Significance and change of reading experiences in “Life as a Reader” recollections

Authors

• Silja Juopperi Tampereen yliopisto

Abstract

Recently, reading as a leisure activity has prompted interest within different disciplines, and it has been as subject of significant discussion. In this article, I study the written recollections of reading experiences in the “Life as a Reader” collection. I am interested in why people read books in their leisure time and which factors make reading attractive. I explore different meanings within these reading experiences in the material and divide them by themes. The main themes are: passionate reading, reading in secret, reading for instruction, escapism, and reading for entertainment. These themes are connected by the “spell” of becoming absorbed, the aesthetic illusion, and the reader’s pursuit of a pleasant mood. According to the material, books are still important in terms of reading for experiences and reading for instruction, despite the growing amount of other media that have become popular.