The Locations and Means of Literary Reading

Abstract

The means and locations of reading are becoming increasingly significant. This is not only reflected in the academic world but also in the press. This chapter addresses the question of whether the locations and means of reading have changed in the past ten years since the advent of the e-reader. Have the places and manner of reading become more flexible? Has reading “on the go” replaced traditional locations of literary reading? Is more literature being read on mobile devices or is reading on paper still preferred over digital means—or are current readers hybrid readers? These are the questions that underpin this chapter. A connected series of experiments was conducted that seeks to explore the question of locations and means of contemporary acts of reading. It is hoped that the results that emerge may point the way to more qualitative and quantitative studies on this increasingly significant topic.

Reading and company: embodiment and social space in silent reading practices

“…Although reading on laptops was frequently mentioned (see also Burke and Bon, 2017), a clear preference for print over digital format for study purposes was expressed in all six focus groups in our study. Participants' motivations ranged from convenience such as variable in-text annotation and marking ("I print everything; I need to have it physically.…”

Virtual reality as a tool for promoting reading via enhanced narrative absorption and empathy

“…With respect to narrative, few studies center on how the reading environment affects the aesthetic experience of reading (exceptions are Allington, 2011;Burke, 2011;Burke & Bon, 2018;Fialho et al, 2011), let alone narrative absorption. Marie-Laure Ryan (2015) suggested that in location-based narratives (i.e., stories whose progression is bound to the reader's physical movements in a specific place), the presence of the referent could intensify the audience's experience, since emotional and spatial immersion are combined.…”

“…A more articulated theoretical proposal has been advanced by Kuzmičová (2016), who maintains that the reading environment can be a distractor, a prop for imagery, and a VIRTUAL REALITY AS A TOOL FOR PROMOTING READING 6 locus of pleasure, possibly affecting narrative absorption. Although auditory perception may be a more effective form of environmental propping, due to the attention to the text required for reading, vision is also an important factor since readers often purposefully choose the environment in which to read (Burke & Bon, 2018). Sometimes readers also pause briefly when reading and their gaze roams around the place.…”

m-Reading: Fiction reading from mobile phones

“…While book openings may tend to require more extended and deeply focused immersion, in the immediate sense, for readers to become sufficiently interested in a particular story or attuned to an author's style (Burke, 2011;Burke and Bon, 2018), later returns need not be as demanding. That is, typical m-reading scenarios such as the daily commute may primarily be suited for situations where the reader's initial levels of interest have already been set.…”

“…The typical m-reading demographics seems to be the heavily multitasking urban professional and/or parent (Nielsen, 2015a(Nielsen, , 2015b, for whom the mobile phone is invaluable in affording brief pockets of leisure in between more mundane tasks, for example, while shopping or on public transport. In preliminary exploratory studies, some m-readers report these opportunistic reading sessions to be no less immersive or engaging than more traditional ways of fiction reading (Burke and Bon, 2018;Hupfeld et al, 2013;Kuzmičová et al, 2018).…”