What Readers Do

Beth Driscoll brings nearly two decades of qualitative research to bear on how people actually read — book clubs, prize culture, retail, digital platforms — making this one of the more ambitious academic studies of reading life in recent years. Reviewers in literary sociology circles praised the theoretical synthesis but noted the case studies don't always match the ambition of the framework. This is a book for graduate students and researchers in literary or cultural studies; general readers will find it a tough climb.