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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Two Peas in a Pod: Book Sales Clubs and Book Ownership in the Twentieth Century

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description

In the early twentieth century, book sales clubs became popular as an alternative means of book distribution. Corinna Norrick-Ruhl offers a unique comparative approach, synthesizing research about book sales clubs in twentieth-century Germany and the USA. Whereas previous studies have focussed mainly on the recommended literature and the effect on middlebrow reading, Norrick-Ruhl shows how book sales clubs rendered the book as a cultural object available and affordable, filling working-class and middle-class shelves with attractive volumes of “furniture books”. While book sales clubs were enormously successful in the twentieth century, they have recently declined. The author finally underlines the significance attributed to book ownership and books as cultural objects in the twenty-first century.