Books about Books: Trend Characteristics and Book Competence

Electronic and audio books have not replaced paper ones, but have updated them in a new way; that’s why books about books are becoming a noticeable trend. Its features are examined using the example of two recent publications: “The Book as an Illusion” by Yulia Shcherbinina and “Portable Magic” (“Notes of a Bibliophile” in Russian) by Emma Smith. First, the trend itself is characterized: its expansion with the claim to be “mainstream”, the use of the resource of a broader trend of “coziness”, the spread of book-related activities, including specialized blogging. Then, by comparing the works of E. Smith and Yu. Shcherbinina, the key points of the current agenda of the problematization of bookishness are analyzed: firstly, the status of materiality and, secondly, the activity of the owner or user of the book, including the not always obvious division of all book-related practices on reader’s and non-reader’s ones. To describe bookishness, the concept of book social competence is introduced, which is extended to modern book infrastructure and practices.