It’s Kind of Like a Comfort Blanket

This qualitative study uses semi-structured interviews with 26 adult readers of the Harry Potter series, to explore how pleasure reading in childhood and adolescences impacts reading lives, autonomy, competency, and relatedness years after first engaging with a text. Looking at Harry Potter as a sh...

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Main Author: Rebekah Buchanan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Oklahoma Libraries 2025-05-01
Series:Study and Scrutiny
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.shareok.org/studyandscrutiny/ojs/studyandscrutiny/article/view/1180
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author Rebekah Buchanan
author_facet Rebekah Buchanan
author_sort Rebekah Buchanan
collection DOAJ
description This qualitative study uses semi-structured interviews with 26 adult readers of the Harry Potter series, to explore how pleasure reading in childhood and adolescences impacts reading lives, autonomy, competency, and relatedness years after first engaging with a text. Looking at Harry Potter as a shared cultural experience allows for comparisons of reading experiences and narratives across study participants. Using Ryan and Deci’s (2000) self-determination theory, I argue for the examination into how pleasure reading in adulthood is impacted by childhood and adolescent autonomous relationships with texts. In addition, I explore how rereading the Harry Potter series has influenced participants’ life choices and cultivated long-term relationships with the texts.  
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series Study and Scrutiny
spelling doaj-art-a8a3f23c0b264cce998c6aa04e9084bd2025-08-25T20:53:07ZengUniversity of Oklahoma LibrariesStudy and Scrutiny2376-52752025-05-017110.15763/issn.2376-5275.2025.7.1.74-95It’s Kind of Like a Comfort BlanketRebekah Buchanan0Western Illinois University This qualitative study uses semi-structured interviews with 26 adult readers of the Harry Potter series, to explore how pleasure reading in childhood and adolescences impacts reading lives, autonomy, competency, and relatedness years after first engaging with a text. Looking at Harry Potter as a shared cultural experience allows for comparisons of reading experiences and narratives across study participants. Using Ryan and Deci’s (2000) self-determination theory, I argue for the examination into how pleasure reading in adulthood is impacted by childhood and adolescent autonomous relationships with texts. In addition, I explore how rereading the Harry Potter series has influenced participants’ life choices and cultivated long-term relationships with the texts.   https://journals.shareok.org/studyandscrutiny/ojs/studyandscrutiny/article/view/1180adolescent readersadolescent literacyharry potterpleasure readingreading culturefandoms
spellingShingle Rebekah Buchanan
It’s Kind of Like a Comfort Blanket
Study and Scrutiny
adolescent readers
adolescent literacy
harry potter
pleasure reading
reading culture
fandoms
title It’s Kind of Like a Comfort Blanket
title_full It’s Kind of Like a Comfort Blanket
title_fullStr It’s Kind of Like a Comfort Blanket
title_full_unstemmed It’s Kind of Like a Comfort Blanket
title_short It’s Kind of Like a Comfort Blanket
title_sort it s kind of like a comfort blanket
topic adolescent readers
adolescent literacy
harry potter
pleasure reading
reading culture
fandoms
url https://journals.shareok.org/studyandscrutiny/ojs/studyandscrutiny/article/view/1180
work_keys_str_mv AT rebekahbuchanan itskindoflikeacomfortblanket