Eudaimonic reading Reading routines on BookTube as ‘self-making-machines’ Alena Heinritz The article examines how, through what is here referred to as ‘routines’, reading is integrated into the social context of everyday life and how such reading routines as “technologies of the self” (Foucault) are part of a more general trend towards optimising the self. Studying reading routines on BookTube can help to understand how vloggers in digital reading culture navigate the sometimes conflicting demands of what Andreas Reckwitz calls the creativity dispositif, aiming for both personal growth and social recognition. In order to examine reading routines as ‘self-making-machines’, the article focuses on two reading vlogs on BookTube: one which addresses general strategies for self-improvement through reading and one which specifically focuses on the social habitus associated with reading ‘classics’. It will be argued that reading routines firstly document the process of working on the self by means of reading habits and book choices and secondly stage reading scenes, thus performatively shaping the reader as subject and the subject as reader. 1. Introduction The extent to which reading is social is strikingly demonstrated by the example of reading routines in social media, which combines the documentation and staging of silent reading with practices of self-measurement, economic aspects of influencing and what Jessica Pressman (2020) calls the aesthetics of bookishness. Routines are social because they represent strategies of self-improvement in ways that promise participation and encourage engagement and emulation. This article traces how, through routines, reading is integrated into the social context of everyday life and how reading routines as “technologies of the self” (Foucault 1988) are part of a more general trend on social media towards optimising the self (see, e.g., Spengler 2024: 140). Using two case studies, the article demonstrates how reading routine vlogs on BookTube document the vloggers work on the self AAA - Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik Agenda: Advancing Anglophone Studies Band 50 · Heft 1 Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen DOI 10.24053/ AAA-2025-0006 Alena Heinritz 96 through reading habits and book choices, thus performatively shaping the reader as subject and the subject as reader. This is based on Foucault’s idea that subjectivation, i.e., the creation of the social self that is socially accepted and capable of acting, is the result of technologies of the self (Foucault 1988). Based on these examples, I aim to explore what Nicolas Pethes has outlined as an endeavour to “read reading itself and recognise the practical basis of tradition-forming cultural techniques in this self-referentiality” (Pethes 2020: 132; trans. A.H.; see also Griem 2021: 16). To examine reading routines as ‘self-making-machines’, the article focuses on two reading vlogs on BookTube, the bookish community on YouTube. On the so-called ‘bookish’ social media platforms such as Book- Tube, videos recording reading routines have become a popular format. Bookish influencers often present themselves as “authentic”, “genuine”, and “relatable” book lovers on multiple platforms simultaneously (Reddan et al. 2024: 17; 36-37). The most prominent platforms include Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Each platform has distinct formal limitations, image regimes, and affordances. These differences create varied opportunities for influencers to express their identity and engage with audiences (Reddan et al. 2024: 16; 30). YouTube is particularly notable for allowing users to publish longer videos and engage in discussions with their audiences. This feature allows vloggers in reading routine vlogs on YouTube to present and analyse processes and practices in greater depth compared to platforms like Instagram and TikTok, where videos are typically shorter or constrained by stricter time limits. I define routine practices in social media as the strategic staging of a conscious psychophysical discipline for repeated actions aimed at enhancing productivity. The goal is to turn desired activities - such as sports, learning, healthy eating, or reading - into habits, thereby reducing the energy required to perform them through automatism. Once established, these routines are intended to be robust enough to overcome situational lack of motivation, thereby fostering the habitual practice of lifestyle improvements. As technologies of the self, understood here as eudaimonic, these routines are inherently social, insofar as they can only exist relationally within social frameworks. The “bookish practice” (Reddan et al. 2024: 37) of the reading routine within reading vlogs serves as a regulatory practice that facilitates extensive reading by minimising unpredictability and enhancing productivity (Spengler 2024: 140; 146). These routines function as ‘self-making machines’, an expression freely based on Foucault referring to mechanisms that override individual agency in order to enhance it (cf. Foucault 1978: 94; 139). They can be viewed as strategic self-care practices designed to optimise reading behaviour by integrating reading activities into daily life. Some reading vlogs on social media are solely dedicated to documenting, establishing, and discussing reading routines, while others only partially integrate a discussion of strategic reading practices into other reading-related content. Reading routines on BookTube as ‘self-making-machines’ 97 Routines in vlogs posted on social media platforms are aimed at a specific target audience (they are, for example, clearly gendered); they involve “relational and affective labour” by vloggers (Reddan et al. 2024: 23), and they promise and encourage participation “that promote feelings of belonging and social connection” (Reddan et al. 2024: 23). In social media, this promise of participation is embedded in complex structures of commodification. Some practices are linked to specific branded