It’s hard to find time for undistracted reading, and it’s easy to blame modern developments like digital technology. But Christina Lupton says that people have been feeling this way for more than 200 years. For centuries, people have been struggling to balance a desire for undistracted reading with their professional and family duties. By studying past struggles to make time for reading, we can pick up strategies to apply in our own lives – and understand why finding time for reading is not just a personal but a political issue.
Month: April 2019
There’s a negative stereotype of teenage readers as naively absorbed in their favourite books – think of young readers obsessed with Harry Potter. But Juno Jill Richards believes that the best books and films aimed at teenagers actually create space to think for yourself. These works invite us to relate to them as fans, but in contrast to the stereotype of fans loving everything about their favourite fictional universe, Juno argues that fandom is about mixed feelings – loving some aspects of a work and rejecting others – and thus making it your own.