Reading time: exploring the temporal experiences of reading

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore various concepts of time and temporal dimensions in the context of everyday reading experiences.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses theoretical bricolage that puts existing reading research into conversation with theories of time and temporalities.FindingsThree registers of time in reading are put forward: (1) libraries and books as places that readers return to again and again over time, (2) temporalized reading bodies and (3) everyday reading as a temporalized practice.Research limitations/implicationsUsing lenses of time and temporalities, everyday reading is shown to be central to ways of being in time. Subjectives experiences of time in the context of reading expand the limited ways that time is presented in much Library and Information Science (LIS) reading research.Originality/valueThis paper offers a new conceptual framework for studies of reading and readers in LIS.