ReaderBank returns to the 2024 Edinburgh International Book Festival

Briefing Event: 18 August | 10.15-11.15 | Edinburgh Institute Venue B

Daily Drop-In Sessions: 21-24 August | 11.00-16.00 | Edinburgh Futures Institute

Led by the Festival Site, the ReaderBank is an ambitious study investigating the mysteries of reading, imagination, and wellbeing.

In just a few days time, the ReaderBank team will return to the site of our collaborators, the Edinburgh International Book Festival, with a renewed focus on understanding fictional worlds and how we imagine characters.

In addition to sharing results from the 2023 book festival, we’ll be delving deeper into imagination and the mind using groundbreaking VoiceMatch technology to understand what famous characters sound like to readers. Join our researchers at the ReaderBank Briefing Event (18 August) or one of our daily drop-in sessions (21-24 August) to see what we’ve been working on and learn how you can get involved in this year’s activities.

Book free tickets to the ReaderBank Briefing Event.

Visit the ReaderBank website.

Can't make it to Edinburgh?

Not to worry! You don’t need to attend the festival in order to take part in our research. If you’d like to try out some of our ReaderBank activities, please take a look at some of the options below:

• The Power of Immersion: Can you walk between worlds? This year, our survey delves into the Power of Immersion, and how we might transport ourselves into these narrative landscapes. Sign-up to take our 2024 survey!
• The Imagination Quiz: What kind of reader are you? Find out with the return of our fan-favourite Imagination Quiz, now further refined thanks to our 2023 participants.
• VoiceMatch: How do characters sound to you? We've teamed up with experts in voice perception to develop VoiceMatch, a new activity where you can explore how fictional characters sound to you.

If you want to learn more about what each of these modules looks to find, take a look at the Involvement page on the ReaderBank site.