Reading as social practice: the Beyond the Book research project

Beyond the Book (BTB) is a trans-Atlantic collaborative interdisciplinary research project that analyses mass reading events and the contemporary meanings of reading in the UK, the USA and Canada. This article gives an overview of the origins, aims, scope and methods of the project

Helen Porter's Everyday Survival Stories: A Literary Encounter with Feminist Standpoint Theory

This paper offers an analysis of Helen Porter's short story "Mainly Because of the Meat" (1991) as a demonstration of the critical reading strategies that standpoint theories can offer literary critics. Particular use is made of work by Bettina Aptheker and Dorothy E. Smith on women's resistance to the capitalist structures and gendered discourses that constrain them in their everyday lives.Cet artilcle fait une analyse de la Nouvelle d'Helen Porter intitulee "Mainly because ofthe Meat" (1991) (Surtout a cause de la viande) en tant qu'une demonstration des strategies de lecture critique que les theories de point de vue peuvent offrir aux critiques litdraires. L'utilisation particuliere du travail de Bettina Aptheker et de Dorothy E. Smith sur la resistance des femmes contre les structures capitalistes et les discours sur les sexes qui les limitent dans leur vie quotidienne

The Crest of the Wave: Reading the Success Story of Bestsellers

The success stories of Ann-Marie MacDonald's Fall on Your Knees (1996), Alistair MacLeod's No Great Mischief (1999), and Wayne Johnston's The Colony of Unrequited Dreams (1998) offer insight into why fiction about Atlantic Canada has become "hot" in the past decade. An examination of the production and reception of these novels, in the light of Pierre Bourdieu's conception of cultural and symbolic capital, reveals the cultural politics and political economy of publishing, the consecration of literary value, and the ideological function of representations of the Atlantic region

Validity and Reliability of Devices Measuring Countermovement Vertical Jump Performance

The counter-movement jump (CMJ) test is a standard measure of lower body power and can be related to other aspects of athletic performance. With many tools commercially available, it can be difficult for professionals to distinguish which device provides the most accurate results for the best cost. While these devices have been previously validated individually, no past studies have concurrently examined these specific tools. The purpose of this study was to determine the accuracy of four different CMJ measuring devices when compared to the gold standard of a force plate. Thirty-one physically active university students were recruited for this study. Upon completion of a short dynamic warm-up and instruction on proper jumping technique, each participant performed four maximal CMJs on the force plate. They then performed an additional four maximal CMJs in an area where four other instruments were used to measure CMJ simultaneously: accelerometer-based sensor, a contact mat, a photoelectrical cell system, and a mobile device video app. Analysis of the data was conducted, and results showed that while slightly overestimating measurements, the commercial devices that seem to agree the closest to the gold standard force plate were the contact mat and accelerometer-based sensor

Beyond the Book project: quantitative data and collateral documents for One Book, One Chicago

Quantitative data and collateral documents Chicago portion of the AHRC-funded project ‘Beyond the Book: Mass Reading Events and Contemporary Cultures of Reading in the UK, USA and Canada’, (2005-2008, grant number: 112166), a three-year interdisciplinary project. The study researched a selection of 21st-century reading events which employ mass media (TV and radio) and city-wide reading projects which employ the ‘One Book, One Community’ model. The primary aims of the transnational study were to investigate how mass reading events configure contemporary practices of reading and the cultural meanings of reading at local, national and international levels; to explain the uses and complexities of reading communities in different locations; to identify and analyse trans-national trends and differences in contemporary reading cultures and reading practices; and, to critique the popular function of literary fiction. The file contains the data collected from a series of an online survey of readers in Chicago. Convenience sampling was employed. The survey was advertised through adverts in newspapers, on-line advertisements; flyers and bookmarks distributed through public library systems and cultural centres; via email through the research team’s formal and informal social and professional networks. The data includes reading choice, habits and practices; participation in broadcast and community book programming; and, basic demographic information (anonymised). The statistical data is deposited in .sav .csv and .por formats. Collateral material includes: Codebook and the Survey. Content was created between ca. 2006-10-13 and 2008-08-25. Content was saved 2008-10-31. http://www.beyondthebookproject.org

Comparison of Three ADHD Screening Instruments in College Students of Varying Cognitive Ability

Three of the better known screeners for Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) symptomology were administered to 111 college students enrolled in a college Introductory Psychology class, on whom ACT scores and total course performance were also available. As a measure of cognitive ability, the Wonderlic Personnel Test (Wonderlic, Inc., 2000) was also administered. Futhermore, self-report data were available from participants who had been diagnosed with ADHD. The three screeners were the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) (Kessler et al., 2005), the Conners\u27 Adult ADHD Rating Scale--Self-Report:Long Version (CAARS) (Conners, Erhardt, & Sparrow, 1999), and the Brown ADD Scales (Brown, 1996). The results are discussed in terms of the scales\u27 reliability, as well as their relationship to academic aptitude, class performance, and their ability to identify self-reported ADHD diagnoses

“True Stories,” Real Lives: Canada Reads 2012 and the Effects of Reading Memoir in Public

For the 2012 instalment of the competitive reading radio show Canada Reads, the producers decided to feature what they called “True Stories,” with the winner declared as the nonfictional work all Canadians should read. This was the first year of Canada Reads to feature a theme, and the first to focus on nonfiction. However, the producers’ decision to switch from fiction genres to nonfiction genres had several unforeseen effects within the show and the public realm, including a controversy generated by panelist Ann France Goldwater when she called author Carmen Aguirre a terrorist and accused author Marina Nemat of falsifying details in her memoir Prisoner of Tehran. This essay proposes that the prominence of the memoir genre on Canada Reads 2012 created a series of effects on the show and in public which disrupted the usual “show business” of the program as public entertainment and economic catalyst, helping to create a controversy that spilled over into public discourse. The effects of reading memoir were very different from the effects of reading fiction on the show. Memoir’s effects as a genre helped to change the character of Canada Reads itself from an amusing game show about the implicit power and goodness of reading, to a serious debate about Canadian identity and citizenship