This article examines competing models of reading that have been available for librarians to use in their discourse and policy making about pleasure reading. Two models, “Reading with a Purpose” and “Only the Best,” developed within public librarianship, while the others developed variously in education, psychology, mass media studies, and sociology. These models have differing stories to tell about the power of the text, the role of the reader, and the effect on the reader of what is read. [...] The article uses two types of readers as test cases whose reading tastes have historically been denigrated: the series book reader and the romance reader.
From the abstract: