“Favorite books” is a stand-by question for personal information, and I see “The Bible” listed on many of these.  Recently, I was reading a profile of a professional basketball player in ESPN the Magazine.  When they asked for his favorite book, he said something like, “The Bible. But I don’t really read much of anything.  Oops…I’d better not say that, I’m working with Read to Achieve [the NBA’s literacy charity].” 

When people say that their favorite book is the Bible, do they mean that the Bible is a book they read regularly, that has lots of underlined passages, that they treasure in their personal library? Or is it a code for “I’m a Christian,” even if they haven’t opened their Bible in years?