Reading Beyond the Book The Social Practices of Contemporary Literary Culture [Hardcover]

Literary culture has become a form of popular culture over the last fifteen years thanks to the success of televised book clubs, film adaptations, big-box book stores, online bookselling, and face-to-face and online book groups. This volume offers the first critical analysis of mass reading events and the contemporary meanings of reading in the UK, USA, and Canada based on original interviews and surveys with readers and event organizers.

The resurgence of book groups has inspired new cultural formations of what the authors call shared reading. They interrogate the enduring attraction of an old technology for readers, community organizers, and government agencies, exploring the social practices inspired by the sharing of books in public spaces and revealing the complex ideological investments made by readers, cultural workers, institutions, and the mass media in the meanings of reading.

Introduction. 1.Reading 2. Television  3. Radio  4. Money  5. Worker  6. Reader  7. Book

'This is more than just an excellent study of books and reading in the twenty first century. It's a superb piece of cultural sociology.'

--David Hesmondhalgh, University of Leeds

'In Beyond the Book, Fuller and Rehberg Sedo set out a carefully argued and highly readable account of Mass Reading Events (MREs) in Britain, Canada and the USA, supporting careful empirical research with sophisticated political and economic analysis of the reading industry. Their findings testify to the persistence of a book culture with long historical roots, despite radical upheavals in media structures and delivery platforms. Students and scholars of media and reading will especially appreciate the way the authors comprehensively pull together theoretical and empirical literature on current reading practices. This insightful and well-informed book is esselSl