Shining the spotlight on everyday readers of the 21st century, Beth Driscoll explores how contemporary readers of Anglophone fiction interact with consumer publishing and the book industry. The product of 16 years of qualitative research into readers and reading culture, this book examines reading through three dimensions - aesthetic conduct, moral conduct, and self-care – to probe at 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 sociology, book history, literary studies and actor-network theory. Also working to advance earlier studies that focused on readers’ face-to-face practices, What Readers Do digs into book clubs, reader involvement with broadcast media, such as via Oprah’s Book Club, and posting pictures of books on social media.

The Frankfurt Book Fair is the leading global industry venue for rights sales, facilitating business-to-buzzness deals and international networks. In this Element, we pursue an Ullapoolist approach to excavate beneath the production of bestsellers at the Fair. Our investigation involved three consecutive years of fieldwork (2017-2019) including interviews and autoethnographic, arts-informed interventions. The Element argues that buzz at the Fair exists in two states: as market-ready media reports and partial, lived experiences linked to mood. The physical structures and absences of the Fair enact its power relations and direct the flow of books and buzz. Further, the Fair is not only a site for commercial exchange but a carnival of sorts, marked by disruptive historical events and problematic socio-political dynamics. Key themes emerging from the Element are the presence of excess, the pseudo(neo)liberal self-satisfaction of book culture, and the interplay of optimism and pessimism in contemporary publishing.

Shining the spotlight on everyday readers of the 21st century, Beth Driscoll explores how contemporary readers of Anglophone fiction interact with consumer publishing and the book industry. The product of 16 years of qualitative research into readers and reading culture, this book examines reading through three dimensions - aesthetic conduct, moral conduct, and self-care – to probe at 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 sociology, book history, literary studies and actor-network theory. Also working to advance earlier studies that focused on readers’ face-to-face practices, What Readers Do digs into book clubs, reader involvement with broadcast media, such as via Oprah’s Book Club, and posting pictures of books on social media.