Shining a spotlight on everyday readers of the 21st century, Beth Driscoll explores how contemporary readers of Anglophone fiction interact with the book industry, digital environments, and each other.
We live in an era when book clubs, bibliomemoirs, Bookstagram and BookTok are as valuable to some readers as solitary reading moments. The product of nearly two decades of qualitative research into readers and reading culture, What Readers Do examines reading through three dimensions - aesthetic conduct, moral conduct, and self-care - to show how readers intertwine private and social behaviors, and both reinforce and oppose the structures of capitalism. Analyzing reading as a post-digital practice that is a synthesis of both print and digital modes and on- and offline behaviors, Driscoll presents a methodology for studying readers that connects book history, literary studies, sociology, and actor-network theory. Arguing for the vitality, agency, and creativity of readers, this book sheds light on how we read now - and on how much more readers do than just read.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: The Multi-Dimensional Reader
Chapter 1: A Methodology for Contemporary Reading Studies
Chapter 2: Locating Readers
Chapter 3: Reading as Aesthetic Conduct
Chapter 4: Reading as a Moral Force
Chapter 5: Reading as Self-Care
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

Narrative literature after 1945

Media and communications industry

Literary theory

Further readings in linguistics

Book publishing

Narrative literature after 1945 (charity campaign)

Media and communications industry (charity campaign)

Literary theory (charity campaign)

Further readings in linguistics (charity campaign)

Book publishing (charity campaign)

What Readers Do