An Atlanta woman’s decision to read “The Purpose Driven Life” aloud to an alleged courtroom killer who held her hostage has renewed interest in the former bestselling Christian book.
On March 13, Ashley Smith told reporters she had piqued Brian Nichols’ interest by reading from Pastor Rick Warren’s “The Purpose Driven Life.” By Monday, March 14, the book had jumped from No. 79 on the Amazon.com best-seller list to No. 2.
Other booksellers saw a similar spike. At Barnes & Noble, the book went from 67 in Web site sales for the next week of March 6-12 to No. 2 this week. According to Zondervan, sales nationwide seem to have surged from an average of 700,000 to 800,000 per month to that same number projected for that week alone. The book rose to No. 1 on the New York Times Bestseller List within 13 months of publication and also made USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly bestseller lists.
“It’s always been in and out of the top 100 (at Barnes & Noble), but… we saw a pop,” says B&N spokes woman Carolyn Brown.
In response to the first wave of attention, Warren issued a statement. “Jesus sometimes calls us in some of the most difficult situations to be an advocate for Him and the message He represented while on this earth,” he said. “We are thankful that Ms. Smith was able to draw from the Scriptures and her reading from ‘The Purpose-Driven Life’ to bring some hope to her captor’s life that was unraveling so tragically and dramatically.”
(RNS)
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