A recent Barna Group survey showed that nearly half of all Americans have read at least one religious book, other than the Bible, from cover to cover in the last two years. The best-selling religious books in the last few years in the CBA market have been titles in the “Left Behind” series by Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye (Tyndale House) and The Purpose-Driven Life (PDL) by Rick Warren (Zondervan).

In the last two years, three out of four adults surveyed (73%) said they had read an entire book. The people most likely to have read a book include women, college graduates and evangelicals. Religious books had been read by more than four out of five evangelicals (81%), by half of all non-evangelical born-again adults (50%) and individuals associated with non-Christian faith groups (49%).

PDL is the most popular of the religious titles among evangelicals (60% of whom have read the whole book) and it did well among non-evangelical, born-again Christians (25% penetration). Conservatives were twice as likely as liberals to have read the book.

The “Left Behind” series was the second most-read religious book among both Catholics and Protestants, and drew evenly among people associated with large, midsized and small churches.

Dan Brown's controversial title, The Da Vinci Code, was the best known of the religious-themed books, familiar to four out of five adults (78%). PDL was known to almost two-thirds of the religious readers (63%), while about three out of five were aware of the “Left Behind” novels (58%). About 45% were familiar with Bruce Wilkinson's The Prayer of Jabez (45%), and Your Best Life Now by Joel Osteen was known to one out of four adults (27%).