Reveals the experience of reading in many cultures and across the ages Covers reading practices around the world from 19th-century Africa to the reading of music in the 20th-century USEmploys a wide range of methodologies Showcases new research including reading at night; readers as writers and critics; and 21st-century neuroscienceChallenges previous models with new data on travelling readers, images of readers, and digital reading and fan cultures

Modern Readers explores the myriad places and spaces in which reading has typically taken place since the eighteenth century, from the bedrooms of the English upper classes, through large parts of nineteenth-century Africa and on-board ships and trains travelling the world, to twenty-first-century reading groups. It encompasses a range of genres from to science fiction, music and self-help to Government propaganda.