Reading, even when silent and individual, is a social phenomenon and has often been studied as such. Complementary to this view, research has begun to explore how reading is embodied beyond simply being 'wired' in the brain. This article brings the social and embodied perspectives together in a very literal sense. Reporting a qualitative study of reading practices across student focus groups from six European countries, it identifies an underexplored factor in reading behaviour and experience. This factor is the sheer physical presence, and concurrent activity, of other people in the environment where one engages in individual silent reading. The primary goal of the study was to explore the role and possible associations of a number of variables (text type, purpose, device) in selecting generic (e.g. indoors vs outdoors) as well as specific (e.g. home vs library) reading environments. Across all six samples included in the study, participants spontaneously attested to varied, and partly surprising, forms of sensitivity to company and social space in their daily efforts to align body with mind for reading. The article reports these emergent trends and discusses their potential implications for research and practice.

This paper presents an in-depth study and a discussion of Goodreads users’ reactions to the acquisition of the popular social network site for readers by Amazon in 2013. The purpose is to provide an empirical and critical examination of the negotiations over agency and ownership evident in the discussions ensuing the acquisition. The boundaries and norms of Goodreads are negotiated by its users, and the threats to withdraw their active contributions in the wake of the Amazon acquisition are seen as a way to negotiate a definition of what the site should be. Goodreads is shown to be an example of the way online social spaces become contested because of different interpretations of their purpose and functions, and it is argued that its success is ultimately dependent on users’ self-understanding as a community.

In July 2010, Activision Blizzard announced that the Real ID system was going to be implemented on the official World of Warcraft forums, meaning that players would be required to identify themselves with their real names to be able to post on the forums. The plans were withdrawn only a few days later because of the overwhelming negative response from players. This article analyzes examples of players' responses on the forums and, having identified central themes concerning identity and sociality in this online setting, explores possible reasons why anonymity is so important to the player community.

/ In this article, I introduce a theoretical framework, based on the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, for grasping how and why members of online communities construct narratives in their communications with one another. This is exemplified through a study of how players from one particular game, World of Warcraft, make sense of their gaming experience, and how they build and uphold a community identity by telling stories online. I argue that in studying and conceptualizing these types of texts through the proposed theoretical framework, we can gain insights into the process of the formation of meaning and the building of identity and community in an online setting.

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