Promoting reading 1
this context. There are plenty of books available
that provide practical advice on how to start and hold book circles, and Lundin gives many examples. The following presents a small selection of research on reading groups in Sweden and abroad. It is the reading promotion potential of the book circle which is the focus of this survey and not the book circle phenomenon in itself. Pamela Schultz Nybacka (2011) considers that research about book circles mainly revolves around the three questions: the circle’s scope, organisation and group identity. Research about book circles mainly concerns English-speaking countries and as yet research in Sweden is limited. An influential study about home and library based reading groups and somewhat of a pioneering work is Jenny Hartley’s The Reading Groups Book (2002). The study, which included around 350 reading groups, describes the emergence of literature circles and how they are organised. According to Hartley, book circle participants are decidedly independent, want to decide for themselves what to read, and dislike marketing. In Sweden, Petra Söderlund studied the preferences of recreational readers, their reading habits and their ways of reading, evaluating and talking about literature, and compared the interaction in a reading group with Internet-based discussions. The results of her study were presented in her doctoral thesis Läsarnas nätverk. Om bokläsare och Internet (Readers’ network. About book readers and the Internet) (2004). In her doctoral thesis Bookonomy: The Consumption Practice and Value of Book Reading (2011), Pamela Schultz Nybacka investigated all male, all female and mixed book circles. The name of an ongoing project being led by researcher Kerstin Rydbeck is “Läsarnas cirklar. En litteratursociologisk undersökning om socialt läsande och läsargemenskaper i dagens Sverige” (Readers’ circles. A sociological study of social reading and reading communities in contemporary Sweden). This project is studying traditional book circles where people meet in real life (IRL). Entirely digital book circles are not being studied. However, Rybeck notes that social media such as Facebook and the like have blurred the boundaries between digital and traditional book circles. The project description makes a distinction between independent book circles and organised book circles. While independent book circles operate without any links to organisations or external support, organised book circles are tied to a public library, an adult education association, a bookstore or some other type of organisation. The project is studying both these types of book circles and its methodology is divided into quantitative and qualitative parts. Some academic journal articles related to the project have been published, including an article on Swedish book circle activities with a particular focus on public libraries and book circles organised by adult education associations. In this article, Rydbeck (2013) expresses the opinion that the discourse on reading habits and reading promotion efforts has had a primary focus on what people read, how much time they spend reading, and how they get access to books. However, the reading situation is rarely observed or problematised. Rydbeck sees book circles as a form of reader community, understood as “a locally organised, defined group of readers who gather for regular meetings to discuss literature and reading experiences”. The article looks at the quantitative development and distribution by gender and age of book circles. Both in Sweden and abroad, book circles in their traditional form of meetings IRL 70