Miall & Kuiken, Literary Response Questionnaire

http://www.ualberta.ca/~dmiall/reading/LRQ_95.htm

A newly developed instrument, the Literary Response Questionnaire (LRQ), provides scales that measure seven different aspects of readers' orientation toward literary texts: Insight, Empathy, Imagery Vividness, Leisure Escape, Concern with Author, Story-Driven Reading, and Rejection of Literary Values. The present report presents evidence that each of these scales possesses satisfactory internal consistency, retest reliability, and factorial validity. Also, a series of five studies provided preliminary evidence that each scale may be located in a theoretically plausible network of relations with certain global personality traits (e.g., Absorption), with aspects of cognitive style (e.g., Regression in Service of the Ego), and with some of the learning skills that are relevant to effective work in the classroom (e.g., Elaborative Processing). In a variety of reaching and research settings, the LRQ may be a useful measure of individual differences in readers' orientation toward literary texts.

In the last two decades, reader response theorists have reconceptualized how readers engage literary texts, and such reconceptualizations have prompted teachers of literature to rethink classroom practices (Miall, 1993). However, persistent controversies have led at least one recent commentator to suggest that reader response theories have a past rather than a future (Freund, 1987, p. 10). What readers actually do, and what their activities imply about the status of literary texts remain very contentious topics. In fact, the principal theoretical statements in the area seem to suggest that readers of literary texts undertake only those activities that coincide with the tenets of the theorist's viewpoint. Thus, Iser's (1978) readers negotiate meaning in relation to the implied reader structured into the text; Fish's (1980) readers enact the modes of response authorized by their interpretive communities; Holland's (1968) readers search for identity themes in various narrative forms.

But studies in which readers think aloud as they read (Kintgen, 1983; Smith, 1991) have portrayed focal reader activities, such as the paraphrasing, thematizing, allegorizing, and problem-solving (Dias and Hayhoe, 1987) that do not neatly fit theoretical expectations. These studies suggest that readers are sufficiently self-aware to describe their own reading activities, perhaps not with critical or psychological precision (Hansson, 1990), but certainly with sufficient clarity to extend our understanding of their diverse approaches. If so, readers also may be sufficiently self-aware to provide valid descriptions of stable individual differences in reader response, that is, those differences among readers that persist despite variations in text (e.g., poetry versus prose) or circumstances (e.g., livingroom versus classroom). Although there is widespread appreciation of the importance of individual differences in reader response, there is currently available no sufficiently general and psychometrically satisfactory questionnaire for assessing such differences.

Therefore, it is appropriate to consider the range of beliefs, attitudes, and predilections that readers report and to develop a psychometrically sound means for assessing such variations. To this end, we have developed the Literary Response Questionnaire (LRQ). Its current version offers a set of low-inference scales that measure different aspects of readers' orientation toward literary texts. The purpose of the present report is to describe development of the LRQ, to review evidence of its reliability and validity, and to offer suggestions for its use in teaching or research settings.
Development of the Literary Response Questionnaire

Only a handful of questionnaires have been designed to examine approaches to reading literature, and several of these were intended for use with readers at the elementary or junior high school levels. In contrast, we developed the LRQ to assess variation among readers with a relatively well developed conception of literature. Among readers with at least an upper level high school background, would some of these readers typically prefer reading in order to escape awareness of their daily concerns (Nell, 1988)? Would some of them typically approach fiction in order to pursue the unfolding story-line (Hunt & Vipond, 1985)? Might some readers report that they read to gain insights into their own and others' feelings (Gold, 1990)? And would some indicate that they try to characterize the author's distinctive style and recurrent themes (Hirsch, 1967)? We thought it likely that readers would use a combination of such approaches, perhaps revealing themselves as readers through a distinctive profile of predispositions. Consequently the LRQ seeks to assess several significant aspects of readers' approaches to literary texts.

Our attempt to develop an instrument that would reflect different aspects of reader beliefs, attitudes, and predilections included attention to creating a tool that would not prejudge level of sophistication for the aspects identified. There may well be modes of literary response that are more "competent" than others (Culler, 1980), but current developments in literary theory encourage a cautious stance toward presuming the nature of a deep, a sensitive, or a competent reading. Contrasting approaches to reading, at least as measured by the LRQ, may have different but equally valued consequences (e.g., appreciation of the author's style, recognition of personal feelings), and our objective is to facilitate understanding of such variety rather than to identify what might constitute the most competent approach to literature. Thus, although the LRQ scales (and profiles ) eventually may be related to some standards of reading competence, we are not suggesting that as a primary objective.

Origins of LRQ Items

The LRQ went through several revisions. We wrote over 140 items, and we subjected these items to successive cycles of administration, evaluation, and revision. In preliminary versions the following aspects of reader activities were (at least temporarily) represented: empathizing with story characters; vividly imagining story settings, characters, or actions; perceiving correspondences with the reader's life-world; exploring the reader's personal identity; focusing on plot or story-line; attending to literary techniques (mainly diction); attempting to understand the author; perceiving cultural or social effects of literature; deriving ethical or moral viewpoints; reading for diversion or escape; making comparisons with other media; pursuing educational objectives; evaluating the "realism" of literature (or the lack thereof); creating a congenial reading environment. We identified this rather broad domain by consulting numerous studies of literary response. To the extent possible, we used the results of previous studies to frame specific items for the LRQ.

Previously developed questionnaires suggested several aspects of reader response. One frequently used instrument is Purves's Literary Transfer and Interest Measure (1973). Half of its 20 items assess Transfer (i.e., whether the reader relates literature to familiar life circumstances), and the other half assess Interest (i.e., whether the person reads frequently and is motivated to read by, for example, seeing a related movie). Purves reported correlations between Interest and reading for pleasure. Hynds (1985) found that for people high in Interest, complexity in judging people correlated with complexity in judging fictional characters. And, Miall (1987) found Transfer to be correlated with a separate measure of learning style: specifically, the self-reported tendency to elaboratively process study material (Schmeck, 1983). Due to these encouraging findings, we adapted some items from Purves' Transfer and Interest Measure when preparing items for the LRQ.

Another instrument developed by Purves (1973), the Response Preference Measure, consists of 20 items that -- demonstrated by Zaharias and Mertz (1983) -- assess 4 components of reader response: personal statements, descriptive response, interpretative response, and evaluative response. Using these scales, Zaharias (1986) observed differences in reader response across variations in text genre (fiction versus poetry) and tone (serious versus lighthearted). For example, readers were more likely to endorse personal statements about stories than about poems, and more likely to endorse descriptive responses to lighthearted literature than to serious literature. Although Zaharias's interest is in the influence of text variations on reader response, her results prompted the development of LRQ items that would assess analogous individual differences.

Questionnaires that are less familiar than those developed by Purves suggested additional LRQ items. For example, we adapted items from several short instruments devised by Tobin (1986) to assess whether students reacted to various literary techniques; whether they read for information, pleasure, or escape; and whether reading influenced their attitudes or behavior. Additionally, a number of items from a general reading questionnaire devised by Allerup (1985) suggested adaptability to reading literary texts as well (e.g., reading to avoid boredom, reading to improve reading skills). Saskia Tellegen has developed a range of questions in her work on reading with children, involving empathic reading, imaginal vividness, and reading for escape. Two items for the LRQ were suggested by her work (Tellegen & Coppejans, 1991). And we created items based upon responses to open-ended questions reported in several investigations, including: 1) Jacobsen's (1982) study of "literary space," asking about changes in sense of self during reading and feelings of creativity while reading; 2) Dickerson's (1988), study of personal reactions to literature, including questions about similarities between the reader and fictional characters and about recognizing one's own emotions in a text; and 3) Moffitt's (1987) study of readers of romance novels, with its questions about whether these readers' purpose in reading -- to escape their daily lives, to vicariously obtain cultural experiences -- might be relevant to the reading of traditional canonical texts.

Still other items were suggested by: 1) Koziol's (1982) questions concerning reading and culture, originally designed for teachers of literature; 2) Hunt and Vipond's (1985) description of story-driven approaches to literature; 3) the Denis (1982), the Sadoski, Goetz, and Kangiser (1988), and the Sadoski, Goetz, Clivarez, Lee, and Roberts (1990) studies of the role of imagery; 4) Miall's (1989; 1990) and Sadoski et al.'s (1988) studies of affective aspects of response; 5) Dias's work on readers' strategies (Dias & Hayhoe, 1987); and 6) Kuiken and his colleagues' phenomenological studies of responses to dreams and art (1989; 1993). Combined with the sources reviewed above, these ensured rather broad characterization of reader response in items devised for preliminary versions of the LRQ.

After four cycles of revision and assessment, the current version of the LRQ consists of 68 items, all positively worded. These items are rated for the extent to which "the statement is true of you" (1 = "not at all true" to 5 = "extremely true"). We used results from these items to determine the psychometric properties of the LRQ.

Subjects

The overall sample during development included 793 students at the University of Alberta who completed the current version of the LRQ. Administration at different times to rather differently constituted subsamples allowed replicated assessment of its psychometric properties. In one subsample, 407 Introductory Psychology students (239 women, mean age 20.3 years; 168 men, mean age 20.5 years) completed the LRQ during class time for course credit. In a second subsample, 275 Introductory Psychology students (171 women, mean age 22.3 years; 104 men, mean age 20.8 years) participated during class time for course credit. And 111 advanced undergraduate English students (59 women, mean age 27.8 years; 52 men, mean age 24.9 years) completed the LRQ while acting as paid participants in related experiments on reader response.

Basic Dimensions of the LRQ

To determine its dimensional structure, we analyzed responses to the LRQ using factor analysis. Factor analysis is a multivariate technique that minimizes the number of dimensions retained while simultaneously maximizing the informativeness of those dimensions. Factor analyses of the 68 items comprising the current version of the LRQ provided seven factors. (See Appendix 1 for a more detailed description of the factor analytic procedures used; Appendix 2 for the items that uniquely identify each factor, together with their primary factor loadings.) The meanings expressed by these seven factors can be summarized as follows:

1. Insight (14 items): This factor reflects an approach to reading in which the literary text guides recognition of previously unrecognized qualities, usually in the reader, but also in the reader's world. As indicated in Appendix 2, 9 items refer to shifts in self-understanding and 5 refer to changes in the reader's understanding of less personal matters.

2. Empathy (7 items): This factor indicates projective identification with fictional characters. Some items reflect the extended "presence" of these characters (e.g., in imagined dialogue), as though projective identification is regarded as a means to make the characters seem "real" to the reader.

3. Imagery Vividness (9 items): This factor expresses imaginary elaboration of a literary world that becomes vividly present not only visually, but also in feeling, sound, and smell.

4. Leisure Escape (11 items): This factor indicates an approach to reading that emphasizes reading for pleasure and as an enjoyable and absorbing departure from everyday responsibilities.

5. Concern with Author (10 items): This factor reflects interest in the author's distinctive perspective, themes, and style, as well as the author's biographical place in a literary or intellectual tradition.

6. Story-Driven Reading (8 items): This factor reflects an approach where the reader is focused on plot or story-line, with particular emphasis on interesting action and compelling conclusions.

7. Rejecting Literary Values (9 items): This factor represents the rejection of careful reading, of scholarly study, and of instructional presentation of literary texts. Reading literature is regarded as a compulsory and irrelevant task.

Table 1 summarizes evidence that 1) each of the 7 factors is replicable across subsamples; 2) there is close correspondence between each factor and a scale created by summing items that uniquely identifies that factor, and 3) each scale is internally consistent and possesses satisfactory test-retest reliability. (Appendix 1 describes the psychometric procedures used to substantiate these conclusions.)

