People over 30 prefer religious books in Ecuador

After the age of 30, those who read in Ecuador begin to adopt a taste for religious-themed publications. This has been revealed by the recent Survey of Reading Habits and Cultural Consumption.

34 out of 100 people between the 30 and 64 years they prefer reading religious books. This number almost doubles (61 people) among the elderly.

Mary Moncayo it is found precisely in the generational gap between both groups studied. He just turned 65 years old; the reading of books on Catholicism began to accompany her three decades ago.

When he reached the age of 50, Moncayo joined a Bible group at his parish in Guayaquil. There he began to buy pious books. This experience was the trigger for creating the first library in his house, currently made up of twenty titles.

In the region where this type of text is read the most is in the Amazon, where they reach 23%. On the Coast it drops to 18% and in the Sierra to 15%.

There are no official data on the number of religious books imported into the country, but there are data on those published nationally. According to Ecuadorian Book Chamberin 2021 they were registered 103 titles (66,439 copies) of this type, that is, the 2% of that year.

The Bible, a ‘hit’ that never goes out of style

According to a report from Guinness World Records, published in 2021, the Bible surpassed 100 million copies in 100 countries and 23 languages, becoming the best-selling book of all time. For its part, the British and Foreign Bible Society maintains that the total number of Bibles sold throughout history is between five and seven billion.

In Mr Books Y World Book, one of the largest bookstore chains in the country, the Bible represents 60% of sales of religious books. Among the editions that are most in demand is the Reina Valera, which is used by Spanish-speaking Protestants.

Emilia Borja, communication coordinator, explains that the books with theme religious they have a constant sale in this chain and that there are titles like the Bible that have become ‘long-seller’. “Like ‘Don Quixote’ -he says- it is a must-see book in all our stores”.

Also, in this chain there are books that are not cataloged as religious, but that talk about spirituality based on the Bible.

These are authors of titles that deal with everyday topics such as family life, as a couple or leadership. Titles such as ‘The Five Love Languages’, by Pastor Gary Chapman, published in 1992, or ’21 Laws of Leadership in the Bible, by John Maxwell, appear in this subcategory.

But there are also other ways of spirituality that are linked to the concept of the religious book. This is the case of José Luis Venegas, who claims to read at least five publications a year on pachamamism and Andean ancestral beliefs. For him, this is another way to connect with something transcendental through reading.

A reading attraction that is not new

The interest of Ecuadorians religiously it is not recent. Mónica Varea, owner of the Rayuela bookstore, remembers that at the end of the decade of the 90 of the last centuryauthors such as the Jesuit priest and psychotherapist Anthony de Mello were very well received by local readers.

During those years, Varea was associated with Armando Baquerizo, from the Vida Nueva bookstore in Guayaquil, to sell several publishing collections in the Sierra, including religious ones. “I remember those books sold a lot. The most popular was ‘The Frog’s Prayer’, by Mello.

In Hopscotch the religious books are in the section of Anthropology. Varea explains that there are titles from different religions and of a more spiritual nature, such as those by Viktor Frankl, author of the best-selling book ‘Man in Search of Meaning’. For this bookstore, titles like this are very popular because there are many readers who are looking for books that give them hope.

They agree with her from the Jesus of Mercy Foundation Spiritual Bookstore. This Quito bookstore, which has a three-story store between 9 de Octubre and Eloy Alfaro streets, has been operating since 1985. Here the best-selling books have to do with topics of personal growth and prayer.

One of the most popular authors in this bookstore is Remigio Calderon, a lawyer from Cuenca who has a collection of prayer and meditation books that have biblical support. Among his best-selling titles are ‘Medicine for those who suffer’, ‘Forgiveness and healing’, ‘A message of hope for my sick brothers’ or ‘The Wonderful Power of Blessing’.

Among the books sold there is ‘The hours of passion’, by the Italian Luisa Piccarreta. It is a work about the meditations that Jesus had before crucifixion. Among the most popular publications are also those that instruct how to pray the rosary and prayer books, most of these titles are imported from Spain.

People look for hope in their readings

Lucero Zapata he is 42 years old. Most of his life was spent reading technical books on economics and finance. But it was a couple of years ago that he had his conversion to Christianity and started looking for his first texts on spirituality.

For her, her position is clear: her faith requires reading. But along the way, she has found a paper publishing market that is extremely expensive compared to other countries.

The last book you bought Kindle it was Rick Warren’s ‘A Purpose Driven Life’ for almost $3. The same text on paper costs about $16 at local bookstores.

Jonathan Tabango, 33, instead reads books about ancient deities and pagan rituals. He affirms that his readings could be classified within the religious category because they talk about stories about gods or traditional ways of living the faith.

Indeed, religion is such a wide range today that it is difficult to pigeonhole it within a single umbrella. In the shop of amazon-kindleFor example, such books are divided into 15 categories ranging from ‘Agnosticism’ to ‘Earth-Based Religions’, including their history, debates, and even novels based on these beliefs.

In his study ‘The understanding of the religious phenomenon and its challenges to social Sciences‘, researcher Ángela Iranzo Dosdad argues that since the 1970s there has been a “revitalization of religions and spiritualities in the world”. For the sociologist Leonardo Mancheno, this has directly influenced the relationship between people and what they read.

For Mancheno, the relationship between adult life and the religious book It’s not a surprise. He explains that the social and human rights struggles in recent decades in the country also meant setting aside Christianity to adopt new religious positions.

“Since the end of the eighties, with sexual liberation, the argument began to circulate among parents that they did not want to impose a faith on their children,” he says. This is one of the reasons that he considers why there is now a generation of readers who approach the book as a way to discover new religious experiences.