Reading and Time

This chapter examines how participants reported that the lockdown period had affected the amount that they read. We begin by providing an overview of the likely effect of lockdown on participants’ time, for example, in the reduction of commuting and the increase in home working and home-schooling children, both of which may have impacted on time that was previously used for reading or may have, conversely, provided opportunities for reading that did not previously exist. We then turn to our data to focus on two key findings. First, we examine how participants reported the effect of gaining or losing time on the amount they read (more or less than pre-pandemic). Second, we look at how our participants perceived their use of time and their use of particular metaphors to frame their understanding of time related to the quality and quantity of their reading. Here we examine how reading itself is often personified and presented as an agentive figure acting on the reader through time.