The present study is an attempt to understand the way readers read books within the context of production-reproduction in nowadays Literature. The empiric part of the research included interviews with ten Brazilian readers, who chose the books they read and told us about their readings. The half-open interviews were recorded by a voice recorder, and analyzed during the composition of this work. Using the images expressed by readers during these interviews, and making use of a physiognomical method, inspired by some studies of Theodor Adorno, the following immanent categories of book were identified: a) illusion of closeness; b) temporal conservation; c) relative ubiquity; d) semi-standardization; and e) unity portability-fluidity. The relationship between reader and book, crossed by these categories, tends to promote the "hungry of reading" and the distracted reading as typical ways of reading.
Reading; critical theory; cultural industry