products, which can then be purchased via an affiliate link in the video description (e.g., Reddan et al. 2024: 5). Commodification is, of course, generally central in the context of social media: not only are videos on digital platforms always integrated into economic practices of advertising and selling, but the commodification of creativity and self-help content is also disguised through social functions of sharing (Christian Fuchs refers to this as “an inverse fetish character of the social media commodity”, Fuchs 2015: 230). Simone Murray, in her book The Digital Literary Sphere, calls attention to the tension between commercial interests and wide-spread self-perceptions on the part of social media users. She writes about user-generated forums for readers (e.g., Goodreads): Omnipresent in the self-descriptions by such sites is the rhetoric of selfhood and individuality, with membership of an online bibliophilic community promoted as providing opportunities for cultural self-fashioning and literary display to a global audience of presumably like-minded types. However, despite the air of community co-creation, these sites are typically corporate undertakings and have in many cases been partially or wholly acquired by Amazon [...]. (Murray 2018: 14) Social media content featuring routines is always based on the promise of participation, and this promise is capitalised on in the context of the economy of digital platforms. In what follows, I argue that it is precisely this ambivalence between creativity and participation, on the one hand, and capitalisation and social power structures that regulate inclusion and exclusion, on the other, that is evident in the reading routine videos. This ambivalence lies at the heart of the vloggers’ attempt to meet the sometimes contradictory demands of late modern society. To describe these social processes, I refer to two related concepts of cultural sociologist Andreas Reckwitz: “curated identity” and “creativity dispositif”. A “curated identity” - the central goal of routines - is a key component of this promise of participation (Mistralline 2022: 06: 26; see also Li 2023: 29). According to cultural sociologist Reckwitz, ‘curating’ in this context refers to “the intelligent selection and appropriation, the creative transformation and embedding that turn the disparate into a coherent whole that nevertheless retains its heterogeneity” (Reckwitz 2019: 295; trans. A.H.). This process consists of an interplay of “exploration”, that is, choosing what Alena Heinritz 98 seems to fit into the desired curated self, and “routinisation”, the temporary implementation into an existing lifestyle (Reckwitz 2019: 296; trans. A.H.). Against this background, reading routine vlogs can be understood as curation practices that are integrated into economic, aesthetic and, most centrally, social practices. Reading routines are thus arguably part of a paradox constellation and can be described as “forms of a eudaimonic life design [...] - which equally indicate a renunciation of goals such as success or prosperity and promise the creation of existential meaning, but often reproduce the very commercial and materialistic aspects that they have renounced” (Schaller-Fornoff & Fornoff 2023: 11; trans. A.H.). Sarah Brouillette, among others, has explored this rhetoric using the example of creative work, showing how its practices are “at once newly valuable to capitalism and romantically honorable and free” (Brouillette 2014: 4). This paradoxical “double structure” of the “romantic aspiration of the development of the self” and the “bourgeois’ goal of social success” (Reckwitz 2019: 26; 210; trans. A. H.) is, according to Reckwitz, the essence of the so-called ‘creativity dispositif’. In Reckwitz’s view, this dispositif has emerged because practices perceived as aesthetic, which focus on intensifying feelings and experience, have expanded at the expense of non-aesthetic practices since the 1980s (Reckwitz 2012: 30; see also Schaller- Fornoff & Fornoff 2023: 9). As a social mode of aestheticization, the creativity dispositif encompasses various social fields (Reckwitz 2012: 51). Curating everyday practices plays a central role here: The ideal type of a creative lifestyle describes a way of life characterised by extensive participation in the practices of the creativity dispositif. It is about shaping all everyday practices - profession and work, partnership, parenthood and friendship, leisure, spirituality, bodily relation, consumption and media use - and the entire biography according to the demands of aestheticisation. (Reckwitz 2012: 343-344; trans. A.H.) In the context of the creativity dispositif, the ‘good’ life is always the ‘creative’ lifestyle (see, e.g., Brouillette 2014: 6). Reading as a practice is understood to be central to this lifestyle - not only, but especially on ‘bookish’ social media platforms. The strategic observation and documentation of practices and habits in reading routines rest on the often implicit and sometimes explicitly expressed assumptions that, firstly, reading is fundamentally “good” (Birke 2016: 170) and reading a lot is desirable, and secondly, that the self can be improved by acquiring and sustaining good reading habits. Several cultural sociological studies assert that reading has a positive impact on the reader. Thumala Olave, for instance, connects research on “reading for the readers’ sense of self” (e.g., Long 2003) with her own findings from empirical research, which includes interviews, group discussions, and surveys of Reading routines on BookTube as ‘self-making-machines’ 99 women in Scotland. In her paper “Reading matters: Towards a cultural sociology of reading” (2018), she contends that “reading is a pleasurable activity which enables self-understanding, ethical reflection, and self-care” (Thumala Olave 2018: 417). It is especially the pleasures of enchantment that make reading popular for a wider audience of non-professional readers of fiction (Thumala Olave 2018: 426-429). Through ‘enchanting’ reading experiences, women readers immerse themselves in stories that trigger emotional responses, offer solace, and provide opportunities for personal growth. The subjective significance of reading fiction goes beyond mere escapism, as it fosters self-reflection, ethical considerations, and emotional engagement, ultimately aiding in shaping the reader’s identity and understanding of the world. In Thumala Olave’s view, these functions of reading are “inseparable from reflections about the good life - of how the person ought to live, including their relationships with others” (Thumala Olave 2018: 430). While these ideas about the ethical benefits of reading are of course contested (for an overview see, e.g., Birke 2016: 172), it is a powerful assumption that continues to shape discourses about reading to this day. Birke, in her book Writing the Reader: Configurations of a Cultural Practice in the English Novel (2016), analyses precisely these positive assumptions connected to contemporary reading by drawing, among others, on Jim Collins’ argument in Bring on the Books for Everybody: How Literary Culture Became Popular Culture (2010) that the popularity of reading stems from the widespread belief that reading improves the reader’s empathy and critical thinking (Birke 2016: 172-173). Such an “ideology of reading as intrinsic to a sense of personal identity” (Collins 2010: 11) is also repeatedly emphasised in twenty-first century literary fiction about reading novels, in which books are positioned as singularly valuable objects, celebrated for their unique and beneficial effects and readers as critical thinkers with a deep understanding of themselves and others (Birke 2016: 171-174). In a digital culture, the book as material object becomes a “badge of culture and sophistication” (Birke 2016: 171). Tracing such cultural assumptions about reading as fostering empathy and critical thinking is certainly crucial for comprehending the widespread sense of the positive impact of reading on individuals and society in the twenty-first century. However, the example of the reading routine, in particular, shows very clearly that there is a larger social structure underlying these aspects. In order to fully understand reading routines on social media, one must also consider them as expressions of a desire to balance the conflicting demands of the creativity dispositif. Beside calling for self-care and a quest for deeper meaning in life, this dispositif prescribes productivity and commodification. It is not only through the book as a commodity and its marketing that economic aspects are intertwined with digital reading culture and its practices (such as reading routines). Conceptualising digital reading culture in terms of the creativity dispositif makes Alena Heinritz 100 visible how contemporary social, economic, and political developments influence and shape it much more extensively. According to Reckwitz, the creativity dispositif mandates the fusion of self-care and productivity to foster a “creative” lifestyle, promising outcomes such as employability, attractiveness, participation, and social recognition alongside self-expression, perceived self-efficacy, aesthetic experience, and physical and mental health. The sought-after creativity is deeply entwined with the conditions of late capitalist society, wherein reading and the social significance assigned to books play a crucial role. Reading can be understood as integral to the construction of a curated identity that meets the demands of the late capitalist creativity dispositif. I will substantiate this assertion by offering two case studies. In the first case study, I will analyse a vlog post by the Dutch BookTuber “TheBookLeo” as an example of a practical guide to optimising reading habits. In a video entitled “build a reading routine with me: a reading vlog” (2022), she reflects on her reading routines, identifies areas for improvement, and demonstrates her efforts to implement these adjustments. The- BookLeo offers advice on how to incorporate reading into a creative lifestyle and imparts meta-skills for identity curation to her viewers. The second case study examines the ‘Read like Rory’ trend on social media and the ambivalent status of ‘classics’ in digital reading culture, using Haley Pham’s vlog post “reading like rory gilmore for a week” (2022) as a starting point. The two selected examples correspond to the categories of reader types in the digital reading culture described by Dorothee Birke: “The Mediator” - here represented by Haley Pham -, and “The Lifestyle Reader” (Birke 2021: 162-163; 164-167) - here represented by TheBookLeo. In both cases, reading is embedded in social structures of judgement, identity curation, self-care, and community building (“literary sociability”, Driscoll 2019: 285). 2. “build a reading routine with me”: reading routine as part of a creative lifestyle Dutch BookTuber “TheBookLeo” (Leonie Christel, 549.000 subscribers) opens her vlog post with the words: “Raise your hand if you love reading, but you are definitely not doing it as much as you want! ” She then hesitantly raises her hand and says, “I do” (TheBookLeo 2022: 00: 06-00: 17). Viewers respond to this in their comments, for example by writing “In answer to your first question...”, adding an emoji of a person raising their hand, or just an emoji of a hand. In the vlogger’s opening question, three main perspectives of the reading routine are established: the idea of participation (“raise your hand...”), the concept of quantification (“as much as you want”), and the idea of curating identity through affectively structured Reading routines on BookTube as ‘self-making-machines’ 101 choices (“love reading”). In the following, I examine how the vlogger establishes reading routines as a lifestyle practice, how she analyses and optimises practices of everyday life, and how on a meta-level she makes these procedures accessible to her audience, for imitation and further development. To incorporate a reading routine