Books are not only here to read, they are also here to talk about them. They are part of our everyday life be it for pleasure, work, as an information resource or entertainment shaping our minds and ideals.
There is a steadily growing community of reading groups who are meeting face-to-face as a private group or on the internet in online forums as part of a social network to talk about books and their last reads. The institute of German literature and language studies at the university of Klagenfurt is researching these groups according to following questions: What are they reading – and why? How do they talk about literature and how do they valuate it? What are the functions of their discussions? How are they considering the “meaning” of books?
The goal of this two year lasting project (funded by the FWF) is to research organization and communication forms in reading groups, motives and interests of the participants as well as their aesthetics and social motivations for reviewing books.
