Bookshelves in the Age of the COVID-19 Pandemic provides the first detailed scholarly investigation of the cultural phenomenon of bookshelves (and the social practices around them) since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

Foreword, Lydia Pyne.- Introduction, Corinna Norrick-Rühl and Shafquat Towheed.- Section 1: Private and public reading spaces.- Chapter 1: ‘An examination of Bookshelves in the Age of the COVID-19 Pandemic as a liminal space’, Shafquat Towheed (The Open University, UK).- Chapter 2: ‘Crisis Book Browsing: Restructuring the Retail Shelf Life of Books’, Kenna MacTavish (University of Melbourne, Australia).- Chapter 3: ‘Your Bookshelf is Problematic’: Progressive and Problematic Publishing in the Age of COVID-19' Chiara Bullen (University of Stirling, Scotland).- Chapter 4: ‘Old Books on New Media: Reader Responses to The Thorn Birds and Late Night with Seth Meyers’ Jennifer Burek Pierce (Universit of Iowa, USA).- Section 2: Material culture on screen.- Chapter 5: ‘Zoom as a Digital Medium: Bookshelves in Backgrounds throughout History’ Paizha Stoothoff (California State University, Los Angeles, USA).- Chapter 6: ‘You Can Look but You Can’t Touch: Representations of the Materiality of the Printed Book on Screen’, Amanda Lastoria (Simon Fraser University, Canada).- Chapter 7: ‘Bookish Objects on the Bookshelf’, Emily Baulch (University of Queensland, Australia).- Chapter 8: ‘Writing with Spines: Bookshelf Art, Found Poetry, and the Practice of Assemblage’ Claire Battershill (University of Toronto, Canada).- Section 3: Libraries, pedadogy and reading during the pandemic.-Chapter 9: ‘Books, reading and #parentinginapandemic’ Corinna Norrick-Rühl (University of Münster, Germany).- Chapter 10:  ‘A Bookshelf of the World. Bringing Students’ Books inside the Classroom: a Means for Epistemic Democracy?’, Nelleke Moser (Vrije Universiteit, Netherlands).- Chapter 11:  ‘Online Learning, Library Access and Bookcase Insecurity: A German Case Study’ Chandni Ananth, Ellen Barth, Laura Ntoumanis and Natalia Tolpstopyat (University of Münster, Germany).- Chapter 12: ‘ “Ummmmm, guys? Don't microwave your books”: Readers, Authors, and Institutions in #PandemicReading Tweets’ Leah Henrickson (University of Leeds, UK).

Bookshelves in the Age of the COVID-19 Pandemic provides the first detailed scholarly investigation of the cultural phenomenon of bookshelves (and the social practices around them) since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. With a foreword by Lydia Pyne, author of Bookshelf (2016), the volume brings together 17 scholars from 6 countries (Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and the USA) with expertise in literary studies, book history, publishing, visual arts, and pedagogy to critically examine the role of bookshelves during the current pandemic. This volume interrogates the complex relationship between the physical book and its digital manifestation via online platforms, a relationship brought to widespread public and scholarly attention by the global shift to working from home and the rise of online pedagogy. It also goes beyond the (digital) bookshelf to consider bookselling, book accessibility, and pandemic reading habits. Corinna Norrick-Rühl is Professor of Book Studies at the University of Muenster (WWU), Germany. Her recent publications are The Novel as Network: Forms, Ideas, Commodities (2020, co-edited with Tim Lanzendörfer, in this series) and Book Clubs and Book Commerce (2019). Shafquat Towheed is Senior Lecturer in English in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) at The Open University, UK. He directs The Open University’s History of Books and Reading (HOBAR) research collaboration and was UK principal investigator for the Reading Europe Advanced Data Investigation Tool (READ-IT) project (2018–2021). 

“This timely collection turns our attention to something we feel in our bones to be important but have not critically considered: the role of bookshelves in our contemporary, Covid-inflected lives. Approaching this topic from multiple angles and methods—data on book sales, the blurring of private and public spheres, screen aesthetics for viewing zoom backgrounds, analysis of Twitter handles and hashtags, and more—this book provides a snapshot and critical examination of our unique cultural moment, even as we continue (sigh!) to live through it.” (Jessica Pressman, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, San Diego State University, USA. Author of Bookishness: Loving Books in a Digital Age (2020))  “The Covid pandemic has changed book culture in profound ways. This rich, interdisciplinary edited collection covers the social, cultural, political and digital lives of our bookshelves during Covid times. Extremely readable chapters will make it valuable for researchers of book culture, and general readers interested in the capacity of books for personal and social transformation during time of crisis.” (Anamik Saha, Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK) “This delightful collection of essays is not quite about physical bookshelves themselves, but the people who displayed and/or admired books on bookshelves through digital means during the pandemic. It highlights innovations, inequalities, and ironies observed by their authors using non-traditional methods during an extraordinary period when bookshelves were ‘constructed’ or ‘read’ as a reflection of their owners’ personalities.” (Vernon R. Totanes, Director, Rizal Library, Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines) “Bookshelves in the Age of the COVID-19 Pandemic collects responsive and continuing research at an historical moment. With ‘bookshelves’ as its focal point, we learn about lived experiences during the ongoing pandemic from a variety of academic—but widely accessible—viewpoints. Through online ethnographies to surveys, and various other methods, the contributors use bookshelves to examine how authors, publishers, libraries, booksellers and readers interact and influence one another in private spaces that have become public. The many established and emerging scholars in this timely collection attend to individual, institutional and cultural issues during a period of profound upheaval. The array of essays delve into what our bookshelves tell us about ourselves, each other, contemporary print and digital culture, and some everyday ordinary lives lived at an extraordinary time.” (DeNel Rehberg Sedo, Professor of Communication Studies, Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada)

Brings together perspectives from literary studies, book history, and publishing Investigates the complex relationship between the material book and its digital manifestation Deals with the cultural phenomenon of visible bookshelves brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic

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