Description
Book SynopsisCommitted utilitarian reading is either dominantly practical or more or less equally practical and fulfilling. Pleasurable reading is conceptualized as an important kind of casual leisure, experienced primarily as relaxation, active entertainment, and sexual stimulation (racy, pornographic stories). Such reading can also be a launching pad for day-dreams or lively conversation. Self-fulfilling reading is explored in a disquisition on the liberal arts hobbies. This is no place for speed reading, but instead is where we care to pause often to appreciate the artistry of the writing, creativity of the plot, profundity of the message (i.e., the information it contains), and the like. And in fulfilling reading we sometimes want to analyze the material. This book explores three main motives for reading identified as utilitarian, pleasurable, and fulfilling. Its principal object is to deepen our understanding of why some adults (and eager late adolescent readers) go in for committed reading, o
Trade ReviewThis book is of interest to those wanting a philosophical approach to the act of reading, but there is little practical information for the layperson, librarian, or information professional seeking inspiration and ideas for encouraging reading by others. * American Reference Books Annual *
The Committed Reader adopts a positive sociological approach to reading and proposes a complex typology of reading as an activity that can be utilitarian, pleasurable or fulfilling. Readers familiar with Robert Stebbins’s work will not be surprised to find the book is theoretically grounded in the serious leisure perspective and seeks to develop a framework within which committed reading canm be explained through constructs of serious leisure. . . . The author’s positive sociological approach is reflected in its intended contribution to library and information science as a way of quantifying ‘information’s place in leisure’, that is, reading undertaken in pursuit of life-enhancing leisure activity. ... To members of the leisure studies community, The Committed Reader offers a positive sociological framework for investigations of reading for leisure. This framework is complex, broad and amorphous. * Annals of Leisure Research *
For librarians it helps with understanding information behaviour. * The Australian Library Journal *
Stebbins has produced a scholarly work which is well defined. * Australian Academic & Research Libraries *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1 Modern Reading Chapter 2 Leisure and Information in the Study of Reading Chapter 3 Utilitarian Reading Chapter 4 Reading for Pleasure Chapter 5 Self-fulfilling Reading: The Liberal Arts Hobbies Chapter 6 Reading in Everyday Life Chapter 7 Conclusions: Reading and Society References Index Biographical Note
