Announcing in his latest blog that his new release, Immanuel's Veins (Thomas Nelson), has been "banned" in Holland for being too racy, he wonders if Christian publishing should "force our characters to wear turtle necks and long sleeves?"

Dekker defends Immanuel's Veins—vampires, seduction and sacrificial love in 18th century Russia—as "a passionate tale of God's love for his bride, perhaps the most Christian book I've ever written." Yes, it is sensual in parts, he admits, "but no more than the sensuality expressed by King Solomon, to whom I've dedicated the book."

In a blog posting with that title, he says how disappointed he has been to find so many peers who say they don't have the time to read the books they sell—or simply don't enjoy reading.

But, he says, in the current economic environment, "we must all become avid readers or we will die... No Christian retailer worth their salt can afford to ignore this aspect of their business. We all need to commit to put down our iPods and cell phones, turn off our televisions and take a Facebook fast.

"Making time every day and certainly every week to  immerse ourselves in books and authors that God has given us the privilege to represent has to be one of our biggest business priorities."

The U.S. Director of CLC International, overseeing a publishing house and eight stores, adds: "This may be a little harsh, but for those that say that they really do not enjoy reading, I would suggest that maybe they are in the wrong business or they need to reconsider their priorities.

"If a person is running a Christian retail store and really does not enjoy reading and still wants to stay in the business, they must at least have someone on their team who loves to read and can help instill this passion in the rest of the team... Reading is not optional for us as Christians and retailers, it is essential. Praise God that he has gifted so many people to put words together in such a way that they can actually change lives "

Almack is a member of Christian Retailing's editorial advisory board. Read his complete blog at http://faithlit.wordpress.com/

Anyone who has read about the explosion in digital publishing and who despairs that the printed word is in imminent danger of disappearing might take heart from two blogs from Thomas Nelson.

In his "Sanity Check for Publishers," vice president for editorial and acquisitions, non-fiction books Joel Miller dismisses the doom-and-gloom predictions as "nonsense."

He maintains that "readers want books—sustained discussions and stories that immerse their hearts and minds in ways that only books can. Fragmented texts with splotches of audiovisual enhancement may make headway in the marketplace, but they will never replace books..."

He also challenges the notion that publishers should look at themselves as being in the "content," not book, business. "I recognize that statements like this come from the need to make sense of the tremendous change happening around us, but this language is unhelpful in the extreme," he writes. "It generalizes our efforts.

Content is generic. Books are specific. Content is meaningless. Books have meaning. Content is data. Books are prose and poetry."

Miller's CEO, Michael Hyatt, echoes similar concerns and others in his "In Defense of Books."

"Despite what many pundits are saying today, reading is not dead, nor are books," he contends. "Certainly, big changes are underway, especially in the way books are delivered to readers. But reading itself is alive if not altogether well. It is not going away. At least, not any time soon."

By books, he says, he is talking about "long-form, text-based content, regardless of how it is delivered." These have more transformative power in them than most magazines, blogs, movies and TV shows, he goes on.

"Most serious readers I know see other (multimedia) elements as distractions or fluff, primarily designed to seduce non-readers into doing something they would otherwise not do-read a book. While I am all for expanding the market and bringing more non-readers into the fold, I don't believe we do that by adding multimedia elements to most books."