Table 1. Psychometric properties of LRQ factors and scales
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Factor Factor x Alpha Test/retest
Replication Scale R2 Coefficient Correlations
Correlations
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Insight .979, .994 .89 .91 .75

Empathy .987, .990 .87 .85 .79

Imagery .989, .991 .86 .86 .78
Vividness

Leisure .996, .995 .92 .92 .90
Escape

Concern with .980, .992 .88 .86 .79
Author

Story-driven .990, .993 .95 .81 .65
Reading

Rejection of .995, .989 .90 .79 .75
Literary Values
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Superordinate Dimensions

Because results of the factor analysis indicated significant correlations between some factors, we conducted a second order factor analysis (Principal Components, Varimax rotation), revealing 2 distinct superordinate factors. As indicated in Table 2, on one factor, there were high values for Insight, Empathy, Imagery Vividness, and Leisure Escape. On the second factor, high values appeared for Story-Driven Reading and Rejection of Literary Values. Concern with Author split between these two superordinate factors. Thus, there is evidence that one second order factor collectively captures the engaging (Leisure Escape), perceptually replete (Imagery Vividness), and self-implicating (Empathy) modifications of meaning (Insight) warranting the label Experiencing (cf., Dewey 1934). And, there is evidence that another second order factor collectively captures the search for compelling narrative coherence (Story-Driven Reading). and inattention to literary complexity (Rejection of Literary Values) warranting the label Literal Comprehension. But, it should be emphasized that the first order factors are sufficiently independent to require separate examination in studies of reader response.

Table 2. Second Order LRQ Factors and Factor Loadings (>.400)

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Experiencing Literal Comprehension

Insight .745 --
Empathy .775 --
Imagery Vividness .869 --
Leisure Escape .677 --
Concern with Author .420 -.676
Story-Driven Reading -- .859
Rejection of Literary Values -- .706
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Construct Validity of LRQ Scales

Observations bearing on the validity of the LRQ scales are available from a series of five studies undertaken simultaneously with development of the LRQ. Because of their interest, observations involving two early versions of the LRQ will be presented (Studies 1 and 2), but only for Insight and Leisure Escape, the two scales which remained essentially the same as their earlier counterparts in the final version of the LRQ. Likewise, the observations only obtain when comparable results occurred in both Studies 1 and 2. Primarily, observations based upon the final two (nearly identical) versions of the LRQ will be presented.
Method

The Studies

Study 1: We administered a 55-item version of the LRQ to 352 Introductory Psychology students. Of these participants, 153 also completed the Experience Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1978), a measure of openness to experience, and the Sensitivity Questionnaire, a measure of aesthetic sensitivity (Child, 1965). Also, 77 participants completed a questionnaire concerning personally significant dream experiences (Kuiken & Sikora, 1993).

Study 2: We administered a 62-item version of the LRQ to 315 Introductory Psychology students and 75 upper level English students. Of these Study 2 participants, 88 (Psychology students only) also completed the Experience Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1978) and the Sensitivity Questionnaire (Child, 1965), and 210 (Psychology students only) also completed the questionnaire concerning personally significant dream experiences (Kuiken & Sikora, 1993).

Study 3: Here, we administered. a 132-item version of the LRQ to 487 Introductory Psychology students and 61 upper level English students. (This version included 64 of the 68 items of the current LRQ, with minor working differences.) Of these participants, 470 also completed the Absorption Scale (Tellegen & Atkinson, 1974), a measure of openness to self-altering imaginal experiences, and 61 (all English students) completed the Inventory of Learning Processes (Schmeck, 1983), a measure of different learning styles.

Study 4: For this study, we administered a 96-item version of the LRQ to 407 Introductory Psychology Students. (This version included all 68 items of the current LRQ.) Of these participants, 260 also completed the Current Reading Questionnaire, a brief survey of non-curricular reading patterns developed by the authors; this questionnaire invited participants to rank order a range of leisure activities (such as seeing movies, participating in sports, and listening to popular music) and to indicate how often they read both literary and non-literary texts.

Study 5: Finally, we administered the same 96-item version of the LRQ to 275 Introductory Psychology students and 111 advanced undergraduate English students. Of these, 270 (Psychology students only) also completed the Absorption Scale, and 60 (English students only) also completed the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (Tellegen, 1982), a 300 item questionnaire that subsumes the Absorption Scale and 10 other factorially independent personality scales.
Results and Discussion

In the results reported below, * = p < .05, ** = p < .01, and *** = p < .001, all two-tailed.

Second Order Factors

Table 3. Construct Validation of LRQ scales
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Absorption Elab Read English/Psych
St 3, St 4, St 5 Processes Novels Differences
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Insight .44c, .49c, .33c .43c .30c 3.53/2.90c
Empathy .47c, .50c, .43c .39c .22c 2.68/2.16c
Imagery Vividness .52c, .54c, .43c .39c .32c 3.82/3.24c
Leisure Escape .37c, .30c, .15c .26c .58b 3.85/3.15c
Concern with Author .26c, .34c, .19c .40c .31c 2.81/2.12c
Story-driven Reading .05, -.05, -.07c -.17c -.20c 3.27/3.71c
Rejection of Literary Values -.09, -.20c,-.12c -.27c -.36c 1.63/2.25c
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a = p < .05, b = p < .01, and c = p < .001, two-tailed

As indicated in Table 3, some variables from other scales correlated reliably with several LRQ scales in a pattern that lends credibility to the second order factors (Experiencing and Literal Comprehension) described above. First, in Studies 3, 4, and 5, the Absorption Scale consistently correlated with Insight, Empathy, and Imagery Vividness -- and more modestly with Leisure Escape and Concern with Author. Recall that these scales all had high results on the second order Experiencing factor. Because the Absorption Scale reflects readiness to be captured by imaginal events (e.g., "I can imagine things so vividly that they hold my attention as a good movie or story does") and readiness to modify them (e.g., "I can imagine that my body is so heavy that I could not move if I wanted to"), the LRQ scales on this superordinate factor may jointly reflect the absorbing elaboration of meanings that can occur while reading literary texts (e.g., recognizing previously overlooked feelings, empathically enlivening fictional characters, imaginally concretizing story scenes, comparing one of the author's themes with another).

This interpretation is substantiated by the observation that, in Study 3, each of the scales from the second order Experiencing factor positively correlated with the Elaborative Processing subscale of the Inventory of Learning Processes (e.g., "I learn new words or ideas by visualizing a situation in which they could occur"), a scale that Schmeck (1983) described as reflective of personalized elaboration of learning materials. Because these LRQ scales reflect such readiness to elaboratively respond to literary texts, it is not surprising that each of them predicted how frequently participants read novels (as reported on the Current Reading Questionnaire in Study 4) and that English students scored higher on each of these scales (Studies 3 and 5; see Table 3).

On the other hand, the two LRQ scales (Story-Driven Reading, Rejection of Literary Values) that distinguish the second order Literal Comprehension factor proved: 1) not reliably related (Story-Driven Reading) or inversely related (Rejection of Literary Values) to Absorption (Studies 3, 4, and 5); 2) inversely related to Elaborative Processing (Study 3); 3) inversely related to how frequently participants read novels (Study 4); and 4) more characteristic of Psychology students than English students (Studies 3 and 5; see Table 3). Besides confirming that the superordinate Literal Comprehension factor reflects low levels of interest in distinctly literary texts, this pattern also suggests that the modes of response expressed by the Story-Driven Reading and the Rejection of Literary Values scales lack the elaborative personalization associated with the Experiencing factor.

First Order Factors

Although validating evidence for the second order factors also contributes to the meaningfulness of the subordinate first order factors, the validity of the first order factors is more clearly indicated by correlations that are distinctive for each LRQ scale.

Insight. In Studies 1 and 2, the Insight scale (but not the Leisure Escape scale) reliably correlated with the Regression-in-the-Service-of-the-Ego subscale of the Sensitivity Questionnaire (e.g., "Unusual but unimportant aspects of a situation often intrigue me, occupying my attention and imagination"). For Study 1, the correlation is r = .30***; for Study 2, r = .30**. Following Kris, Child (1965) described this subscale as a measure of the ability to integrate regressive fantasy with mature thought. That such regressive/integrative thought is characteristic of insight-oriented reading is further suggested by the finding that the Insight scale (but again not Leisure Escape) correlated with a scale reflecting personal insights following dreaming (e.g., "After a dream I often feel sensitive to aspects of reality that I typically ignore"). Here, the correlations found are: Study 1, r = .36**; Study 2, r = .28***.

Moreover, since Child (1965) found the Regression-in-the-Service-of-the-Ego subscale predictive of esthetic judgment in visual art, it is consistent that the Insight scale correlated with the Esthetics subscale of the Experience Inventory (e.g., "I have had experiences that inspired me to write a poem or story"). For Study 1, the result is r = .26**; for Study 2, r = .34**.

In sum, the Insight scale may reflect a form of regressive/integrative thought during reading that subserves these readers' esthetic interests. Also, contrasting patterns of correlations substantiate the distinction between a form of absorbing reading that heightens awareness (Insight) and a form of absorbing reading that dulls awareness (Leisure Escape), a potentially important distinction anticipated by Nell (1988, p. 232) and (with some unnecessary psychoanalytic encumbrances) by Holland (1968, pp. 66, 92).

Empathy. In Study 5, Empathy correlated with the Stress scale of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (e.g., "I sometimes get myself into a state of tension and turmoil when I think of the day's events; r = .21*) and with the Alienation scale of that instrument (e.g., "Most people make friends because they expect friends to be useful;" r = .26*). Thus, there is some evidence that negative affect, either anxious distress or estrangement, may be associated with the impulse to project oneself into the feeling-rich aspects of literary texts.

Imagery Vividness. Also in Study 5, Imagery Vividness correlated (r = .32**) with a scale measuring response inconsistency due to socially desirable responding on the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). Although Imagery Vividness is the only LRQ scale to be correlated with any of the validity scales of the MPQ, this finding does indicate that, when reporting in a classroom setting, it may be socially desirable to report vivid imagery in response to literary texts.

Leisure Escape. In Studies 1 and 2, the Leisure Escape scale (but not the Insight scale) correlated with 1) the Feeling subscale of the Experience Inventory (e.g., "Feelings and emotions are important guides to conduct for me." For Study 1, r = .21*; for Study 2, r = .23*); 2) the Values subscale of the Experience Inventory (e.g., "The different ideas of right or wrong that people have in other societies may be right for them." Study 1, r = .28***; Study 2, r = .32**); and 3) the Tolerance for Complexity subscale of the Sensitivity Questionnaire (e.g., "Insofar as philosophy makes one doubt his basic beliefs, it should be encouraged;" for Study 1, r = .35***; for Study 2, r = .23*). On the one hand, these findings suggest that Leisure Escape is associated with openness, especially openness to complexity of feeling, but close examination of these items also suggests a somewhat assertive openness "ideology." This interpretation is supported by correlations between Leisure Escape and the Independence of Judgment subscale of the Sensitivity Questionnaire (Study 1: r = .36***; Study 2: r = .32**).

It may be noted that Leisure escape was the only LRQ scale to yield gender differences. In Study 5, women were significantly more likely to report Leisure Escape activities than were men (3.54 versus 3.11, p < .001).

