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© 2021 V&R unipress, Brill Deutschland GmbH
ISBN Print: 9783847113232 – ISBN E-Lib: 9783737013239
respectedmyposition:“Let’s set theseaside, fornow,” shecalmlysuggested.So
wedid. For7years.
InJune2012, Ihadtheopportunitytotakepart in ‘DevLab’which, intermsof
its format,was a combinationof ahackdayanda speed-dating event.Cultural
workers fromartsorganisations inmyregionwhohaddataoradata challenge
were ‘matched’ throughaseriesofbriefmeetingswithdevelopers. Iwastheonly
academicresearcher therethatdayandIhadwithmeadatastickwithaCSVfile
of theresponses.Mydeclaredintentionwastobuildsometypeofdigitalappthat
couldbeusedinpublic librariesandthatmightespeciallyappeal toreaderswho
werescepticalaboutdigital culture. Iwantedto findawayofusing thedata that
wouldmake sense to readers and thus extend thenotionof reading as a social
practice by sharing the commentaries about readers’ experienceswith a virtual
communityofmore readers.Thedeveloperwho tookup thechallengewasTim
Hodson.
Timsawveryquickly, asheputs it,
that therewasa setofdata that justneeded tobe shownoff andexplored, rather than
being“locked” intheoutputofaresearchprojectthatwouldhavealimitedaudience.So
the obviousway to explore thiswas tomake the answers visible on awebsite so that
people could thenseeandsearch theanswers forkeywords.18
That day hemade a word cloud so that the keywords were highlighted (and
ultimately clickable). However, what Tim understood immediately when he
began to read the responses was their emotional resonance. Readers were not
telling storiesaboutparticularbooks thathadchanged their livesorabout their
favouriteauthors.Thereadinglifestoriesthatwerearticulatedwerepromptedby
the terms of the question “what role has reading played in your life?”The ex-
periences that were being articulated varied from the banal to the dramatic in
tone and sometimes incorporated both.One brief examplewill have to suffice
here. The following reader constructs an evocative picture of their reading life,
clearly indicatinghow theacts of reading can servedifferentpurposes (suchas
education and entertainment); different needs (the desire to escape into an
imagined world but also the means of making new friends through sharing
reading), anddifferentmoods (sadness, joy andexcitement)ondifferent occa-
sionsandatdifferent life stages:
[Reading]hasbroadenedmyviewof theworld,encouragedmetotravel,beenafriend
when I have been low,mademe laugh, cry and sometimes excitedme. I havemade
friends throughplay readingsandescaped toa friendlierworldwhen the real onehas
becomeslightly crazy. Soby reading Ihavemade friends, travelledmore than Iwould
18 Hodson2014,n.p.
DanielleFuller224
Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY 4.0
Über Bücher reden
Literaturrezeption in Lesegemeinschaften
- Title
- Über Bücher reden
- Subtitle
- Literaturrezeption in Lesegemeinschaften
- Author
- Doris Moser
- Editor
- Claudia Dürr
- Publisher
- V&R unipress
- Date
- 2021
- Language
- German
- License
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-7370-1323-9
- Size
- 15.5 x 23.2 cm
- Pages
- 262
- Category
- Lehrbücher