My Consumer Autobiography
From the Book
“As an individual consumer, I am nimble: able to buy, borrow, or lease where I may; join or leave services as I please; take advantage of deals as they are offered. Libraries as buyers do not enjoy these luxuries, with budgets that need to remain stable from year to year while serving diverse constituencies.”
2024 Research Network Award
Arthur “AJ” Boston wrote My Consumer Autobiography both as a way to document his year in reading but also to interrogate what it means to be a reader, a librarian, a library patron, and a person buying–or licensing–books in the digital age. Whether reading for his own pleasure, sharing books with his kids, reading to gain practical information, or reading for a greater understanding of the world, Boston investigates what his decisions about how to acquire and read books affect not only him but what they mean for digital ownership, licensing restrictions, and costs–in time, in money, and in effort–for everyone. Boston’s personal narrative ends up telling a much deeper and more thought-provoking story about the digital information landscape we now inhabit.
Funding for this project was provided by the Richard Lounsbery Foundation.