Concern with Author. In general, the Concern with Author scale associated with interest in the fine arts beyond literature. On the Current Reading Questionnaire (Study 4), people who had scored high on Concern with Author reported that they more frequently read novels (r = .31**), read poetry (r = .27**), and listened to classical music (r = .22**). Also, of all the LRQ scales, Concern with Author correlated most highly with the Methodical Study subscale from the Inventory of Learning Processes (e.g., "I review course material periodically during the term." Study 3: r = .45**). Given these hints of disciplined attempts to understand the arts, it is noteworthy that people high on the Concern with Author scale also tended to be high on the Achievement scale from the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (e.g., "I often keep working on a problem even if I am very tired." Study 5: r = .19, p < .07).

Story-driven Reading. In Study 5, Story-Driven Reading correlated with the Tradition scale of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (e.g., "I very much dislike it when someone breaks accepted rules of good conduct"; r = .34***) and with the Social Potency scale of that same instrument (e.g., "When I work with others, I like to take charge"; r =.21*). Also, in Study 3, Story-Driven Reading inversely related to the Methodical Study scale of the Inventory of Learning Processes (e.g., "I maintain a regular schedule of study hours"; r = .31**). And, in Study 4, as indicated by the Current Reading Questionnaire, Story-Driven Reading associated with more frequent movie-going (r = .21**) and TV watching (r = .29**). Perhaps Story-Driven Reading is associated with a decisive (even anti-intellectual) commitment to traditional values-and particular attention to the moral implications of a story line.

Rejection of Literary Values. In Study 5, Rejection of Literary Values associated with low scores on the Achievement scale of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (r = -.23*) and high scores on the Aggression scale of that instrument (r = .26**). Also, in Study 3, Rejection of Literary Values was inversely related to the Methodical Study scale of the Inventory of Learning Processes (r = -.38**). And, as indicated by the Current Reading Questionnaire (Study 4), Rejection of Literary Values associated with frequent listening to popular music (Study 4: r = .19**), with frequent TV-watching (r = .22**), and with involvement in sports (r = .23**). Apparently Rejection of Literary Values involves aggressive resistance to careful reading of literary texts.

This interpretation is consistent with results from Studies 3 and 5 in which English students were asked to read a short story that had previously been examined for segments that were highly foregrounded and that, therefore, manifested stylistic variations at the phonetic, grammatical, and semantic levels (e.g., alliteration, ellipsis, metaphor). Rejection of Literary Values (but not Story-Driven Reading) inversely related (r = -.23**) to the tendency to spend more time on highly foregrounded passages (Miall & Kuiken, 1994). Thus, readers scoring high on this factor were relatively inattentive to the stylistic variations that are distinctly literary.
Discussion

Examination of their psychometric properties indicated that each of the LRQ scales proved to have very good internal consistency, retest reliability, and factorial validity. And, the sets of items comprising each scale are readily interpreted as a distinct aspect of readers' approach to literary texts. The series of studies described above affirmed the psychological meaningfulness of these scales by demonstrating that they may be located in a theoretically plausible network of relations with certain global personality traits (e.g., Absorption), with aspects of cognitive style (e.g., Regression in the Service of the Ego), and with some of the learning skills that are relevant to effective work in the classroom (e.g., Elaborative Processing). Because most of these measures have been independently validated by other investigators, the overall pattern of results provides promising evidence of the construct validity of the LRQ scales.

Although the LRQ is comprised of statements expressive of beliefs, attitudes, predilections, and behavior descriptions, there is no reason to take these statements simply at face value. These diverse statements do have face validity as measures of reader self-perceptions, and they do form several coherent and readily interpreted factors. But, in-depth understanding of these factors may prove complex. For example, self-reported preferences may not only reflect evaluations in actual reading situations; they may indirectly reflect the skills that enable reading in the preferred manner. And, self-reported behavior descriptions may likewise reflect not only what readers actually do while reading; they may indirectly reflect reader values or motives. Only future studies will clarify whether the LRQ simply predicts independent reader self-reports (e.g., what readers say in think-aloud studies), or whether it predicts methodologically diverse measures of reader skills and abilities (e.g., how readers perform in studies of reading comprehension).

Thus, although the LRQ was not devised as a test of literary competence, it is noteworthy that, compared with Psychology students, senior English students scored significantly higher on Insight, Empathy, Imagery Vividness, and Concern with Author, but lower on Story-Driven Reading. Assuming that advanced English students are relatively competent readers (both by virtue of self-selection and training), one interpretation is that this subset of LRQ scales indirectly reflects some of the skills by which readers make literary texts accessible, including the projective skills that enable empathic reading and the skills that make texts personally meaningful, including the elaborative skills that enable personal insights. While we have collected no independent evidence that would confirm a skill-based interpretation (e.g., performance on perspective-taking tasks), closer examination of the cognitive and affective capacities that are associated with LRQ scales is warranted.

On the other hand, some LRQ scales more plausibly reflect reader values (e.g., Rejection of Literary Values) and motives (e.g., Leisure Escape) than reader competence. Correlations between LRQ scales and certain personality dimensions (e.g., the Tradition and Achievement scales of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire) allude to socio-cultural constraints on the approaches to literary texts that are identified by the LRQ. Research relating developmental, educational, and social backgrounds to LRQ scales might give empirical credence to claims that the interpretive communities from which readers emerge constrain their approaches to reading.

Whether as skills or as values and motives, the LRQ scales suggest directions for the empirically grounded analysis of two global approaches to reading literature: Experiencing and Literal Comprehension. In the language provided by Cummins (1983), our analysis of the LRQ may be used to initiate a "functional decomposition" of these global approaches to reading. A functional decomposition begins by identifying components of a more inclusive mental construct and proceeds by determining how the functional relationships among those components contribute to the whole. Thus, functional decomposition of the Experiencing dimension might begin by acknowledging that the first order factors (e.g., Empathy, Imagery Vividness) are components of that more inclusive mental construct. As a next step, it may be useful to consider how those first order components jointly function to bring about Experiencing. For example, Imagery Vividness and Empathy may interact by providing concrete identification with literary characters; such concrete identification, in turn, may enable personal insight during reading. As another example, Empathy and Concern with Author may interact by accentuating the perspective of the author; such accentuation, in turn, may enable insights compatible with the author's perceived intentions. In brief, the functional decomposition of Experiencing and Literal Comprehension in terms of their respective first order factors suggests further directions for theory development and research.

One advantage of a decomposition based upon the LRQ is that relations between the superordinate factors and their first order components were determined using well-established psychometric procedures. The advantage of this method may be seen by comparing Experiencing and Literal Comprehension with Rosenblatt's (1978, 1986) conceptualization of Aesthetic and Efferent approaches to reading. Although Rosenblatt referred to reading events rather than individual differences, the LRQ Experiencing factor and her Aesthetic stance both involve empathic personal involvement, attention to vividly imagined narrative elements, and reflection on the life-world implications of the reading experience. And, the LRQ Literal Comprehension factor and her Efferent stance both involve focus on consensual text information such as literally paraphrasable meanings and directly designated narrative events. However, the Aesthetic and Efferent stances purportedly reflect opposite poles of a single continuum (cf. Many, 1991), whereas factor analysis of the LRQ indicated that Experiencing and Literal Comprehension are two factorially independent dimensions. Moreover, the Efferent stance purportedly involves consideration of an author's technique and socio-historical circumstances, whereas Concern with Author negatively related on the seemingly analogous Literal Comprehension factor. Such conceptual differences -- and their theoretical implications -- are difficult to resolve because, to date, the proposed components of the Aesthetic and Efferent stances have been articulated using quantitative procedures that provide "emergent" categories (cf. Hancock, 1993; Many, 1991) -- but not systematic psychometric information of the type reported here for the LRQ.

A second advantage to functional decomposition of the Experiencing and Literal Comprehension factors is that it may guide consideration of phenomena that occur at different levels of analysis. For example, a recent study by Many and Wiseman (1992) found that variations in teaching strategy did not reliably influence adoption of the Aesthetic stance in toto. Rather teaching strategy influenced adoption of particular components of that stance, for example imaging. By analogy, instructional encouragement of components of Experiencing such as Imagery Vividness may not facilitate the more complicated interactions among those components that identify Experiencing in toto. Investigators should be aware that sometimes the second order factors, and at other times the first order factors, of the LRQ may be implicated in the phenomena that they observe.

Finally, examination of discrete profiles of LRQ factors may facilitate examination of the needs of different types of readers. For example, Hunt and Vipond (1985) have suggested that it is possible to experimentally shift a reader from a story-driven to a point-driven approach to reading. But, are readers uniformly malleable? Perhaps Story-Driven Readers who also are capable of Vivid Imagery will be more readily influenced by such experimental manipulations than are readers who are Story Driven but lack the capacity for imaginatively concretizing textual meanings. Confirming this possibility would be one step toward clarification of instructional strategies that could effect long-term changes in approaches to reading.

There is, of course, no assurance that the LRQ will prove useful in research of the kind just suggested. Experience provides ample evidence that the utility of self-report measures cannot be taken for granted. Such measures have proven useful in some areas of research, but not in others, and they sometimes predict other self-report indices rather than the targeted behaviors. Moreover, they are subject to forms of bias, including socially desirable responding, that are difficult to control. Importantly, they do not necessarily capture the individual differences that truly matter in any particular area of study. Research beyond that reported here will be required to demonstrate that the LRQ will not fall victim to these limitations.

Alternatively, a prerequisite to the utility of any self-report instrument is the use of sound psychometric procedures during scale development. For example, the use of powerful multivariate techniques during revisions leading to the current form of the LRQ insures minimal inter-scale heterogeneity and inter-scale overlap. Similarly, our data indicate that the internal consistency and test-retest reliability of LRQ scales are more than adequate for research purposes. And our preliminary evidence indicates that (with the possible exception of Imagery Vividness) the promising construct validity of LRQ scales is not compromised by artifacts that commonly plague self-report measures, such as socially desirable responding. These aspects of scale development maximize the potential utility of the LRQ in a wide variety of relevant research paradigms, ranging from the observation of reading preferences and patterns in the classroom to the examination of reaction times and think-aloud protocols in laboratory studies of reader response. In the long term, knowledge of individual differences of the kind measured by the LRQ may enable teachers of literature to focus more productively on the needs of individual readers.

Authors' Notes: The central Research Fund of the University of Alberta and Program Grant No. 53-10018 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada supported the research reported in this paper.

We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Mathew Martin, Cam Balzer, and Mario Trono in the collection of data. We also thank Willie Van Peer for valuable comments on an earlier version of the LRQ and three anonymous reviewers for comments on an earlier version of this paper. We also gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Saskia Tellegen, who kindly made her work available to us in translation.

Software for computer administration of the LRQ (in both DOS and Windows formats) is available from the authors. Please send $20 US or $25 Canadian (checks made payable to David S. Miall) to cover costs. [See LRQ page]

We would welcome information from other researchers who employ the LRQ in their research efforts.

References

Allerup, P (1985). Why I like to read -- Statistical analysis of questionnaire data. Copenhagen, Denmark: Danish Institute for Educational Research.

Child, I. (1965). Personality correlates of esthetic judgment in college students. Journal of Personality, 33, 476-511.

Costa, P T., & McCrae, R. R. (1978). Objective personality assessment. In M. Storandt, I. C. Siegler, & M. F Elias (Eds.), The clinical psychology of aging (pp. 119-143). New York: Plenum Press.

Culler, J. (1980). Prolegomena to a theory of reading. In S. R. Suleiman & 1. Crosman (Eds.), The reader in the text: Essays on audience and interpretation (pp. 46-66). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Cummins, R. (1983). The nature of psychological explanation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Denis, M. (1984). Imagery and prose: A critical review of research on adults and children. Text, 4, 381-401.