into everyday life, the BookTuber offers practical advice and humorously acknowledges the simplicity of her suggestions (TheBookLeo 2022: 02: 03-02: 13): reading before sleeping and during breakfast. This simplicity is also at the core of her ‘life hack’ - her advice on how to build a new routine. She emphasises the advantages of attaching a new habit to an existing routine: another habit that you guys know I’ve been trying to stick with for years is doing yoga regularly. One thing I’ve been thinking about is, you know, people always say like if you want to make like a habit you have to like tie it to another habit that you already have. So that whenever you do one thing you will automatically do the other thing. [...] And for nighttime reading the reason I think it works for so many people is because you take something you’re already doing - going to bed and having a nighttime routine - you just stick reading into that. (TheBookLeo 2022: 03: 52-04: 20; 04: 37-04: 48) Throughout her vlog, she shares glimpses of her daily routines and demonstrates her efforts to form new reading habits. By evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, she demonstrates to her audience how everyday life can be curated through routines. Once the routine is established, fast forward scenes showing her reading and listening to an audio book underlaid with cheerful music imply the success of her attempts (The- BookLeo 2022: 14.40-16: 10). Reading before bed becomes part of an established nightly routine, making it easier to adopt. However, the vlogger notes the challenge of not going to bed early enough, which results in lack of sleep (TheBookLeo 2022: 05: 39-06: 03). Reading during breakfast builds on and benefits from the regularity of the meal, allowing for a straightforward substitution of the “unhealthy” YouTube videos with “wholesome” reading: This morning I actually wanted to try reading during breakfast because I’ve seen a lot of people do that and I’m kind of the person that in the morning I just kind of eat my breakfast and I just watch some random YouTube video but maybe my mornings will be a lot more calm and nicer if I didn’t immediately hop behind the screen and just read a book for a bit. (TheBookLeo 2022: 07: 25- 07: 45) This clearly alludes to the already mentioned normative evaluation of the perceived ‘good’ medium of the book, which is deemed appropriate for a ‘good’ and ‘creative’ lifestyle. Looking back, TheBookLeo emphasises the Alena Heinritz 102 positive effects of reading over breakfast, but she identifies the difficulty of holding a book and turning pages while eating, suggesting the use of a digital device that enables page-swiping with one hand as a solution (The- BookLeo 2022: 09: 06-09: 56). Interestingly, the vlogger links the question of a productive reading routine to the question of whether it is legitimate not to finish a book: I’m sure a lot of you guys can relate to this if you’re reading a book and you’re not really into it you just kind of push yourself through until you finish it because you feel like you should at least finish it. [...] But I think I am just going to decide to not finish it and move on to another audio book that I will be more interested in listening to. Because that I think is often the main thing that can disrupt your reading routine and get you in a “reading slump” as you might call it like not really reading as much as you usually do because you are stuck with a book that you’re not really into. (TheBookLeo 2022: 19: 17-20: 53) This discussion reflects a broader conversation on social media about whether it is acceptable to abandon a book, balancing a respectful “giving the book a chance”, the pleasure of reading and the challenges of quantifying and documenting reading productivity (Thomalla 2018: 131). Here, of course, the documentation regimes of the books read play a decisive role. These can be found in the reading journals presented and discussed in BookTube, in which bookish practices of statistics and quantification, the interaction between discourses of productivity and achievement with ‘creative’ leisure practices come together. Reading journals and ‘Wrap-Ups’ (for example, an overview of the best books that a vlogger has read in a year) collect, count, and present the books read in a given period, and these video formats establish documentation and presentation regimes for the books read, leading to a prominent role for the finished book in digital reading culture. If only completed books count towards one’s reading list, not finishing a book becomes problematic. However, as TheBookLeo in her vlog points out, forcing oneself to read an uninteresting book can lead to ‘reading slumps’, negatively impacting reading statistics. Although the vlogger does not explicitly discuss how to document reading productivity, her exploration of whether it is legitimate not to finish a book clearly raises this issue. As Foucault observes in examining examples of self-writing from classical antiquity in “Technologies of the self”, diaristic practices always involve “vigilance”: “Attention was paid to nuances of life, mood, and reading, and the experience of oneself was intensified and widened” (Foucault 1988: 28). TheBookLeo’s vlog shows an intense form of vigilance as she turns her attention to the most inconspicuous everyday practices and tests their suitability for a lifestyle. Reading as a lifestyle is prevalent in the vlog when it is all about “shift[ing] the conversation from a focus on texts to a focus on books as objects and reading as a practice” (Birke 2021: 165). In Reading routines on BookTube as ‘self-making-machines’ 103 the vlog, this practice is clearly embedded into other lifestyle practices that may be conceptionalised as the “building blocks of the singularistic lifestyle” (Reckwitz 2019: 308-310; trans. A.H.): clothes (e.g., TheBookLeo 2022: 01: 33), make-up, home decoration, hand writing for the intertitles, music in the background spreading a general “artsy” aesthetic, food (e.g., TheBookLeo 