In a struggling book industry, faith-based books are "a thriving, billion-dollar business," reports The Washington Post.

The newspaper spotlights the inroads to general market distribution made by Choice Books, which it says sells more than 5 million books a year through more than 10,000 kiosks at highway rest stops, drugstores, department stores and airports.

"One of the great challenges Christian publishing has faced over the years is getting rack distribution in a variety of general-market-type outlets," Evangelical Christian Publishers Association President and CEO Mark Kuyper told the newspaper.

"Years and years ago, Christian books were almost relegated to Christian stores," he added. "Now we have titles that sell a million-plus units. That exposure and availability through grocery stores has been fundamental to that growth."

The Post reports how Choice's founders include Simon Schrock, a carpenter and part-time Anabaptist preacher who in 1968 persuaded a newsstand at Washington's National Airport to add some Christian titles to its racks. Schrock was concerned after finding Playboy magazine on sale at another airport.

With its placement of books at locations like service stations and Wal-Mart, Choice is "betting that the Bible proves as tempting to roadside shoppers as People magazine," said the newspaper.

It is the second time the newspaper has focused on the Christian publishing world in the past month. In a pre-Christmas report headlined "Religious retailers do a bit of soul-searching this Christmas," a Post article noted that thousands of Christian bookstores that were "long the backbone of the religious retail industry" have closed in the past decade, leaving the industry "in a state of ... soul searching."

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