Dias, P, & Hayhoe, M. (1987). Developing response to poetry. Philadelphia, PA: Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

Dickerson, M. J. (1988, May). A voice of one's own: Creating writing identities. Paper presented at the Conference on College Composition and Communication, St. Louis, MO.

Dewey, J. (1934). Art as experience. New York: Capricorn Books.

Dollerup, C. (1985). The RAM studies 1, 2, 3, and 4: A Description of the thinking, set-up, and planning of the studies. University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark: Research Unit for Experimental Studies in Reader Response.

Fagan, W. T., Cooper, C. R., & Jensen, J. M., Eds. (1975). Measures for research and evaluation in the English language arts. Urbana, IL: National Council of the Teachers of English.

Fish, S. (1980). Is there a text in this class? The authority of interpretive communities. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.

Freund, E. (1987). The return of the reader. London: Methuen.

Gold, J. (1990). Read for your life: Literature as a life support system. Markham, Ontario, Canada: Fitzhenry & Whiteside.

Hancock, M. R. (1993). Exploring the meaning-making process through the content of literature response journals: A case study investigation. Research in the Teaching of English, 27, 335-368.

Hansson, G. (1990). Reading and understanding literature (Report Ser. No. 4.5). Albany, NY: State University of New York, Center for the Learning and Teaching of Literature.

Hirsch, E. D. (1967). Validity in interpretation. New Haven: Yale University Press. Holland, N. H, (1968). The dynamics of literary response. New York: Oxford University Press.

Hunt, R. A., & Vipon, D. (1985). Crash-testing a transactional model of literary reading. Reader: Essays in Reader-Oriented Theory, 14, 23-39.

Hynds, S. (1985), Interpersonal cognitive complexity and the literary response processes of adolescent readers. Research in the Teaching of English, 19, 386-402.

Iser, W. (1978). The act of reading: A theory of aesthetic response. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Jacobsen, M. (1982). Looking for literary space: The willing suspension of disbelief re-visited. Research in the Teaching of English, 16, 21-38.

Kintgen, E. (1983). The perception of poetry. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Koziol, S. (1982). Responding to literature. Communication skills. (PCRP Assessment Survey I). Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania State Department of Education.

Kuiken, D., Schopflocher, D., & Wild, T. C. (1989). Numerically aided methods in phenomenology: A demonstration. Journal of Mind and Behavior, 10, 373-392.

Kuiken, D., & Sikora, S. (1993). The impact of dreams on waking thoughts and feelings. In A. Moffit, R. Hoffman, & M. Kramer (Eds.), Functions of Dreams (pp. 419-476). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Many, J. E. (1991). The effects of stance and age level on children's literary responses. Journal of Reading Behavior, 23, 61-85.

Many, J. E., & Wiseman, D. L. (1992). The effect of teaching approach on third grade students' response to literature. Journal of Reading Behavior, 24, 265-287.

Miall, D. S. (1987). Learning in autonomous student groups: Learning skills as a predictor of satisfaction. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 13, 175-183.

Miall, D. S. (1989). Beyond the schema given: Affective comprehension of literary narratives. Cognition and Emotion, 3, 55-78.

Miall, D. S. (1990). Readers' responses to narrative: Evaluating, relating, anticipating. Poetics, 19, 323-339.

Miall, D. S. (1993). Constructing understanding: Emotion and literary response. In D. Bogdan & S. B. Straw (Ed.), Constructive reading: Teaching beyond communication (pp. 61-81). Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.

Miall, D. S., & Kuiken, D. (1994) Foregrounding, defamiliarization, and affect: Response to literary stories. Poetics, 22, 389-407.

Moffitt, M. A. (1987, May). Understanding the appeal of the romance novel for the adolescent girl: A reader-response approach. Paper presented at the Meeting of the International Communication Association, Montreal, Canada.

Nell, V. (1988). Lost in a book. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Purves, A. (1973). Literature education in ten countries. An empirical study. New York: Wiley & Sons.

Rosenblatt, L. M. (1978). The reader, the text, the poem. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.

Rosenblatt, L. M. (1986). The aesthetic transaction. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 20,122-128.

Rozeboom, W W. (1991a). HYBALL: A method for subspace-constrained oblique factor rotation. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 26, 163-177.

Rozeboom, W. W. (1991b). Theory and practice of analytic hyperplane detection. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 26, 179-197.

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Tellegen, A., & Atkinson, G. (1974). Openness to absorbing and self-altering experiences ("absorption"), trait related to hypnotic susceptibility. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 83, 268-277.

Tellegen, S., & Coppejans, L. (1991). Verbeeldend lezen. The Hague: NBLC.

Tobin, A. R. (1986). A study of the effectiveness of literature instruction demonstrated in two samples of high school juniors. Unpublished master's thesis, Kean College of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ.

Zaharias, J. A. (1986). The effects of genre and tone on undergraduate students' preferred patterns of response to two short stories and poems. Research in the Teaching of English, 20, 56-68.

Zaharias, J. A., & Mertz, M. P (1983). Identifying and validating the constituents of literary response through a modification of the response preference measure. Research in the Teaching of English, 17, 231-241.

Appendix 1: Psychometric Properties

In the present study, a Principal Components factor analysis was followed by HYBALL (oblique) factor rotation (with SPIN) to identify optimal axis positions (Rozeboom, 1991x, 1991b). Analysis of the 68 items comprising the current version of the LRQ provided 7 factors accounting for 50.4% of the total variance in the overall sample. With the exception of one marginal case, an item was selected as expressive of a factor if 1) its loading on that factor after rotation was greater than.400; 2) all other loadings for that item were less than .400 and also less than 75% of the loading on the relevant factor; and 3) the preceding criteria were met not only in the analysis of the overall sample but also in factor analyses of each of the two subsamples. Items meeting these criteria are presented in Appendix 2, together with factor loadings derived from the overall sample.

Replicability of these 7 factors was assessed by examining correlations between the factor scores derived from factor analysis of the overall sample and the analogous factor scores derived from separate factor analyses of the two subsamples. These correlations (see Table 1) were very high for all factors, indicating close correspondence between the optimal estimate of these factor scores (the overall sample) and the factor scores derived from two somewhat divergent subsamples (Psychology students versus Psychology and English students).

Ratings for items selected as expressive of each factor (see above) were equally weighted and summed to create 7 LRQ scales. The squared correlations between these item composites and their respective factor scores (see Table 1) indicated that they captured from 83-93% of the variance in the target factors. These squared correlations were never more than .02 less than the squared multiple correlations between these items and the target factors scores. Thus, LRQ scales based on equally weighted sums reflect the original factors nearly as well as do optimally weighted sums.

As indicated in Table 1, all 7 scales show satisfactory to excellent internal consistencies, as indicated by alpha coefficients calculated on data from the overall sample. Furthermore, evidence of retest reliability was provided by 123 Introductory Psychology students who completed the LRQ a second time, ten weeks after initial administration. These reliability estimates generally substantiate the claim that the scales measure rather stable individual differences, although correlations do range from .65 for Story-Driven Reading to .90 for Leisure Escape.

Appendix 2: LRQ Items and Their Primary Factor Loadings

Insight

Reading literature makes me sensitive to aspects of my life that I usually ignore (786, personal).
In literature I sometimes recognize feelings that I have overlooked during my daily life (.775, personal).
I often find my shortcomings explored through characters in literary texts (.734, personal).
I find that literature helps me to understand the lives of people that differ from myself (.732, non-personal).
Reading literature often gives me insights into the nature of people and events in my world (.728, non-personal).
I often see similarities between events in literature and events in my own life (.723, personal).
I often find my own motives being explored through characters in literary texts (.715, personal).
I find that certain literary works help me to understand my more negative feelings (.711, personal).
Literature enables you to understand people that you'd probably disregard in normal life (.700, non-personal).
I sometimes find that reading a literary text makes me feel like changing the way I live (.625, personal).
In my reading, I learn to recognize more readily certain types of people or events, i.e., I can see these types more clearly after reading about a particular example in a literary text (.619, non-personal).
When I begin to understand a literary text, it's because I've been able to relate it to my own concerns about life (.602, personal).
Literature often gives special emphasis to those things that make a moral point (.513, non-personal).
Sometimes while reading literature my feelings draw me toward a distinctly unsettling view of life (.512, personal).

Empathy

Sometimes I feel like I've almost "become" a character I've read about in fiction (.856).
I sometimes have imaginary dialogues with people in fiction (786).
When I read fiction I often think about myself as one of the people in the story (.737).
I sometimes wonder whether I have really experienced something or whether I have read about it in a book (677).
1 actively try to project myself into the role of fictional characters, almost as if I were preparing to act in a play (.652).
Sometimes characters in novels almost become like real people in my life (.647).
After reading a novel or story that I enjoyed, I continue to wonder about the characters almost as though they were real people (.509).

Imagery Vividness

I often see the places in stories I read as clearly as if I were looking at a picture (.800).
I can readily visualize the persons and places described in a novel or short story (.723).
I sometimes think I could draw a map of the places I have read about in a work of fiction (.660).
Sometimes a scene from a story or poem is so clear that I know its smell, its touch, its "feel" (.638).
I often hear dialogue in a novel as though I were listening to an actual conversation (560).
When I read a literary text, a scene that is only partly described often becomes a whole, vividly present place in my mind (.545).
When reading a story, sometimes I can almost feel what it would be like to be there (.515).
I usually hear the tone of speech in a dialogue from a story or novel (498).
Often when I read literary texts, descriptions of smells suggest colors, descriptions of colors suggest feelings, and so on (.468).

Leisure Escape

Sometimes I like to curl up with a good book just to enjoy myself (840). When I have spare time my favorite activity is reading a novel (.817).
Very often I cannot put down a story until I have finished reading it (.796).
Reading literature is a pleasurable way to spend time when I have nothing else to do (.774).
Reading a story is a wonderful way to relax. (.763).
While reading I completely forget what time it is (.740).
I find that reading literature is a great help in taking my mind off my own problems (666).
I like to become so absorbed in the world of the literary text that I forget my everyday concerns (.608).
Once I've discovered one work by an author I like, I usually try to read all the other works by that author (.579).
I am often so involved in what I am reading that I am no longer aware of myself (.578).
I often wish I had more time for reading literature (.509).

Concern With Author

One of my primary interests in reading literature is to learn about the themes and concerns of a given author (.755).
In reading I like to focus on what is distinctive about the author's style (.742).
One of my primary interests in reading is to learn about the different genres of literature (.727).
I like to see how a particular author's work relates to other literature of the author's period (.726).
When reading I usually try to identify an author's distinctive themes (.701).
One of my primary interests in reading literature is to appreciate the author's understanding of society and culture (.686).
I think literature is especially interesting when it illuminates facts about the author's life (.610).
When I find a work of literature I like, I usually try to find out something about the author (.608).
The challenge of literature is to comprehend the author's unique view of life (.605).
I am often intrigued by an author's literary technique (.508).

Story-Driven Reading

I like to see tension building up in the plot of a story (659).
The type of literature I like best tells an interesting story (.635).
I think the most important part of fiction or drama is plot (.619).
When reading a novel, what I most want to know is how the story turns out (.609).
I like it best when a story has an unexpected ending (.600).
I prefer to read fiction in which there is plenty of action (.599).
When reading a novel my main interest is seeing what happens to the characters (.576).
1 find it difficult to read a novel in which nothing much seems to happen (.540).