2022: 05: 29-05: 33; 07: 09-07: 24) as well as spiritual and body culture (yoga, TheBookLeo 2022: 04: 30). The aesthetic and affective labour of TheBookLeo (Reddan et al. 2024: 23; 42) is especially evident in her creation of a ‘cozy’ atmosphere through the careful selection and arrangement of clothing and home decor, which resonates emotionally with her audience (cf., e.g., one of the comments: “Your videos are like a cozy time with a friend in an aesthetic café where you enjoy the pretty things around you but you can also discuss your problems without being judged.”) In her blog post TheBookLeo shares with her viewers the advice to integrate a new reading routine into a broader creative lifestyle. She observes that she would like for her routines to include both more reading and more creative handiwork. To address this, she combines listening to audiobooks with embroidering, a practice she has wanted to incorporate into her creative routine for a long time: The embroidering while listening to an audio book has really been a great solution actually because I’ve been wanting to embroider more. But the reason I rarely embroider is because I want to have like something to do while I do it. And I also want to listen to audio books more but I don’t often listen to audio books because I need something to do while I listen to the audio book. So those two problems are each other’s solution! (TheBookLeo 2022: 16: 16-16: 37) As she selects the book she wants to listen to while embroidering, The- BookLeo elaborates on the affordances of audio books. As she makes clear in the quote above, she only listens to audio books while she is doing something else. Usually, she says, she listens to audio books while cooking (The- BookLeo 2022: 12: 21-12: 25). This indicates that her attention during audiobook listening is inherently partial, which informs her genre preferences: she may choose to listen to romance or contemporary literature (TheBookLeo 2022: 12: 30-12: 33), but not to fantasy, due to the following reasons: When I’m sitting down with a fantasy book, I have like the mental capacity to, you know, visualise everything vividly, which makes the experience of reading a fantasy book like so much better for me. But when I’m listening to an audio book and I’m cooking, I can’t really do that because I’m also focussing on the things that are in front of me. (TheBookLeo 2022: 12: 37-12: 57) Alena Heinritz 104 She also experiments with listening to audiobooks while walking in her neighbourhood (TheBookLeo 2022: 17: 27-18: 01). However, upon evaluation, she decides against incorporating this practice into her routine, preferring instead to focus on her surroundings while walking, which she finds essential for a wholesome experience with a positive effect on her mental health (TheBookLeo 2022: 18: 27-19: 02). With her detailed observations on beneficial daily routines, the Book- Tuber provides viewers with practical advice on building a reading routine that seamlessly fits into everyday life. More interestingly, she makes the implicit practices of everyday routines explicit, offering concrete suggestions for incorporating reading into these routines. On a broader level, she encourages viewers to engage in self-observation and self-improvement, prompting them to critically evaluate their daily practices and analyse them as habits that can be modified in order to form better routines. Judging by the comments, viewers are happy to respond when they share their own observations about their routines and reading practices in their comments. 3. ‘Read like Rory’: reading classics in the digital reading culture In this second case study, I will examine Haley Pham’s vlog post “reading like rory gilmore for a week” against the background of the ‘Read like Rory’ trend in digital reading culture, a trend which nicely illustrates the status of so-called ‘classics’ in this context. I argue that the vlog is a very interesting example of how, on the one hand, reading books labelled by vloggers as ‘classics’ is a highly valued and prestigious practice in digital reading culture and, on the other hand, those works are seen as difficult and inaccessible. This lack of ‘relatability’, which is attributed to the classics, is sensitively perceived by the vloggers as an exclusion mechanism that builds on the established power structures of an educational elite. Dealing with these power structures is ambivalent: on the one hand, assumed evaluation patterns are accepted (when the idea that ‘classics’ are particularly ‘valuable’ reading is adopted), but on the other hand, the value of participation in digital reading culture can at times counter this with the ideas of community and relatability. Pham is a well-known BookTuber with 3.4 million subscribers (as of November 2024). Among her most interesting reading routine postings is a series of videos in which she sets herself ‘constraints’ to control her reading. For example, she reads books that strangers recommend or books that her ‘unbookish’ husband buys for her. These videos all follow the same dramaturgy: there is curiosity at the beginning, concern about the difficulty of the challenge and an evaluation at the end. Her attempt to read like Rory Gilmore for a week thus fits into her own series of videos featuring Reading routines on BookTube as ‘self-making-machines’ 105 random reading choices. At the same time, it connects to a larger conversation on social media, which focuses on ‘Read Like Rory’ content. Rory Gilmore, the protagonist of the TV series Gilmore Girls, is an early personification of the aesthetics of bookishness in digital popular culture (“she makes reading classics cool”, Pham 2022, 00: 17). Gilmore Girls was popular in the 2000s and became a familiar pop cultural reference in digital reading culture through a Netflix sequel in 2016. Rory, the daughter of a young single mother in the idyllic fictional U.S. town of Stars Hollow, has been a disciplined reader of highbrow literature from a young age and continues to be one