Doing audiobook research: Local voices, national markets, global contexts

The rhythms of reading literature via streaming platforms, like music streaming, are systemically structured by the technological configurations of the platforms we use for the activity; however, individually designed by each reader for her specific plans and/or moods.
"Curating reading of literature in a digital age" discusses how reading practices, reading habits, and reading situations are reshaped in a digitized everyday life, reflecting how social and cultural competencies are developed when curating literary titles for specific moods or reading situations. The paper will specifically investigate how streaming platforms for reading e- or audiobooks create possibilities for curating choices for reading in the direction of situationally considering which specific activities during an everyday call for specific kinds of literary experiences or moods.
This activity can be framed as an individualized type of curating, and the paper will use curating as methodology (Pehrson, 2021) to discuss how everyday curatorial habits are developed and take place in the individualized media economy that streaming services provide.
The paper will, through specific examples, discuss how this curatorial aspect possibly changes the role of literature reading in everyday practices. This curating happens in a dialogue between reading literature as an affective mood- or atmosphere related activity and the situatedness of reading in an everyday planning of schedules. Thus, the paper compares literature consumption to music consumption, where playlists are designed in continuation of their ability to create certain moods (Krogh, 2022, Nowak, 2016).
The affective role of music in research is often presented critically regarding how music has been used to create specific emotional responses, e.g. in strategic communication and consumer contexts, e.g. via the concept of muzak. This paper both compares the activity of music listening to literature reading, pointing to the potentials of both well-being in audiobook reading (Wallin, 2021) and to new types of everyday uses of literature (Felski, 2008).