Rejection of Literary Values

I think people should spend less time talking or writing about literature (.755).
Even if literature were well taught, I think high schools should not devote so much time to it (.738).
For me a work of literature is destroyed by trying to analyze it (.711).
One of the things I dislike most about being a student of literature is the teacher who tells you what a literary text means (.703).
Reading literary texts from past centuries should be left to literary scholars and historians (.623).
1 don't believe that literature is socially relevant (.616).
1 disliked English in high school because most of the texts I was asked to read I would not have chosen myself (.579).
Works of literature often seem to make the issues of life more complicated than they actually are (.491).
If I want to spend time reading, I don't choose "literary" texts (.392).

Missing Links excellent online reading list from 3AM magazine

 http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/the-missing-links-231/ 

Easy access for obsessive/compulsive readers...

Very slick site for poetry therapy

 http://poeticmedicine.org/links.html#poetry_therapy 

London's School of Life gets bibliotherapy review

 http://m.brisbanetimes.com.au/entertainment/a-dose-of-prose-20120204-1qz3q.html 

Chick Lit reading list... but how is it bibliotherapy?

 http://thebitterbabe.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/bibliotherapy/ 

Psychotherapist gives bibliotherapy cred

 http://www.caribarena.com/antigua/opinions/opinion-pieces/marcus-m-mottley-phd/99597-bibliotherapy-the-reading-cure.html 

Self-help recovery titles

 http://janaburson.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/bibliotherapy-good-books-for-recovering-people/ 

Discovery readers advisory from Scottsdale Arizona

 http://gimme.scottsdalelibrary.org/ 
Simplistic but fun...

Goal of bibliotherapy (or my version "creative reading" is self-actualization

 http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-actualization 

Would be happy to review this book but am skeptical

 http://books.google.com/books/about/Bibliotherapy.html?id=4ahSXwAACAAJ 

Anticipate this being yet another that discusses self help books

Transactional Theory of Reading links

 http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw=474&bih=270&q=transactional+theory+of+reading&oq=transactional+th&aq=1&aqi=g5&aql=1&gs_sm=c&gs_upl=6802l11416l0l14973l19l9l0l0l0l1l576l2191l3-2.1.2l5l0 

Louise Rosenblatt 2

"Only if the reader turns his attention inward to his experience of 'the journey itself,' will a 'poem' happen. The reader of a text who evokes a literary work of art is, above all, a performer, in the same sense that  pianist performs a sonata..." (p28)

From The Reader, the Text, the Poem

Louise Rosenblatt

"The reader brings to the text his past experience and present personality. Under the magnetism of the ordered symbols of the text, he marshals his resources and crystallizes out from the stuff of memory, thought, and feeling a new part of the ongoing stream of his life experience, to be reflected on from any angle important to him as a human being?"

From The Reader, the Text, the Poem (1978)

Enhanced ebooks coming soon WSJ

 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204468004577169254175441764.html

Website with articles on writing therapy

 http://www.allthingshealing.com/healing-poetry-therapy.php 

Dostoevsky's Last Night by Cristina Peri Rossi

In light of my bibliotherapy research, I used a readers advisory database (see entry Find Books) to purview what came up on a search for addiction as a subject heading for fiction. Dostoevsky's Last Night was one of the titles that was recommended.

The addiction addressed in Rossi's novel is gambling. The gambler protagonist is in therapy, which suggested a good fit for my intended use. Did reading result in a self-awareness on gambling addiction? I can't really say, as this is not something from which I suffer. I think the premise is an application of bibliotherapy, in that having read Dostoevsky, the protagonist has been made aware and gained insight into his compulsions.

As a novel, I found the work readable but not compelling.

Multimedia poetry therapy

 http://www.mnartists.org/work.do?rid=305605 

Bibliotherapy in Wales

 http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=0022-0418&volume=68&issue=2&articleid=17010315&show=abstract 

From Diane Ackerman's ORIGAMI BRIDGES

Memory's accomplice,

words carve only small shapes

in the formless clamor

of the world, yet they are shapes--

bright vessels I can arrange,

scrub, and refill.

Haiku as treatment

 http://health.wikinut.com/Poetry-in-Therapy/2xl36r47/ 

Find Books

http://www.allreaders.com/

http://www.overbooked.org/

http://www.readalike.org/ra/booklists.html

http://librarybooklists.org/fiction/adult/adultindex.htm

http://www.whichbook.net/default.aspx

More story structure including Derrida discourse

 http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabula_and_sujet 

Narrative structure

 http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabula_and_sujet 

Paradox of Fiction

 http://www.iep.utm.edu/fict-par/ 

Beautifulo example of true bibliotherapy

 http://wvartist.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/millrat-therapy/ 

Dublin reads wellness

 http://www.library.ie/2012/01/04/bibliotherapy-feature-in-irish-times/ 

SciFi Lovers, Women Writers

Women of Wonder: The Classic Years 1940's thru 1970's'

Edited by Pamela Sargent, published in 1995

List of representatives as follows:

1944 C.L. Moore

1948 Judith Merril

1950 Katherine MacLean

1951 Leigh Brackett

1954 Margaret St. Clair

1956 Zenna Henderson

1956 Marion Zimmer Bradley

1961 Anne McCaffrey

1966 Sonya Dorman Hess

1966 Kit Reed

1967 Pamela Zoline

1971 Josephine Saxton

1972 Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

1972 Joanna Russ

1972 Kate Wilhelm

1973 Vonda N. McIntyre

1973 James Tiptree, Jr.

1974 Eleanor Arnason

1974 Ursula K. Le Guin

1977 Lisa Tuttle

1978 Joan D. Vinge

Self help nonfiction mainstream bibliotherapy

 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/2012/0103/1224309726517.html

If they took this a step further and recommended fiction titles to read in conjunction with the self help books, a more comprehensive approach would result. The idea with bibliotherapy is to process on an emotional level, not just take in information. The most advantageous scenario would involve informational and emotional reading followed by group or one on one discussion about the characters' journey or struggle in relation to the reader's own. Expressive arts therapy in the form of poetry, music or other creative outlet as a way to help the reader access feelings that may not be rational but are integrated strongly in the psychological complex causing the feelings of distress is the true bibliotherapeutic experience and necessary in order to fully integrate change.

Propp design your own Fairie Tale

 http://www.brown.edu/Courses/FR0133/Fairytale_Generator/gen.html 

Short version how-to

 http://www.behavioradvisor.com/Biblio.html 

Writing prompt

Wherever I was was inferior to where i might be. (From Marge Piercy poem "Down the road, down the road")

The Book Club Game

 http://www.readingsolutions.net/bibliotherapy/ 

Maybe...someone is trying to bring the idea to a mass market.

But still, focus on kids reading. Would have to see game to make fair assessment.

Litreactor meta writing

 http://litreactor.com/columns/thats-so-meta-writing-a-story-about-writing-a-story 

Writing therapy giving feedback

 http://beyondthemargins.com/2011/12/on-reading-one-another/#more-16326 

London Observer "I crave story" is ReadersAnonymous

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2011/nov/27/school-of-life-bibliotherapy-books?newsfeed=true 

Quill & Quire on bibliotherapy at School of Life

 http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/index.php/2011/12/06/bibliotherapy-targets-the-bookish-but-bewildered/ 

Self help books as bibliotherapy

 http://www.hypnothoughts.com/forum/topics/bibliotherapy-as-an-aid-to-your-hypnosis-practice 

SF Center for Cognitive Therapy endorses bibliotherapy

 http://www.sfbacct.com/other-disorders/71-is-bibliotherapy-helpful.html 

Bibliotherapy slideshow

 http://www.slideserve.com/Leo/bibliotherapy 

Most beautiful words list

 http://deshoda.com/words/100-most-beautiful-words-in-the-english-language/ 

1001 Books for Every Mood

On request from MCLibrary

Perfect words for poems

 http://deshoda.com/words/100-most-beautiful-words-in-the-english-language/ 

Emily Dickinson # 613 & 593

They shut me up in Prose--

As when a Little Girl

They put me in the Closet

Because they liked me "still"--

Still! Could themself have peeped--

And seen my Brain--go round--

They might as wise have lodged a Bird

For Treason--in the Pound--

Himself has but to will

And easy as a Star

Look down upon Captivity--

And laugh--No more have I--

I think I was enchanted

When first a sombre Girl--

I read that Foreign Lady--

The Dark--felt beautiful--

And whether it was noon at night--

Or only Heaven--at Noon--

For very Lunacy of Night

I had not power to tell--

...

I could not have defined the change--

Conversion of the mind

Like Sanctifying in the Soul--

Is witnessed--not explained--

'Twas a Divine Insanity--

The Danger to be Sane

Should I again experience--

'Tis Antidote to turn--

To Tomes of solid witchcraft--

Magicians be asleep--

But magic--hath an element

Like Diety--to keep--

Poem from Marge Piercy's AVAILABLE LIGHT edited

For Mourning

I wear grey for mourning , never black.

I mourn in grey,

the sleeted Wind,

The color of Ash.

Death comes in as Fog.

Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith

I'm new to poetry. Even with a MA in English Lit, I've somehow managed to more or less avoid poetry. Sure, I've read representative classics from the major literary traditions (in English, not much attention paid to poets who write in anything other than our mother tongue in academia unless you can read and translate from the original.) But contemporary poetry has been as foreign to me as Portuguese.

There were haikus; there were musings with rhythms suggesting lyrics for songs I did not know how to play or sing, but no poems. Poems were precious things for writers of purple prose with inflated egos, all that white spacing wasted on the page, just spit it out.

Then I started a certificate program in poetry, because that's the way bibliotherapy is legitimized these days. I wrote some poems, and felt better, more whole, more myself than after 100 hours of Jungian psychoanalysis.

And I started reading poetry. Reading in fits, armloads from the library, pulling anything that might look interesting off the shelves until the weight was maximum capacity for seeing my way down the stairs.

And I found BLOOD DAZZLER, poems by Patricia Smith, about Hurricane Katrina. And I don't have words to tell you. Just as we were struck dumb by the travesty, by both man & nature, unable to watch TV coverage without thinking, no this can't be, we woke to find the nightmare played out over weeks and we had to turn it off to get back to our own jobs, our own realities. Because what was happening down there wasn't real, it couldn't be, we couldn't be that inadequate in saving our own; we couldn't be that vulnerable here in the blah blah of blah.

Patricia Smith doesn't get political. Doesn't point fingers, lays no blame, though how can we not? Surely accountability is at hand? Mother Nature can't take all the blame.

Instead, BLOOD DAZZLER is reported. Journalism, a reporter's personal POV and interpretation of events not covered by the media. Quotes from correspondence between officials and counterpoints of the Bushs' day-to-day while the greatest crime of the century was being perpetrated provides insight covertly. We don't have to cry, we don't have to suffer humiliation, we don't have to care. But we do, because Patricia Smith has made the unimaginable accessible? In her poems, we can let our selves feel, just a little, of the horror and recognize, just a little, of the despair. Because frail humans we be, and a little is all our hearts can hold. Our minds take it all in but there's only a little our hearts can hold, providing a little help as part of the larger container needed to hold all the sadness of those who lived to survive a loss that overflows those old worn out levies still.

1044 page blockbuster

Neal Stephenson's REAMDE has been occupying most of the past weekend. Fortunately, I was sick in bed and could do little but read which got me through the first 500 pages. In true Stephenson fashion the plot's intensity started early and kept climbing. A bit shoot'em up for my tastes through much of the middle, but that's what sells these days.

On page 791, with major players finally face to face. I'm wondering if it's going to get predictable at this point. I miss the old cyberpunk where new worlds were opened. Cyberthrillers are less interesting and definitely less inspiring.

