Karl Berglund. Reading Audio Readers: Book Consumption in the Streaming Age. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2024. 208 pp.

Although the audiobook is a medium for text reception that has existed for more than a century, and despite its significantly increased market share in recent times, there is still a notable gap in comprehensive, large-scale research on the subject. With exceptions such as the extensive works by Matthew Rubery (2011, 2016) and Iben Have and Birgitte Stougaard Pedersen (2016), the popularity of the audiobook as a medium for book consumption is scarcely reflected in the current research landscape. Thus, Karl Berglund’s book not only fills a thematic gap in media-oriented literary studies and reading research but also introduces a methodological approach and a dataset that can, without exaggeration, be considered unique to date.

This is because Berglund has succeeded in achieving what many reading researchers aspire to: gaining access to a massive dataset of reading behaviors that almost always remain a company secret. The empirical foundation of Berglund’s book is based on reader consumption data from Storytel, the leading book streaming service in the Nordic countries and a prominent global platform, ranking just behind Amazon’s Audible as one of the largest competitors in the market. These exceptional datasets cover nearly 75 million logged book streaming sessions, distributed across approximately 430,000 individual users, with a focus on a selection of 481 novels that attempt to cover the commercial top segment for fiction in its entirety and in all important formats in Sweden for the period 2015–2020, and for print bestsellers from 2004–2014. With a critical perspective on the dataset and computational methods in general – acknowledging that “metrics of consumption fail to capture the complete reading process” (p. 8), yet maintaining that they remain a valuable approach for studying reading on digital platforms – Berglund employs large-scale data on actual uses of literature, positioning himself within the tradition of Janice Radway, Leah Price, and Rita Felski. Organized into six chapters, with the first three adopting a publishing studies perspective and the final three focusing more on reading studies, this book demonstrates how the data-driven age of streamed audio influences not only reading and publishing but also the broader literary culture.

The first chapter serves as a theoretical framework and attempts to model the functioning of subscription-based book streaming services. Although the accompanying diagram may be somewhat difficult to interpret, the text effectively illustrates how the publishing circuit for book streaming operates, identifying the key actors and entities involved, who benefits from whom, and the exchange of resources between them. The second chapter breaks new methodological ground by analyzing the large dataset to determine which types of literature are most read on book streaming platforms and whether differences can be identified at the genre level between streamed audiobooks and printed books. In contrast to mere sales figures, Berglund is able to use reader consumption data to determine which books have been read, for how long, and whether they have been completed. Using the concepts of the beststreamer and completion rate, he makes an extremely interesting literary comparison of the print books and audiobooks that are actually most read, revealing not only different titles but also differences in narrative technique and style. This analysis shows that bestsellers in print are a mix of high- and lowbrow literature, while digital bestsellers are mainly composed of Swedish popular genre fiction, especially crime fiction. Furthermore, print bestsellers are longer and more syntactically complex, whereas beststreaming audiobooks are shorter and focus more on plot and dialogue. Noteworthy in these discussions are not only the graphical representations and various calculations but also the ongoing reflections on the impact on book culture and how this data can be interpreted. The analysis suggests that “the inherent value in buying, owning, and giving away print books of prestige fiction simply disappears in book streaming services, where reading rather than sales is measured” (p. 67).

The book continues in a similar tone, consistently incorporating the implications for the entire field of book production and distribution into its diverse analyses of the vast data material. From this perspective, it elaborately demonstrates how the relationship between frontlist and backlist titles on book streaming platforms is shifting, making the backlist increasingly important for publishers (Chapter 3), and explores the role of the performing narrator for audiobook listeners. At times, the promised focus on reading studies and the exploration of literature’s reception seems somewhat underemphasized. However, it is precisely at these points that Berglund clarifies his specific interest in how people interact with the medium, while consistently recognizing the limitations of his methodological approach: “I argue for an awareness in audiobook research of the differences between aesthetics/perceptions of audiobooks, on the one hand, and audiobook use/reading practices, on the other” (p. 116). This self-critical stance and methodological precision are particularly evident in the final two chapters, which examine the temporal phases of audiobook listening (Chapter 5) and listening habits, specifically in relation to the balance between listening time and the quantity of books consumed (Chapter 6). These two chapters are also methodologically the most noteworthy, as they meticulously determine and execute the approach to the data material while consistently introducing new research questions and more detailed analyses to deepen the investigation. The methodology is justified with precision and clarity, and the limitations of the findings are contextually addressed. Although, for example, Elisa Tattersall Wallin has already examined ‘audiobook routines’ (2022) and the ‘timespaces’ of audiobook listening (2020), it is with the data from Storytel that it becomes possible to actually map reliable temporal reading patterns. Moreover, this research question clearly demonstrates that Berglund adopts a critical approach to the data. While the initial finding suggests that, compared to eBook reading during traditional leisure time, audiobook listening occurs at any time, it is only through detailed analysis that it becomes apparent this does not apply to individual users. When individual users are considered, they exhibit more elaborate temporal reading practices, preferring to listen to audiobooks either at night, during the day, or in the evening. The fact that audiobooks are read at all times of the day “is true at an aggregate level, but not for all readers at an individual level” (p. 130). As a result, not only are the usage patterns of the groups classified as night readers, day readers, and evening readers more precisely typologized, but different temporal reading patterns are also examined across weekly and yearly cycles. Interestingly, compared to printed books, which experience peak sales around Christmas and in February, these two months show the lowest rates of audiobook streaming throughout the entire year. Since streaming audiobooks do not serve as gifts, and Berglund’s analyses show that the lowest streaming activity occurs when most people tend to spend time with their family and friends, it becomes clear that “streaming patterns are more sensitive to publication dates than other forms of book sales, and they are less sensitive to other aspects of the book trade cycle” (p. 143).

The book’s coherence, rather than being a mere compilation of individual studies, is evident in its structured approach, where each chapter consistently builds upon the preceding ones. This is particularly apparent in the final chapter, where the identified temporal reading patterns are integrated with considerations of book quantity and selection. The analysis not only compares the three groups – repeaters, swappers, and constant readers – but also emphasizes the implications of determining aggregates or means and the potential pitfalls in interpreting these metrics. Berglund subsequently narrows the focus to analyze specific individual listening practices through several case studies. These examinations of varied listening behaviors, such as individuals who repeatedly listen to the same audiobook or those who start numerous books but seldom finish them, are especially pertinent. They underscore Berglund’s final discussion on the significant economic consequences and impacts of book consumption in the streaming age: Nobody would buy twenty copies of a book, but with book streaming this happens at any time, because “when people are streaming books on these platforms, they are simultaneously consuming them (in the sense of ‘buying’ them), minute by minute” (p. 145).

Although the question of whether listening to audiobooks can be considered ‘reading’ is addressed only briefly, Berglund’s Reading Audio Readers lives up to its title, offering exceptional insight into Book consumption in the streaming age. Far from a culturally pessimistic devaluation or a technophile euphoria of a new medium for literature, the book succeeds in determining the impact of the audiobook boom on current reading and book culture with great empirical accuracy and theoretical reflection. It can confidently be described as pioneering work in audiobook research, and it is to be hoped that further analyses and studies will follow on the basis of this extraordinary data material. Not only because of the empirical richness of the dataset but also due to Berglund’s exemplary demonstration of a rigorous and critically scientific approach to handling reading consumption data and analyzing digital reading practices.