Talk About Books

Peplow demonstrates detailed analysis of spoken language ... The critical evaluation of CoP [communities of practice] and CA [conversation analysis] in this book is insightful and would be useful for researchers and postgraduate students who are considering using these approaches to analyse their data. * Discourse Studies *
In this detailed and insightful exploration of book group discussions, David Peplow explores the sometimes collaborative, sometimes antagonistic experience of what it means to be a book group member. Working with the fine-grained detail of transcripts of talk, he demonstrates (rather than simply asserts) some of the rhetorical and interactional strategies by which speakers manage their entitlements and obligations as members, how they work up collective readings and judgements, and how reading practices are both revealed and negotiated through interaction. A valuable contribution to the growing scholarship on book groups, Peplow’s text offers particular insight into the order and norms of the book group as a community of practice. -- Bethan Benwell, Senior Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics, University of Stirling, UK
Over the last decade, conversation analysis has emerged as the most rigorous and systematic means of studying the things people say about books. Its full power is brought to bear on the speech of four British reading groups in this fascinating study, which should be read by everyone who has an interest in real readers – and is willing to wave farewell to that speculative sacred cow, the ‘reader’ known to stylistics and literary criticism. -- Daniel Allington, Associate Professor, Department of Arts and Cultural Industries, UWE Bristol