The stuff about gaming is new for me since I don't play. And, since I rely on fiction for most of my news on politics, the terrorist theme seems timely. Sort of feels like that bit could have been written by any number of bestseller list authors. Reader expectations are hard to satisfy. But, I had hoped for more than a thriller. Still, Stephenson is an excellent craftsman and I intend to sail through the last few hunfred pages.

Ready Player One finished

Entertaining. Not very enlightening or particularly thought provoking. Kept waiting but never happened. Basically it's a YA novel dressed up for grownups. Cyberpunk has not found its renaissance in this writer. Sounds like Warner optioned it so maybe the movie will be better.

Cyberpunk History

 http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/cyberpunk 

Beta SF Encyclopedia has great list of themes. Here's the lowdown on cyberpunk.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

The importance of being ernest editorials will probably flow from in regards to the latest cyberpunk novelist to make the grade. Only 34 pages in and I am well-pleased.

Writing as bibliotherapy

The thing is, writing isn't about the product. As with most of living  a meaningful life, it's all about process. Whether reading a book or writing a poem, what is of real interest is what's going on in an individual's consciousness. What do we learn about ourselves during the process?

Speculativism

 http://m.last.fm/music/Speculativism/An+Alternative+Steam+Age?fallback=1 

Andre Breton

 http://memorious.org/?id=228 

Anais Nin "The Writer and the Symbols"

Quote: "The creation of a story is a quest for meaning."

In one line, Nin has written the reason for my life. Melodramatic? Maybe, but I don't think Nin would think so.

Continuing to quote: "The meaning is what illuminates the facts, coordinates them, incarnates them."

Anais Nin "On Writing"

Quote: By following rigorously and exclusively the patterns made by the emotions I found that in the human unconscious itself there is an indigenous structure, and if we are able to detect and grasp it we have the plot, the form, and style of the novel of the future."

Nin's novel of the future

Quote Anais Nin from essay Realism and Reality: "...the unconscious creates the most consistent patterns and plots of all."

Dorothy Allison on Dialogue

 http://www.tinhouse.com/blog/podcasts 

Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt

Not the kind of book I normally read. Lame duck betrayed goes back to philandering husband in anticlimatic end. And yet, there is something here. Stories of women and girls within the context of the novel tell a bigger story, one of cruelty and catharsis.

Oh, and one quote: "Only the aged have access to life's brevity."

A list of "mad" poets: Torquato Tasso, John Clare, Christopher Smart, Friedrich Holderlin, Antonin Artaud,

Paul Celan, Randall Jarrell, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ezra Pound, Robert Fergusson, Velimir KhlebnikovL Georg Trakl, Gustaf Froding, Hugh MacDiarmid, Gerard de Nerval, Edgar Allan Poe, Burns Singer, Anne Sexton, Robert Lowell, Theodore Roethke, Laura Riding, Sara Teasdale, Vachel Lindsay, John Berryman, James SchuylerL Sylvia Plath, Delmore Schwartz

And last but not least, a bit of bibliotherapeutic support: "A book is a collaboration between the one who reads and what is read and, at its best, that coming together is a love story like any other."

Writers tips

 http://blog.janicehardy.com/2010/03/re-write-wednesday-oh-thats-subtle.html 

Eventually, reading for therapy will require writing. It's part of the individuation aspect of the reading process. May as well make it good.

Pirating Personal Publishing

 http://mobile.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/books/paul-coelho-discusses-aleph-his-new-novel.xml 

I will read him if only for his personal philosophy on publishing. Article says he posts links to sites for his books on twitter. Good place to start.

The Mind on Literature

 http://quarterlyconversation.com/a-man-taking-pictures-of-a-man-taking-pictures-b-s-johnson 

The Bard by emotional subject matter as theme

 http://www.shakespeare-online.com/quotes/index.html 

Free online writers workshop

 http://www.bibliophilia.org/ 

Ngrams Bibliotherapy

 http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=bibliotherapy&year_start=1910&year_end=2010&corpus=0&smoothing=3

Height of published interest in the 1980's. Click on date range at bottom for link to listing of books.

In the Between

 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/buddhism04.html 

London School of Life

 http://m.economictimes.com/PDAET/articleshow/msid-10013767,curpg-2.cms 

from Carl Jung's THE SPIRIT IN MAN, ART, AND LITERATURE "Psychology and Literature"

p.85
The psychologist should constantly bear in mind that his hypothesis is no more at first than the expression of his own subjective premise and can therefore never lay immediate claim to general validity.
The phenomenology of the psyche is so colourful, so variegated in form and meaning, that we cannot possibly reflect all its riches in one mirror.
p.87...the psychologist must content himself with widely ranging descriptions of psychic processes, and with portraying as vividly as he can the warp and woof of the mind in all its amazing intricacy.
p.88
...the more unconscious the author is of (psychological assumptions), the more (psychological intentions) background reveals itself in unalloyed purity.
p.94
a true symbol is an expression for something real but unknown.
...our intuitions point to things that are unknown and hidden, that by their very nature are secret.
p.95
...the psyche is a door that opens upon the human world from a world beyond, allowing unknown and mysterious powers to act upon man and carry him on the wings of the night to a more personal destiny.
...the poet now and then catches sight of the figures that people the night-world...p.96 he catches a glimpse of the psychic world that terrifies the primitive and is at the same time his greatest hope.
p.101
Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him its instrument. The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his own ends, but one who allows art to realize its purposes through him.
p.105
Participation mystique is the secret of artistic creation.
To grasp the meaning of a work of art, we must allow the work to shape us as it shaped the artist.

from Gaston Bachelard's THE POETICS OF SPACE Introduction

"The poet, in the novelty of his images, is always the origin of language. To specify exactly what a phenomenology of the image can be, to specify that the image comes before thought, we should have to say that poetry, rather than being a phenomenology of the mind, is a phenomenology of the soul. We should then have to collect documentation on the subject of the dreaming consciousness...
before the interior poetic light was turned upon it, it was a mere object for the mind. But the soul comes and inaugurates the form, dwells in it, takes pleasure in it...can therefore be taken as a clear maxim of a phenomenology of the soul."

"...the poetic image is essentially variational, and not, as in the case of the concept, constitutive.

Good argument for poetry therapy:
"A consciousness associated with the soul is more relaxed, less intentionalized than a consciousness associated with the phenomena of the mind. Forces are manifested in poems that do not pass through the circuits of knowledge."

This is why the self-help book type of reading is not to be confused with bibliotherapy. And though the argument here is strongly poetry based, I propose it is comparable to reading fiction when the criteria of a relaxed mind, an open and aware consciousness, rather than the critical mind, is active. This can also be understood by reading Jungian works on "active imagination" (See Marie-Louise Von Franz.)

Georges Poulet's PHENOMENOLOGY OF READING

" A book is not shut in by its contours, is not walled up as in a fortress. It asks nothing better than to exist outside itself, or to let you exist in it it."

"the book is no longer a material reality.... It has become a series of words, of images, of ideas which in their turn begin to exist. And where is this new existence? Surely not in the paper object. Nor, surely, in external space. There is only one place left for this new existence: my innermost self...dependent on my consciousness."

"Language surrounds me with its unreality."

paraphrasing:
I have thoughts which are part of a book I am reading, the thoughts of another.
"I am thinking the thoughts of another...
But I think (it) as my very own...
My consciousness behaves as though it were the consciousness of another."

The work lives its own life within me; in a certain sense, it thinks itself, and it even gives itself a meaning within me."

In this essay, Poulet argues that we cannot know the author by the work, but I disagree. We can know the author's mind at the moment in time when the work was being created and as such know as much about the author as the author is likely to know about herself. Do we know the author's biography? Of course not, but we know the author's mind, as fleetingly as thought based language will allow.

Check out Mallerme's opion in "THE BOOK: A Spiritual Instrument"

Activate Reading

 http://davidbarneswork.posterous.com/what-ed-emberleys-make-a-world-can-teach-ever 

Zero Summer

Still reading Caitlin Kiernan. Did I mention she's singlehandedly turned me into a short story reader.

Quote from above mentioned:

There should be a word for losing something that was never yours to begin with.

Hugos 2011

 http://www.thehugoawards.org/2011/08/2011-hugo-award-winners/ 

School of Life Bibliotherapy Going Strong

 http://bedsidetablebooks.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/heavenly-reading-retreats/ 

Wish something like this would fly in the States. Unfortunately, not enough of the literate have discretionary income.

Still I'm slowly building momentum to offer something similar in Portland for free. If I can work anywhere, it's Portal Land.

C Kiernan Live Journaling

 http://greygirlbeast.livejournal.com/#asset-greygirlbeast-784869 

So...you aren't in control even when you're your own boss.

Maybe it's a matter of degree.

Promo Espresso Book Machine

 Here's a cool YouTube video 

Cory on copyright

 http://m.boingboing.net/2011/08/11/my-siggraph-keynote.html 

Publisher Writers Reader Relationship

 http://redlemona.de/user/register 

Study on reading curative support for depression

 http://thereader.org.uk/get-into-reading/research/ 

Blog query for bibliotherapy

 http://emeire.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/literary-blog-hop-bibliotherapy/ 

Brilliant! More librarians exploring bibliotherapy

 http://indextrious.blogspot.com/2011/08/blog-hop-bibliotherapy.html

Caitlin R. Kiernan

 http://greygirlbeast.livejournal.com/ 

I never knew horror could be so beautiful.

P175 from To Charles Fort, with Love

The mind exists only in a moment, always, a single flickering moment, remembered or actual, dreaming or awake or something between the two, the precious, treacherous illusion of Present floundering in the crack between Past and Future.

Art Journal Workshop by Traci Bunkers

With DVD. How fun. Traci shows how fun art can be if you just Go For It. She's obviously not overthinking. It's clearly about the process. What is she thinking while she's playing with color, balance and form. It's not about a "marketable" finished product. It's about the experience. I love the new book arts movement. Books as a personal art form have entered the mainstream.

Bunkers' visual journaling is an excellent call to arms for silencing the inner critic so we can hear the soft whisper of our own creativity so often drowned out by commercial media.

Let the play begin. Even grownups need to color, cut & paste. I've been doing altered books and collage for about 12 years and am only recently beginning to understand the therapeutic benefits of art as a way to self awareness.

Good introduction to the world of art therapy.

Limited overview of bibliotherapy

The problem with this POV is limiting the subject to children. I found this to be true when working on my MLIS and have found there has been little progress in applying the practice to adult readers. One of the reasons quite probably is a result of little or no funding in today's libraries for readers advisory, much less a more in-depth application.

"Readers aren't playing captive audience any more..."

As book talk burgeons online, readers and librarians have more pointers to follow, or not, than ever before

Since Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was published in 2008, it has received 1,561 consumer reviews on Amazon, averaging four of five stars. LibraryThing has registered 682 reviews, putting Tattoo among its most-reviewed books, with observations ranging from a top-ranked "gut-wrenching" to "what's the hubbub?" Over on the blogs, Bookbitch and LJ reviewer Stacy Alessi (www.bookbitch.com) offered a rave, writing that "every twist and turn is completely unexpected." But the Elegant Variation's Mark Sarvas did no more than signal that the book looked promising--even as an irate reader of his blog posted a comment huffing that Tattoo was "poorly written, poorly constructed, and, I hate to say, poorly imagined." Oh, and New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani moderately derided it, allowing that the main characters were "interesting enough to compensate for the plot mechanics."

Over the last 15 years, the book review landscape has changed seismically. Reviewing is no longer centralized, with a few big voices leading the way, but fractured among numerous multifarious voices found mostly on the web. In turn, readers aren't playing the captive audience any more. Undone by economics, many traditional print sources have been shuttered or, like the formerly stand-alone Los Angeles Times and Washington Post Book World review sections, either collapsed into the rest of the paper or moved entirely online. The New York Times Book Review is still standing but is half the size it was a few decades back.

