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- Title
Faraway, So Close: Seeing the Intimacy in Goodreads Reviews.
- Authors
Driscoll, Beth; Rehberg Sedo, DeNel
- Abstract
Book reviews written by readers and published on digital sites such as Goodreads are a new force in contemporary book culture. This article uses feminist standpoint theory to investigate the language used in Goodreads reviews to better understand how these reviewers articulate intimate reading experiences. A total of 692 reviews of seven bestselling fiction and nonfiction books are analyzed by two methods. The first, thematic content analysis, involves close reading of the reviews. The second, sentiment analysis, is an automated "distant reading" process. These methods prompt us, as researchers, to reflect on the way they foster or inhibit a sense of proximity to readers, even as they reveal predominant features of Goodreads reviews. Together, the methods reveal that 86.1% of Goodreads reviews describe a reading experience, and 68% specifically mention an emotional reaction to the book, with the emotion most intense in reviews of fiction. Reviews also create social connections by mentioning other readers, authors, characters, and people from the reviewer's life. Through their emotional language and sociality, Goodreads reviews present distinctive, intimate reading practices, constituting a new cultural phenomenon, and a unique opportunity for investigation.
- Subjects
INTIMACY (Psychology); GOODREADS (Web resource); BOOK review websites; EMOTIONS; FEMINISM; CONTENT analysis
- Publication
Qualitative Inquiry, 2019, Vol 25, Issue 3, p248
- ISSN
1077-8004
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1177/1077800418801375