Here’s an interesting post that contrasts the books bought by folks from the Bible Belt with those bought by folks outside the Bible Belt. Take a look; you might be surprised.
Of course, it would be interesting to know the relative size of each “purchase circle” as a percentage of the population in each region….
Comment by Craig Clarke
July 1, 2004 @ 8:49 am
I don’t see it. It looks like everyone’s reading the same dross to me, with a few exceptions in each area.
Comment by Will Duquette
July 1, 2004 @ 8:19 pm
Some, like the writer the post quotes, think that the Bible Belt is less intellectual and less bookish than the rest of the country. If you compare the two sets of lists, there are some interesting things to notice.
For example, I counted twice as many novels (so far as I could tell from the titles) on the Bible Belt lists as on the non-Bible Belt lists. There are many more books on religion in the Bible Belt area, and some of them are fairly weighty. The Bible Belt set had two diet books and one cookbook (and that a low-carb cookbook); the non-Bible Belt set had three diet books and five cookbooks. I have the impression that there were more books on current politics in the non-Bible Belt set, and more coffee table books as well.
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