Reading Novels During the Covid-19 Pandemic

This book explores the reading habits of people during the Covid-19 pandemic, using an ethnographic study in Denmark and the UK. It highlights the movement of readers between new purchases and books long kept in their collections, and the diverse quality of the Covid-19 bookshelf. It investigates how the consumption of novels depends on and shapes people's experience of non-work time, and negotiates debates in the study of reading that distinguish between critical reading and reading for pleasure.

Format: Hardback
Length: 224 pages
Publication date: 17 November 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Drawing on an ethnographic study of novel readers in Denmark and the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic, this book offers a captivating glimpse into a remarkable moment in modern history. The ethnographic approach reveals aspects that historical accounts of books published during the pandemic will fail to capture, such as the movement of readers between new purchases and books that have long been cherished in their collections. The book follows individuals who have delved into novels that explore themes such as plague, apocalypse, and racial violence, as well as those who have developed a newfound appreciation for older novels and the re-reading of books they encountered earlier in their lives.

Alternating between chapters that analyze individual texts that gained popularity during the pandemic (such as Albert Camus' The Plague, Ali Smith's Summer, and Charlotte Brönte's Jane Eyre) and others that describe clusters of works, such as dystopian fiction and nature writing, this work showcases the diverse richness of the COVID-19 bookshelf. Time holds a central significance in this study, encompassing both the time of lockdown and the temporality of reading within this broader disrupted sense of time. By exploring these diverse experiences, the book investigates the intricate relationship between novel consumption and individuals' experiences of non-work time, providing a unique lens through which to examine the phenomenology of reading more broadly.

This timely work also engages with debates in the study of reading that differentiate between critical reading and reading for pleasure, between professional and lay reading. It is essential to consider all perspectives within the sociological and literary discourse to fully understand the insights readers offer about the meaning of novels in this complex historical moment.

Weight: 496g
Dimension: 163 x 241 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780192857682