings about Cosmology with more respect than those of even the best-published science-fiction writer.

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