as a student at first-class educational institutions. This case study will concentrate on the reception of the series, particularly focusing on the bookish character of Rory within the context of digital reading culture. Her identity as a passionate reader - the “ultimate reader” (O’Neill 2023: 5) - is already established in the pilot of the original series. In her first conversation with her love interest, Dean, he tells her that he has watched her reading: After school, you come out, and you sit under that tree there, and you read. Last week it was Madame Bovary; this week, it’s Moby Dick. [...] Last Friday, these two guys were tossing around a ball, and one guy nailed the other right in the face. I mean, it was a mess: blood everywhere, the nurse came out, the place was in chaos, his girlfriend was all freaking out, and you just sat there and read. I mean, you haven’t even looked up. I thought “I’ve never seen anyone read so intensely before in my entire life. I have to meet that girl”. (Glatter 2000: 25: 13- 25: 48) Dean explains his admiration for Rory with a precise, quantifying, and sequential observation of her reading habits. His observation of Rory’s behaviour not only characterises the protagonist as an excessive, concentrated, and immersed reader who forgets about her surroundings when reading but also reflects the fascination that this behaviour holds for viewers of the series and later for the bookish community on social media, who also deal with this excessive reading in a quantifying way. Throughout the show, there are many scenes that deal with Rory’s excessive reading. Probably the most cited scene in digital reading culture is a kind of visual reading list in which Rory tries to fit a large number of books into her school bag. When her mother asks her why she needs so many books for one day, Rory explains that she has a habit of reading different books depending on the situation: Rory: This thing is too small. [...] Lorelai: That backpack is not too small. [...] Just take your school books and leave some of the other books. Rory: I need all of my new books. Lorelai: You don’t need all these. [...] Edna St. Vincent Millay? Alena Heinritz 106 Rory: That’s my bus book. Lorelai: Uh-huh, what’s the Faulkner? Rory: My other bus book. Lorelai: So just take one bus book. Rory: No, the Millay is a biography, and sometimes if I’m on the bus and I pull out a biography and I think to myself: “Well, I don’t really feel like reading about a person’s life right now”, then I’ll switch to the novel and then sometimes if I’m not into the novel I’ll switch back. [...] Lorelai: What is the Gore Vidal? Rory: Oh, that’s my lunch book. Lorelai: Uh-huh, so lose the Vidal or the Faulkner, you don’t need two novels. Rory: Vidal’s essays. Lorelai: Uh-huh, but the Eudora Welty is not essays or biography? Rory: Right. Lorelai: So, it’s another novel, lose it! Rory: Uh-uh, it’s short stories. Lorelai: Uh, this is a sickness! (Gilmore Girls, Season 2, Episode 7, Erdman 2001: 03: 45-04: 29; see also O’Neill 2023: 4) Scenes like this one, in which the book as a material and aesthetic object is fetishised and integrated into everyday life, shape the image of the protagonist Rory Gilmore as a reader. She becomes a mediating figure whose fictional reading scenes translate “the medial regime of the book and value judgements associated with the symbolic dimensions of reading, books, and book use” into digital reading culture (Birke & Fehrle 2018: 61). Rory’s reading habits have struck a chord with the bookish reading community on social media, and many members of the digital reading culture take Rory very seriously as a mediating figure. As Cassie Gutman states in her essay on Rory as a reader, “[s]he made lots of us readers feel like we weren’t alone in our bookish quirks” (Gutman 2023). In fact, the character’s reading behaviour has led to a lively communication between readers who want to read ‘like Rory’, sharing reading routines and content. The ‘Read Like Rory’ trend encompasses compilations of book titles that Rory reads over the course of the series (e.g., on Goodreads), including discussions about which reading list is the correct one (e.g., on Reddit, dulapeepx 2023), Rory Gilmore book clubs (e.g., hosted by Kristine Eckart), challenges “Reading like Rory Gilmore” (e.g., on Goodreads or The Literary Lifestyle hosted by Jules Buono, which is said to take 5-10 years to accomplish completely, Buono 2024), and “Study with me” videos with short film clips showing Rory reading or studying (e.g., study beats 2021). This trend clearly appeals to affect through its ‘cosy’ bookish aesthetic and the narrative of an authentic, book-loving community, combining the emotional with the commercial. Merchandising products like clothing, notebooks, mugs, and coasters labelled ‘Read Like Rory’ (e.g., on Redbubble) represent only the most visible manifestations of this. Reading routines on BookTube as ‘self-making-machines’ 107 In the ‘Gilmore lifestyle’ trend, quantification and community building go hand in hand. As the back cover of But I’m a Gilmore! Stories and Experiences of Cast, Crew, and Fans says about the show, its convergent content, and its fan community: “It’s a lifestyle. It’s a religion. It’s a family” (Dryfhout 2023). Accordingly, the workbook accompanying the book You’ve Been Gilmore’d! The Unofficial Encyclopedia and Comprehensive Guide to Gilmore Girls and Stars Hollow (Dryfhout 2020) invites participation with suggestions for a Gilmore Girls lifestyle: “The Companion book functions as a workbook where you can tick boxes as you watch every movie mentioned in Gilmore Girls, read every book, listen to every song, and work your way through the Gilmore Girls inspired bucket list, and study guides” (Dryfhout 2024). Although fans of Gilmore Girls and members of digital reading culture do not necessarily overlap - Haley Pham herself says that she has only seen excerpts of the series, which may also be attributed to generational differences - the ‘Read Like Rory’ trend indicates that there is at least some intersection between the two groups. A $10 tool created by The Rory Gilmore Book Club, designed to quantify and track progress through Rory’s reading list, can be viewed as a connection between fandom and digital reading culture: “I lost my original Rory list! ” “I keep losing track of how many books I’ve read! ” “I haven't counted for a while nowtakes so long! ” Is this you? You’re not alone- I hear this ALL THE TIME from fans doing the Rory Challenge. You need the Gilmore Book Club Reading Tracker Spreadsheet! (“The Gilmore Book Club”) Not only does “The Gilmore Book Club reading tracker spreadsheet” create a sense of community among Gilmore Girl fans, but also between readers and the fictional protagonist. The vlogger Carolyn Castagna (CarolynMarieReads), for example, says when reading a book from the “Rory reading list” she is “happy to think that Rory has read it too” (cit. in O’Neill 2023: 6). Similarly, Pham remarks after having finished reading The Picture of Dorian Gray: “I do feel cool that I read a classic, you know, and I do feel that I get to experience Rory Gilmore in a deeper way. Because you watch the show and you watch her read really cool books and you know that she’s smart and then actually reading the books that she’s reading...” (Pham 2022: 07: 09-07: 22). Reading here is, therefore, social as well as parasocial: it is shared with the recipients of the vlog, and it is also an attempt to establish and strengthen a social relationship between the vlogger and the protagonist of the show. In these various attempts to imitate Rory as a reader, the distinction between ‘classics’ and easier-to-read books is very much in evidence. Pham introduces Rory’s reading choices with her being a “smart person”: “Rory Alena Heinritz 108 is known for being super studious, super smart, just reading classics for fun, you know, as you do as a smart person. So, I feel like I have to read a classic in this video” (Pham 2022: 01: 24-01: 31). She decides to read, among other titles, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and actually started the audiobook of The Picture of Dorian Gray because I was scared it would be difficult to get into - ’cause it’s a classic, you know! So far, it seems like it’ll be easy to read. [...] I do enjoy it, but I am a tad bit confused at some points because I usually am with classics because I’m just not - I just don’t grasp them that well ’cause I am not as smart as Rory Gilmore probably is. (Pham 2022: 03: 54-04: 04; 04: 43-04: 54) Later, though, Pham recommends The Picture of Dorian Gray as an “entertaining and easier […] to read” classic (Pham 2022: 07: 24-07: 27). By showing that she can read a ‘classic’ despite her initial reservations, Pham takes on the role of a mediator, “an approachable and humorous mentor whose mission is to introduce other readers to the works of authors they might deem difficult” (Birke 2021: 163). Part of this mediating role is admitting to not ‘grasping classics’ that well or ‘getting caught’ with her phone instead of reading (Pham 05: 30-05: 33). The comments indicate that the video serves this function: viewers acknowledge Pham’s role as a mediator (“You are a role model for everyone who has ever said ‘I should get more into reading.’”; “I thought I wasn’t fluent enough but turns out everyone struggles reading classics”), praise the aesthetics of the video and Pham’s quote about “Rory style”, (“I am obsessed! ! You achieved her aesthetic so beautifully! ” ) , and discuss the challenges and pleasures of reading classics (“I know classics can be hard to read but keep going, it’s so worth itttt”). “Rory Gilmore Readathons”, too, often discuss the matter of ‘challenging’, hard-to-read ‘classics’, which are set aside in favour of “classics that don’t actually read like a classic (phew! )”, such as books by Agatha Christie or Jane Austen (Chen 2023; Roselyn 2022). But when a ‘hard-to-read’ classic can eventually be taken off the list, the success is shared on social media (e.g., “Finally checked Anna Karenina off the list”, e.g., therorygilmorebookclub 2023). In the digital reading culture, reading ‘classics’ is associated with arduous labour and intellectual overload - and collides with the prevailing regime of metrification: when it comes to counting the number of pages read in the shortest possible time, it is simply not efficient to choose a classic (cf. vlogger Ciara Foster, see O’Neill 2023: 5). Nevertheless, reading ‘classics’ is an attractive challenge, and this is linked to the aforementioned ideas of the “good” life and the “creative” lifestyle. In her essay “The goodness of Gilmore: Examining the moralisation of reading in the Rory Gilmore-inspired readathons of BookTube”, Olivia O’Neill explores the implicit assumptions associated with Rory’s reading habits. She examines “the ways in which literacy has come to be associated Reading routines on BookTube as ‘self-making-machines’ 109 with righteousness, productivity, and honor - and how certain types of literature are thought to help in achieving these values” (O’Neill 2023: 1). Drawing on Harvey J. Graff’s book The Literacy Myth: Cultural Integration and Social Structure in the Nineteenth Century (1979), Janice Radway’s A Feeling for Books: the Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Taste and Middle-Class Desire (1997) and Deborah Brandt’s article “Drafting U. S. literacy” (2004), O’Neill traces the discourse of the “good” and “productive” reader and shows its continued effects on the digital reading culture (2023: 2). Based on this, I would like to go one step further and argue that the actors in the digital reading community are very aware of these attributions and use them deliberately in curation practices. Reading routine vlogs play a central role in this, not only by offering reading practices for emulation and participation but also by revealing meta-skills of how these reading practices can be curated. Class-specific attributions of certain forms of literature