Book chapter
Old Books and New Media: Reader Response to The Thorn Birds and Late Night with Seth Meyers
Bookshelves in the Age of the COVID-19 Pandemic, pp.93-111
New Directions in Book History, Springer International Publishing
10/06/2022
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-05292-7_5
Abstract
The convergence of the pandemic’s restrictions and the possibilities of new media resulted in a historic moment for reading and books, particularly the books on display during Zoom sessions. U.S. late-night television hosts who produced their shows from home were among the people whose private spaces, including their bookshelves, became part of how viewers understood their personae. The Late Night with Seth Meyers show aired its one thousandth episode during this time of unprecedented distress and upheaval, yet its pandemic operations revealed the power of ordinary books to play a role in lives constricted by lockdown and quarantine, notably 1977 best-seller The Thorn Birds. The resulting book-based exchange with viewers depended on new and old media of multiple eras, referencing narratives, norms, and aesthetics of different times. While the resulting exchange did not necessarily form a community of readers, it did create a degree of what so many late-night hosts have said they missed: audience feedback. The perhaps surprising result—viewers’ joyous, playful, and heart-felt expressions of interest in an old book on new media—shows us that the pandemic bookshelf can be varied in its construction and effects.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Old Books and New Media: Reader Response to The Thorn Birds and Late Night with Seth Meyers
- Creators
- Jennifer Burek Pierce
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Publication Details
- Bookshelves in the Age of the COVID-19 Pandemic, pp.93-111
- Series
- New Directions in Book History
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-031-05292-7_5
- eISSN
- 2634-6125
- ISSN
- 2634-6117
- Publisher
- Springer International Publishing; Cham
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 10/06/2022
- Academic Unit
- School of Library and Information Science; Interdisciplinary Studies Program
- Record Identifier
- 9984305459502771
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