The first computational study of reading to focus on audiobooks, this book uses a unique and substantial set of reader consumption data to show how audiobooks and digital streaming platforms affect our literary culture. Offering an academic perspective on the kind of user data hoard we associate with tech companies, it asks: when it comes to audiobooks, what do people really read, and how and when do they read it? Tracking hundreds of thousands of readers on the level per user and hour, Reading Audio Readers combines computational methods from cultural analytics with theoretical perspectives from book history, publishing studies, and media studies. In doing so, it provides new insights into reading practices in digital platforms, the effects of the audiobook boom, and the business-models for book publishing and distribution in the age of streamed audio. “The resulting empirical account of the country that streams the most audiobooks per capita is full of surprises that will make any book historian or media scholar rethink received wisdom generated in the absence of such hard data.” ― Public Books “This fascinating book collects Berglund's research on streamed audiobook “readership” patterns and influence ... Any library supporting undergraduate or graduate degrees in literature or communications will want to acquire this well-documented and excellently written book.” ― CHOICE “Berglund has managed to gain access to the kind of industry data other researchers only dream about. His study of audiobook listeners and subscription streaming in Sweden explodes some of our most deeply entrenched assumptions about how, when, and what people read.” ― James English, John Welsh Centennial Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania, USA “How can the users of Storytel transform our ideas about reading, books, and bookselling? Anyone who cares about what readers do, and how publishing is changing because of audiobooks should read this compelling and uniquely researched book.” ― Danielle Fuller, Professor in English and Film Studies, The University of Alberta, Canada “Karl Berglund's Reading Audio Readers is invaluable to the study of digital publishing, reading and audiobook consumption… The book is highly useful for researchers of publishing in the streaming age.” ― Publishing Research Quarterly “Berglund's book is rich in lucid analyses, perceptive observations, and well-reasoned arguments, all supported by computer-assisted methods and refined through qualitative contextualizations. Although the primary focus is on the strictly contemporary-or more precisely, the period from January 2014 to April 2021-the discussion and findings are consistently framed within a historical perspective. This contextualization is crucial, as the phenomenon in question appears to represent a significant shift in both reading practices and book sales.” ―Patrik Lundell, Professor in Media History, Örebro University. Translated from Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap Karl Berglund is Assistant Professor in Literature at Uppsala University, Sweden. Anthony Mandal is Lecturer in English Literature at Cardiff University. Jenny Kidd is a Reader at Cardiff University, UK, researching across the fields of digital media, culture and the creative industries. She has a particular interest in digital cultural heritage, transmedia, self-representation and immersive storytelling, and has published widely on these themes in, for example, Museums in the New Mediascape (Ashgate 2014) , Representation (Routledge 2015), and Critical Encounters with Immersive Storytelling (Routledge 2018). She has published in related journals including Information, Technology and People and Continuum, and on related themes in International Journal of Heritage Studies, The Journal of Curatorial Studies and Museum and Society. Jenny is Co-Director of the Digital Media and Society research group in the School of Journalism, Media and Culture, a committee member of the UK Digital Learning Network and in 2016 was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts. She has been an advisor for Welsh Government on digital culture in the curriculum (2018) and has worked closely with the creative sector since 2002 including with BBC Wales, Amguedfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, Tate, yello brick, the Tower of London and Imperial War Museums. Jenny has led collaborative immersive media projects including With New Eyes I See (2013) and Traces-Olion (2016).