The Love of Books: Attachment to a Changing Cultural Object

The Love of Books examines the affective bond between people and books in the UK. In the context of the unprecedented abundance of media offering information, storytelling and entertainment, it investigates the attachment to print and digital books amongst readers from a range of backgrounds who read for pleasure, wish to be surrounded by print copies of books, and have trouble discarding books. Unlike existing research, which focuses on prestige, social status, and cultural capital, this study centres on meaning, materiality and emotion. Drawing on interviews and archive material, it shows how attachment emerges from the practical fusion of three elements that have so far been examined separately: the material, surface properties of books, the act of reading, and books’ symbolic power.

María Angélica Thumala Olave is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Edinburgh