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Space, Place, and Bestsellers

Moving Books

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2024

Lisa Fletcher
Affiliation:
University of Tasmania
Elizabeth Leane
Affiliation:
University of Tasmania

Summary

From airport bookstores to deckchairs, as audiobooks downloaded by commuters, and on Kindles and other portable devices, twenty-first century bestsellers move in old and new ways. This Element examines the locations and mobilities of the contemporary bestseller as a multi-format commercial object. It employs paratextual, textual, and site-based analysis of the spatiality of bestsellers and considers the centrality of geography to the commercial promise of these books. Space, Place, and Bestsellers provides analysis of the spatial logic of bestseller lists, evidence-rich accounts of the physical and digital retail sites through which bestsellers flow, and new interpretations of how affixing the label 'bestseller' individual authors and titles generates industrial, social, and textual effects. Through its multi-layered analysis, this Element offers a new model for studying the spatiality of popular fiction.
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Online ISBN: 9781108769167
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 13 June 2024

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