Meanwhile, book talk thrives on the web, with eager readers thronging LibraryThing and Goodreads, trading recommendations on Facebook and Twitter, and pushing their own reviews on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com. From the most casual forums to rich and rigorous sites like the Millions (www.themillions.com), reviews are energetically spun out, then tweeted, rated, challenged, and otherwise subject to endless feedback.

Beginning the conversation  

Pointedly, a chunk of this conversation comes not from critics picked expressly for their expertise but enthusiasts who may or may not be the best adviser you could find on a particular book. The more careful among us will point to their cheers, tears, and bashes and wonder, "Are those really reviews?"

Others could care less, countering that reviewing was always supposed to be an intellectual conversation and the real exchange has finally begun. As they'd argue, the current range of voices in the reviewing arena can only be good, promoting books, conversations about books, and connections among readers, bringing a much wider spread of material into play than can be covered in traditional review sources, print or online. The sheer numbers voting for or against a particular title can be illuminating. "On balance, I trust Michiko Kakutani a lot more than any single LibraryThing reviewer," acknowledges LibraryThing founder Tim Spalding. "But given a choice between her review and 100 LibraryThing reviews, I'd usually take the latter." In the end, says New York Public Library's Miriam Tuliao, today's richness not only satisfies readers' hunger but "ensures that there will be a diversity in what is being published."

Whether print or online, traditional or consumer, a review is now as likely to treat an obscure sf gem or specialized political treatise as the latest literary masterpiece, reflecting a broadened book market following readers' interests.

The big sources still review a focused bunch of high-power books, and they have reach. As Free Press senior editor Amber Qureshi notes, "A fantastic review on a personal blog will not have the same impact on a book as a tepid one in the Christian Science Monitor, online or print."

But while the New York Times Book Review, the Los Angeles Time Book Review, and the Washington Post Book World once pushed sales, now it's as likely to be Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, and People. "That's the New Reviewing Trifecta," says EarlyWord's Nora Rawlinson, who also cites the book power of NPR. "They deal more with books that will appeal to general readers and seem to have an interest in making books happen."

With the book market more fragmented than ever, with so many voices echoing through our heads as we consider what to read next or purchase for patrons, with our almost fetishistic resistance to being told what to think, no one critic today can speak for us, and certainly many can't even speak to us. But even as we ditch the concept of authority, even as we say that every voice should be heard, even as it seems that every voice is getting heard, at least in cyberspace, it's apparent that, in fact, not everyone's a critic.

Anyone can blog, or post a consumer rating or review, or register an online comment, but, famously, not every blog is bearable reading, not every consumer review insightful, not every comment exactly what's needed to nail the book. Some judgments are worth more than others; the question is how we judge.

A question of authority  

In print or online, traditional reviews still offer something unimpeachable while consumer commentaries have the verve and single-mindedness to do something that traditional reviews cannot. The two coexist comfortably because they fill different needs. Will the latter come to replace, or at least supersede, the former? That's anyone's guess, but one thing is certain: today's raging stream of voices has radically altered the idea of reviewing, with huge consequences for book culture itself.

The traditional review has always been defined by the idea of authority; presumably, the book has been assigned to a reviewer who has some knowledge of the subject, is sufficiently versed in the literature to make valid comparisons, and embraces the obligation to write an unbiased and closely reasoned assessment for a broad audience. What the reviewer knows--and knows how to communicate--matters. As arts and travel journalist Terry Trucco sums it up, "While I'm happy to read a review by Paul Krugman of an economics or political book, I don't particularly want him weighing in on the ballet or cooking or, God forbid, fashion."

The golden ideal of the authority-driven review has been challenged by the conversation the Internet facilitates, where special interests are pursued energetically. A blog offers an impassioned reader's personal slant, and a consumer review is perhaps an informed read and perhaps a stab in the back by a jealous competitor. Anyone can post, and an opinion is just an opinion until you start winkling out the depth of understanding behind it. But most book talk on the web isn't trying to emulate work by seasoned critics. It's a different beast entirely, generally striving for conviction rather than objectivity, advice but not hierarchy; the goal is ultimately participation.

The problem with love letters  

For librarians, spending public money and conscious of the need to defend purchase decisions, the I'll-do-it-my-way stance on the web can be problematic. "Most, but not all, consumer criticisms read more like love letters or, at the other end of the spectrum, screeds," says Shawna Thorup, Fayetteville Public Library, AR, which obviously makes them troublesome for collection development.

Of one high-profile consumer reviewer, always suspiciously over the top, Alessi bitingly observes, "Would anyone seriously into books even look at her reviews? The woman reads several books a day and loves, loves, loves them all. Ridiculous."

Blogs and consumer reviews haven't entered official collection development policy--yet. But they're useful stopovers in the book hunt, especially in niches not covered by the biggies. Bookbitch Alessi can't see her library system relying on Amazon reviews for nonfiction, though "perhaps there is a little more leeway with fiction, especially if there is no authoritative or conflicting review."

Kim Garza, Tempe Public Library, AZ, agrees. "I have often used reader reviews online when I am not sure about something," she says, "but I approach them carefully."

Karl Helicher, of Upper Merian Township Public Library, King of Prussia, PA, puts the whole thing in perspective: "For years, we have bought books recommended by customers, and choosing books on the strength of a public review is really no different." In the end, that sense of connection may preempt authority.

"I would expect a traditional magazine or newspaper review to be more objective than a blog or patron review, but that doesn't necessarily make it better in my eyes," says LJ fiction reviewer Sally Bissell, South County Regional Library, Estero, FL, herself a thoughtful blogger. "I have also read some wonderful, from-the-heart blog posts that speak to me as a reader and as a buyer."

Angelina Benedetti, King County Library System, WA, is even more emphatic. Reflecting on patrons miffed that she's not up on crop circles or urban chicken farming, Benedetti says, "To your question, 'Where has the authority gone?' I ask, 'How authoritative was anyone anyway?'"

Digging for gold  

Respected authorities can have holes in their knowledge, turn out sloppy work, fail to read the book, engage in logrolling, grind their axes vigorously, or "play out old grudges in the review pages," as Oxford University Press publicity director Purdy grouses. And amateurs can write persuasively, from a fund of knowledge, about their favorite books. The problem has always been and still is figuring out who to trust.

Whether for reading pleasure or collection development, concrete advice on how to sort through all this free-fall book talk is hard to come by. Beyond their favorite sources, readers turn themselves into critics, taking a prove-it-to-me stance while continually looking for reviewers or blogs that steer them "toward good reads and away from bad reads time and time again," as Purdy puts it. However, the pervasive anonymity of the web can make following standout writers a challenge, so dedicated readers focus on what grabs them, cultivate an ability to spot fakes and grandstanders, and recognize that some subjects (e.g., genre fiction) are better treated by committed amateurs than others (e.g., history).

Falling back on glam sites like the Huffington Post (www.huffingtonpost.com) or The New Yorker's Book Bench (www.newyorker.com/arts) is definitely a cop-out. "I've learned as much from a 'small' review as I have from a 'big' one," says Free Press's Qureshi, "and, having written myself, I know better than to be snobby about my sources."

Fortunately, this is not entirely a do-it-yourself project; the Internet provides built-in help for the free-for-all it has fostered. As the like-minded gather to discuss favored topics, connections are built and sensibilities acknowledged; friends can help filter out which books, reviewers, and sources are tops. Says LibraryThing's Spalding, "The New York Times gets Stephen King or Christopher Hitchens to review books in part because we know them well enough to care about their opinion. Well, I care about my friend Ben more than I care about either of those fellows. The same applies when you don't know the person, but you see that they share very similar tastes." Trusting your buddies isn't a new idea, but it's amplified infinitely on the web.

In making judgments, one can also look at the writing itself, which can be wipeout brilliant but is just as often messy and unreasoned or simply uninformative and routine. "Overall, I have mixed feelings about decentering (and usurping?) traditional voices because I value good writing and thoughtful analysis," says Stephen Morrow, an LJ fiction reviewer and composition professor at Ohio University. What consumer reviews and most blogs lack is an editor, not only to correct those pesky typos but to question dubious assertions and assure coherent thought. As Morrow smartly sums it up, "There's no editor to ask, 'You have some wonderful thoughts on deep-sea diving and the War of 1812, but what do you think of Cormac McCarthy's book?'"

Yet, Morrow, who like many of us finds himself of two minds on this subject, also values the raw energy and engagement of a writer unleashed. "Bloggers go for broke," he explains. "They can be original and tremendously funny or satirical because they have no one to stop them from saying stuff like, 'Nicholas Sparks is just phoning them in.'"

Beyond the traditional review, you've got intimacy (or something that feels like it), you've got sharp personality (read LJ reviewer Terry Hong's Smithsonian BookDragon blog, and you know she's whip-smart, charming, and not to be crossed), and you've got a populist voice ("I don't feel like I have to have an advanced degree in literature to understand the reviewer, as is often the case with The New Yorker," says Morrow). Since it's embarrassing to mislead an online friend or follower, you've also got brutal honesty, though, of course, scrupulous attention to standards of truthfulness mark more traditional writing as well. And, finally, you've got some good ideas; says Spalding drily, "It's a myth that online reviews are written by idiots."

An expanding forum  

Book coverage may be seeping from newspapers, but authority-driven reviews aren't lost. From Kakutani's work to the professional, prepublication commentary in LJ and elsewhere, they're integral to today's robust book talk wherever they appear.

"I now write for both print and online formats, and with that combination, my readership is in the multiple millions," notes book reviewer Jane Ciabattari, president of the National Book Critics Circle. "Before, I'd venture my reviews reached the population of the cities whose newspapers I was reviewing for, plus the magazine/literary quarterly audience." That's exciting.

The mix of review types endures because different readers use them differently. Some read reviews to determine what book to pick up next, others to decide what to purchase for patrons or customers. Some want to be part of a conversation for the sake of conversation, others to contribute to that conversation so they can see their names on the screen (why else would anyone want to be the 1,562nd commenter on Larsson?). Some want to learn about the subject, others simply to be entertained or to confirm impressions of a book they've finished. Some, like Qureshi, are editors seeking "to identify our audiences better and publish to them"; others are librarians like Fayetteville's Thorup, who would never use consumer reviews when leading book club discussion because, after all, "All the members have consumed the book and have their own opinions."

That's for now. What about the future? Those in the younger demographic don't have the habit of looking up to anyone when deciding what to read or see or absorb through their earbuds, depending instead on their cohorts. As Morrow notes, "Most of my students aren't reading book reviews at all, print or online."

Will they learn to depend on reviews like Ciabattari's? A few years back, credentialed reviewers might have despaired, but they're emerging from a prevailing sense of gloom to embrace the future. "We're at an exciting juncture," says Ciabattari. "The conversation about books has been growing exponentially because of the viral nature of social media and the many ways in which formerly print book publications are exploring the use of literary blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and so forth." In the heady, freewheeling environment of the web, readers have many options. They will join the conversation in their own way, whether online or mobile, drawn by something new or hot or intriguing that's just a click away.

