[BluffTHIS!]

Well of course as a christian I don't think there could be too much space devoted to bibles and religious books. But the problem you talk about is one that has become completely self-fulfilling. Peole without a background in science won't have an interest in scientific books and thus stores merely stock what they can sell since they are not non-profit libraries. And of course such parents won't encourage their children to take up an interest in science either. Same for the next generation.

When I was a teenager, I really got an interest in all branches of science from the books of the well-known and prolific Isaac Asimov, who was also one of my favorite science fiction writers. Since I now only read more advanced books on science, I don't really know what is out there in the way of popular "science-lite" books for those without a good grasp of physics and mathematics and biology yet. But those types of writings, similar to what can be found in Discover magazine, are exactly what shcools need to push kids to read.

Regarding popular magazines, I have always read Discover and also Scientific American when the latter one had articles I was interested in. But SA seems to have gone somewhat lite in the past few years. While it was never at the technical level of Nature, it nonetheless still used to have articles that presupposed a somewhat advanced knowledge of various scientific fields. But now it seems to be a clone of Discover. Even so, getting teenagers to read Discover as part of their curriculum as well as some good books, would be a positive move to encourage their interest in science. In the same vein, those kids need to be reading at least one of the major news magazines such as Time every week to keep up on current affairs. Otherwise all we end up with is a Reader's Digest generation of kids.