What Readers Do: Aesthetic and Moral Practices of a Post-Digital Age

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

About the Author :
Beth Driscoll is Associate Professor of Publishing and Communications at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her publications to date have engaged closely with contemporary book culture, including The New Literary Middlebrow: Tastemakers and Reading in the Twenty-First Century (2014) and over 20 book chapters and journal articles in venues including Post45, Textual Practice, Qualitative Inquiry and Angelaki. She has worked on multiple collaborative research projects, the outcomes of which include The Frankfurt Book Fair and Bestseller Business (with Claire Squires, 2020), Genre Worlds: Popular Fiction and Twenty-First Century Book Culture (with Kim Wilkins and Lisa Fletcher, 2022), and The Frankfurt Kabuff Critical Edition (with Claire Squires, 2023).

Review :
Reading about reading has rarely been so enjoyable. At a time of gloom and anxiety about the book's future, Beth Driscoll reminds us how much there is to celebrate about twenty-first century readers. Relevant for undergraduate and graduate students and scholars of book history. What Readers Do offers a rich and concise overview of different facets of post-digital reading by skillfully unlocking the black box of ordinary and everyday practices. Its strengths lie in Driscoll's ability to make visible the social dimension and complexity of a largely private pastime. The book offers an intriguing look at recreational readers, readerly identities, and ideals that should appeal not only to experts in the field, but also to students, scholars from other disciplines, and any reader interested in a carefully theorized bird's-eye view of their hobby.