PHOTO (COLOR)

~~~~~~~~

By Barbara Hoffert

Barbara Hoffert is Editor, Prepub Alert, LJ

graphic novel links from rough guides to

fetusx.com

lightspeedpress.com

dieselsweeties.com

achewood.com

somethingpositive.net

userfriendly.org

ctrlaltdel-online.com

Bibliotherapy evaluation tool for counselors

Found at ebookbrowse.com

   

Need for Bibliotherapy Training found in British Study

Found at ebookbrowse.com

   

Bibliotherapy in depth

Found at ebookbrowse.com

   

Oregon State Bibliotherapy Project

Found at ebookbrowse.com

   

Benefits of bibliotherapy (preview chapter 2)

Found at ebookbrowse.com

   

VA Bibliotherapy Resource Guide

http://docs.google.com/gview?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.triwest.com%2Fdocument_library%2Fpdf_docs%2FBibliotherapy_ResourceGuide.pdf

May not link.
Try searching "Bibliotherapy Resource Guide" pdf in Google.

bibliotherapy independent study

Found at ebookbrowse.com

   

Affective Bibliotherapy preview

Found at ebookbrowse.com

   

Grave Expectations by Bailey & Flowers

At 56 1/2 I'm shopping around for my post-death experience. My mother thinks it's macabre and even friends think it's one of stranger of my offbeat interests. But I think it's a topic that has lots of potential for those of us who like to plan, especially if those plans are prone to off the beaten path preferences.

I'm not alone in this as Bailey & Flowers attest in their book Grave Expectations: Planning the End Like There's No Tomorrow. The only thing I wasn't particularly keen on was the lined white spaces for adding your own plans, though a web link with these as forms that could be filled in and printed out for filing with important papers might be useful. As it is, it just kind of seems gratuitous and gives the book a kind of cheesy look. Having said that, I want to share some of the really cool stuff I found in book.

One of my favorite is the Ecopod, an Egyptian-shaped sarcophagus made from recycled paper, which I'd really like to buy now and design interior and exterior myself, do-it-yourself creative adventure of the "in between" as life is referred to by Robert Thurman in his works on Tibetan Buddhism & death.These only recently have become available in the States. Other fabulous ideas that deserve some serious consideration include:
Promession
and
Resomation
and I also liked
www.funeria.com.

Bibliotherapy Certification

Thank you, Rhea, for the history and info on bibliotherapy certification.

American Libraries, Mar/Apr2011, Vol. 42 Issue 3/4, p7-7, 1/3p

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article "A Feeling for Books" by Jennifer Burek Pierce in the November/December 2010 issue.

I am deeply concerned about the alarmist and misleading piece on bibliotherapy in Jennifer Burek Pierce's Youth Matters column "A Feeling for Books" (Nov./Dec. 2010, p. 48).

Bibliotherapy's place in librarianship is not a new issue; librarians have been debating it since its first use by a trained librarian in 1904, when E. Kathleen Jones used it with patients in a mental hospital. The field really caught on in the 1930s when it was practiced primarily with individual patients in medical hospitals; teams of librarians and doctors provided information about illnesses and outcomes in a service we now call patient education.

In 1939, ALA established its first Committee on Bibliotherapy, giving it official status as part of librarianship.

By the 1970s, librarians in prisons and mental hospitals (and in public libraries that provided outreach services to residential institutions) were also using bibliotherapy. At that rime, we talked about three types of bibliotherapy: institutional, clinical, and developmental. The last type was used primarily by librarians, teachers, and others to promote normal development and self-actualization in students and others in the community from the 1960s on.

Pierce's article did not define the type of bibliotherapy under discussion. It also neglected to mention the bibliotherapy training and certification available to librarians (and others).

In the 1980s, the ALA bibliotherapy unit worked with the National Association of Poetry Therapy to develop standards and training to practice bibliotherapy. A number of professional librarians (myself included) became certified practitioners after completing astringent process with a mental health mentor. This "license" was not mentioned in the article. Currently, the National Federation of Biblio/Poetry Therapy awards three different credentials: Certified Applied Poetry Facilitators, Certified Poetry/biblio Therapists, and Registered Poetry/biblio Therapists.

~~~~~~~~

By Rhea Joyce Rubin, Oakland, California

Characters in the Story of our Lives

On holiday at my mom's I've picked up something I wouldn't normally read, though the author is best-selling and well-reviewed. The novel, The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks, is a good story, not particularly compelling or challenging, but an entertaining, somewhat sentimental and so far predictable story. However, I did find a good quote that I think fits nicely into the bibliotherapy vein:
"People come, people go--they'll drift in and out of your life, almost like characters in a favorite book. When you finally close the cover, the characters have told their story and you start up again with another book, complete with new characters and adventures."
Who are the characters at play in your life?

Dublin's version of bibliotherapy

Useful format, though this is not bibliotherapy but rather a self-help reading bibliography.
Good to know that the subject is getting some play, nevertheless.

Deep State by Walter Jon Williams

Recently stumbled upon an old cyberpunk reading list from the 90's. Walter Jon Williams was on the list and I'd never read him. Though more of a techno-thriller than what I normally think of as cyberpunk, Deep State has a lot of similarities to early Gibson. He makes the usual political statement, in this case it's a Turkish regime, of "absolute power corrupts absolutely" while tossing out a number of gamer and hacker premises.

Of course, I love the fact that the main protagonist is female. There's just enough espionage, gadgets and romantic interest to keep the pages turning. No brilliant insights, but telling, in the same way that Wag the Dog reminds us that war isn't just about the military any more.

The Cut-Up Method of Brion Gysin

U B U W E B :: William S. Burroughs "The Cut-Up Method of Brion Gysin"

Literary Cut-Ups » RemixTheBook.com

Literary Cut-Ups » RemixTheBook.com

HUMUMENT.COM: A Humument, p. 51-60

HUMUMENT.COM: A Humument, p. 51-60:

Poetic Appropriation Art/Bibliotherapy

E.Moon (2003) via K.Wilhelm (1976)

The Speed of Dark, winner of 2004 Nebula Award for Best Novel, this was the book that set the bar too high and resulted in my not being able to find anything worth writing about for months.

I project autism is a next stage in evolution for all of us (as a species) as we overstimulate ourselves into multimedia stupors, myself included, don't get me wrong. I'm one of the worst. Plus, I already much prefer my privacy to dealing with people and would be benefit from a happy "bouncing room" like the one made available at work for our gifted narrator and protagonist. Even the little spinning fans might serve a purpose in helping to quiet the churning thoughts under bombardment from the incessant stream of interruptions and the Sisyphean task of rolling that boulder of email, listservs, twits, and posts up the mountain day in, day out.

Total identification with the quiet voice of our author, who speaks volumes:

"If they aren't going to listen, why should I talk?
I know better than to say that out loud. Everything in my life that I value has been gained at the cost of not saying what I really think and saying what they want me to say."


The book (one our narrator is reading on neurology) answers questions other people have thought of. "I have thought of questions they have not answered. I always thought my questions were wrong questions because no one else asked them. Maybe no one thought of them. Maybe darkness got there first. Maybe I am the first light touching a gulf of ignorance."

"Maybe my questions matter."

"I do not know what the speed of thought is. I do not know if the speed of thought is the same for everyone. Is it thinking faster or thinking further that makes different thinking different."

Must check out more Moon. See Remnant Population, a finalist for the Hugo Award.

In Kate Wilhelm's Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang we see a post-apocalyptic world where cloning strips the ability for creative, independent thought.

There's something about the eyes they just don't have. Theirs only see outward, I think, and yours, and those in the other men in the picture, they can look both ways.

Perhaps the greatest threat from floods of media input isn't how much we take in, but whether or not we take time to process and apply what we learn, that we look inward to test what we see and hear against our own internal, pattern-forming awareness.

And this is what distinguishes therapeutic, or the active reading that I think of in terms of bibliotherapy from passive reading, in general. In finding the right book at the right time, the one that speaks to us in the quiet whisper that we must be still and quiet to hear, we come a little closer to finding ourselves able to be the protagonists in our own stories.

Time Must Have a Stop by Aldous Huxley

"Perhaps dirt is the necessary condition of beauty."
"Perhaps hygiene and art can never be bedfellows."
"Remorse is pride's ersatz for repentance, the ego's excuse for not accepting God's forgiveness. The condition of being forgiven is self-abandonment. The proud man prefers self-reproach, however painful--because the reproached self isn't abandoned; it remains intact."
And because knowledge, the genuine knowledge beyond mere theory and book learning, was always a transforming participation in that which was known, it could never be communicated--not even to one's own self when in a state of ignorance.The best one could hope to do by means of words was to remind oneself of what one once had intuitively understood and, in others, to evoke the wish and create some of the same conditions for a similar understanding."
"But whereas any particular manifestation of beauty--in art, in thought, in action, in nature--is always a relationship between existences not in themselves intrinsically beautiful, this was a perception of, an actual participation in, the paradox of Relationship as such, apart from anything related; the direct experience of pure interval and the principle of harmony, apart from the things which, in this or that concrete instance, are separated and harmonized. And somewhere, somehow, the participation and the experience persist even now as I write."

Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje

"Everything is biographical, Lucien Freud says. What we make, why it is made, how we draw a dog, who it is we are drawn to, why we cannot forget. Everything is collage, even genetics. There is the hidden presence of others in us, even those we have known briefly. We contain them for the rest of our lives, at every border that we cross."
"We would study ourselves in this evolving portrait. It made us secretly competitive."
"We live permanently in the recurrence of our own stories, whatever story we tell."
"...retrievals from childhood that coalesce and echo throughout our lives, the way shattered pieces of glass in a kaleidoscope reappear in new forms and are songlike in their refrains and lines, making up a single monologue."
"...what is most untrustworthy about our natures and self-worth is how we differ in our own realities from the way we are seen by others."
"We relive stories and see ourselves only as the watcher, or listener, the drummer in the background keeping cadence."

Have you ever wanted to personally thank an artist or writer for giving you something so exquisite, for adding to your being by way of their wisdom tethered to life. Aloha nui loa, you kind, beautiful, brilliant man.

My Kingdom is a Book

Douglas Coupland Marshall McLuhan: You Know Nothing of My Work!

My Kingdom for a Book

Lately, I read and I read and I read and I read but I can't connect with the book that carries me to the place I need to  be.

socialmention.com shows lorebrarian top poster

http://socialmention.com/search?q=bibliotherapy&t=all&btnG=Search

Do your own search and/or follow the RSS feed to keep up on what's being posted on bibliotherapy all over the web.

Music Therapy Exercise

Using this list or your memory, if you're so lucky, create a soundtrack for your life.

Curtains by Tom Jokinen

Subtitle:
Adventures of an Undertaker-In-Training.
Inside scoop on post death rigamarole, including multitude of new options and trends toward green burial. Interesting read by Canadian author who spent six months behind the scenes, hands-on. At 55 1/2, I'm glad to know there are cheaper alternatives for my final purchase. For those who stand on ceremony, Robert Anton Wilson's send off celebration ushers in a cyber-mystic new age of dying. If I had some extra cash, I wouldn't mind investing in an artisan urn from Graton California. Will add links to sites offering such goodies when I have a chance to do a little surfing.

Poetry Therapy II

personally edited version of The Descent of Winter by William Carlos Willams

This sadness of the sea--
waves of lifting and falling mood.


My writings are a sea
full of misspellings and
faulty sentences. Level. Troubled.

There are no perfect waves--

by the bed

Curtains by tom jokinen; dreaming in chinese by deborah fellows; vamped by david sosnowski; house of many gods by kiana davenport

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GABA and Creativity

Information on readers and writers in collaborative creative experience.
(To be edited for pertinent info at some future date.)
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=s9wvObtBk_IC&oi=fnd&pg=PA427&dq=gaba+and+creativity&ots=AHoCPTxgx7&sig=Ko0OvlQHxFRQIsiw3tqBL9JbaH0#v=onepage&q=gaba%20and%20creativity&f=false