Reading the Kindle’s

(Non-)Readers

Real, ideal or implied…? The Reader

in Stylistics

Simon RowberryUniversity of Winchester

@sprowberry #reader14s.rowberry.13@unimail.winchester.ac.uk

Platform Studies

RECEPTION/OPERATION

INTERFACE

FORM/FUNCTION

CODE

PLATFORMCU

LTU

RE A

ND

CO

NTEX

T

DEDICATED DEVICE

MOBILE DEVICE

PERSONAL COMPUTER

DEDICATED SOFTWARE

WEB APPLICATION

PDFMOBI

POCKETAZW TXT KF8

FORMAT

SOFTWARE

HARDWARE

HARDWARE

Readers Who Read

• “Reread Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book On by George R.R. Martin and gave it 5 stars [link]

• “…alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition…”– “nice use of freetime”

Methodological Problems

• Users can be as young as 8 – ethical issues

• Amazon make it very difficult to extract data

• What’s available changes with each visit

• The following is a sample• Anonymised readers

“Haha… and yeah fb isnt rlly that popular anymore”

“Hi I'm just using my dad acount”

“I HAVE MY KINDLE BACK”

“I know that [user] broke his kindle”

“Is... is anyone on?”

“Oh yeah, been around for almost 2 years now, nobody really cares I’m here, so yeah”“How long has it been since ive been on here? Like, 6 months or something?”“i gtg finish once upon a time.”“I might be on tonite c ya till then@everyone”“Nobody's ever here. And thats the way it should stay. Get. A. Life.”

[response] “by the end of summer yall will be so bored and this place will ebe an insane asylum”

“Im 13 and im nit really supposed to be watching youtybe either, but i am, cuz my web's nit blocked.”“Are u a girl @rika”“Jake u do know tht I'm. 17 right @jake”“OH SHAUNA I REMEMBER LAST YEAR WHEN WE WERE ON THE EDGE OF OUR SEATS LIKE "AHO THE HELL IS A?!?!!!!?!?!!!!!!”” [watching TV show]

“The streets find their own use for things.”

William Gibson, “Burning Chrome”

Reading the Kindle’s

(Non-)Readers

Real, ideal or implied…? The Reader

in Stylistics

Simon RowberryUniversity of Winchester

@sprowberrys.rowberry.13@unimail.winchester.ac.uk