are closely related to these assumptions about a ‘good’ and ‘productive’ reader. O’Neill explains how the division of literature into pleasantly readable and relatable popular fiction and the “chilly and inaccessible world” (2023: 3) of the so-called ‘classics’ is maintained. In her analysis of class and reading behaviour in Gilmore Girls, O’Neill shows the distinction Rory makes between the middlebrow literature and popular culture products she consumes together with her mother (which they both enjoy) and her extensive reading of highbrow literature, which she considers to be the only thing of value for her educational path (2023: 3-4; see also Detmering 2012: 1). This cultural hierarchy is a reflection of the meritocratic and very US-American utopia of the fictional small town of Stars Hollow in the series: “it is the ways in which Gilmore Girls depicts Rory’s reading - insisting that, if watchers simply read as many books as Rory, they too can attend an Ivy League school - that perpetuates the literacy myth, disguising the impact that class and wealth have on her success” (O’Neill 2023: 6). These normative ideas go back to bourgeois practices of distinction from the 19 th century, where reading certain canonised books was an “instrument of self-assurance for an entire social group” (Schneider 2019; trans. A.H.; see also Birke 2021: 157). While viewers are aware that Rory’s expensive education is only possible because of her grandparents’ wealth and prestige, the show clearly suggests that her reading practices enable a form of social mobility that would otherwise be unattainable. Reading then, is not only about content or aesthetic qualities but also about the “creation of emotions and experiences” and the “cultivation and management of lifestyles” (Griem 2021: 13; trans. A.H.). The continuing belief in “established literary credentials” (Murray 2018: 55) can be seen in the discursive treatment of so-called ‘classics’ in digital reading culture. Their reputation persists despite algorithms, and this observation partly contradicts Murray’s statement that in the digital literary sphere, “[r]eputation becomes less a question of accrued symbolic or social capital than Alena Heinritz 110 of mathematics” (Murray 2018: 55-56). Reading ‘classics’ - even if the criteria of social capital have shifted slightly in the context of the creativity dispositif - can still be motivated by a promise of social recognition and social mobility. In digital reading culture this is reflected most vividly in the context of discussing how to read a ‘classic’, which is seen as both a socially worthy achievement and an intimidating challenge. Reading routine vlogs, like Haley Pham’s, attempt to moderate between these two sides of ‘classic’ reading. Vloggers, then, act as mediators by seeking a way that their viewers can emulate in order to deal with the sometimes very contradictory demands of the creativity dispositif: exclusion and participation. 4. Conclusion: reading routines as social practices In his article “A postdigital paradigm in literary studies”, Stephen Abblitt describes the present as a post-digital age “in which digital media and technologies have become the dominant, if not hegemonic, aesthetic, social, epistemological and ontological paradigm” (Abblitt 2019: 97). In this context, he argues, literary studies must endeavour “to describe how the human reader is entangled in complex, motile, mutable networks of sociomaterial and technical relations that foreground the reading experience” (ibid.: 98) and “pay ever closer attention to the interplay between a text’s physical characteristics and its signifying strategies, and the embodied experience of reading in the postdigital age” (ibid.: 102). This paper has offered a praxeological investigation of reading routines in digital reading culture in order to illuminate these complex relationships among the material, aesthetic, economic, and social aspects of reading. In exploring precisely how reading routines are performed and presented, the two case studies have shed light on the way in which digital reading culture configures the connection between reading, identity curation and subject formation. The first case study examined TheBookLeo’s practical guide to optimising reading habits, where establishing and continuously adjusting the reading routine is integral to a broader strategy for a more creative lifestyle. This lifestyle encompasses activities such as embroidering, walking, healthy eating, room decoration, clothing, and make-up. The second case study analysed Haley Pham’s vlog, “reading like Rory Gilmore for a week”, which emphasises the social habitus of reading ‘classics’ and the role of reading challenges in fostering community and participation. Both examples demonstrate a heightened awareness of implicit everyday practices, suggesting that reading routines can be understood and explored as social practices of cultural vigilance embedded within the framework of the creativity dispositif. Reading routines on BookTube as ‘self-making-machines’ 111 Reading routines illustrate a case of reading as social practice that involves self-measurement, economic influences, and aesthetic considerations. They serve as “technologies of the self”, aimed at optimising the self by making reading a habitual part of everyday life. They act as ‘self-making machines’, promoting productivity and self-care while also engaging with the commercial aspects of digital platforms. Overall, this paper has shown how studying reading routines on BookTube can help to understand how the participants of digital reading culture navigate the partly conflicting demands of the creativity dispositif, aiming for both personal growth and social recognition. As eudaimonic practices, reading routines on social media platforms are intricately integrated into economic, aesthetic, and social practices, contributing to curated identities that align with the expectations of late capitalist society. 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