ReaderBank is the world's most ambitious study of reading, imagination, and wellbeing.

Every day, readers around the world lose themselves in novels or poetry, but how and why that happens can be mysterious and unexpected. With ReaderBank, we are aiming to collect a variety of information on what it is to read and imagine. From lively festivals like the Edinburgh International Book Festival, to our own workshops and projects, and now the Jaipur Literature Festival, we collate stories of how literature touches lives across the globe. Over the coming years, this project will create a large, longitudinal, open-source database containing information provided by readers from all over the world.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into At ReaderBank, we believe that by exploring reading experiences, we can learn more about empathy, creativity, the imagination, and mental health. Understanding the hidden ways that reading affects us can help enhance our everyday lives, making us more connected to each other and more aware of ourselves.

The ReaderBank is a large, open-source project which aims to better understand the reading experience. Using interactive and survey-based measures, we want to reach out to different reading communities, share current knowledge of reading and the imagination, and collect a large bank of data to better shape our collective understanding of these phenomena. The best example of this is our Imagination Quiz, a gateway into the ReaderBank that tells you what kind of reader you are based on 16 simple questions.

1. We think there are at least six different types of reader, all of whom vary in what they see, hear and feel when they plunge into a story. The most common are the Spectator and Listener but there’s evidence of all six types occurring fairly equally across genders and ages of readers.

2. Our results from ReaderBank 2023 showed us that these are driven by three fundamental Forces of the Imagination: “Space and Vision”, “Voice and Language”, and “People Models”. These forces vary for each reader, powering what we experience, and mapping on to how the brain works.

3. In 2024 we discovered that they are complemented by a fourth factor – perspective. When you read, are we in the action or on the outside? This might change, across different writers, books, and characters, but it determines whether you experience the other Forces of the Imagination as a rapt observer, or with full main character energy.

If the reader types tell us something about ourselves, the forces of the imagination tell us what to explore scientifically. Identifying the different forces that drive the imagination allows us to connect up the subjective experience of reading with how the brain uses different skills and resources to build a unique picture, just for us.  And most importantly, it shows that there is no one way to read. Readers are different; within families, between couples, and in classrooms, no two readers are the same.

The ReaderBank shows us one glimpse into how diverse the imagination can be. This is important for understanding reading and its effects, especially for how it makes us feel and support out wellbeing. But it also shows that reading and imagination are complex; if no two readers are the same, nor are the effects that reading will have. Our relationship to reading is unique and personal. And we know, from our data so far, that the Forces of the imagination link to other important things in our lives:

• The different forces link to imagination skills in other parts of everyday life. If you are high in Space and Vision, you are probably good at imagining things across the senses. You are also more likely to become immersed in a text: if you can build the world, it can surround you.

• If you are high in Voice and Language, you might not necessarily be good at imagining sounds, but you can do conversations.  This seems to be closely linked to perspective; if you have an ear for dialogue, switching positions and becoming the character are other things in your repertoire.

• If are high in People Models your imagery skills are very specific – you’re an expert in imagining emotions and bodily feelings. You can predict how someone is thinking and feeling – even to the point that you blur the lines between you and others.

• Daydreaming is sometimes thought of as a negative thing: if we are daydreaming we are not paying attention, we are not “on task”. But all of the forces are linked to creative and constructive daydreaming in real life, not lapses in attention or “faulty” daydreaming.  This shows us that the reading imagination is a skilful activity – a powerful imagination takes focus, during reading and beyond.

Previously our team have worked mainly with Edinburgh International Book Festival to design and run all these activities.. With JLF, we now want to pose those same questions to the readers of Jaipur and beyond. We are also keen to drill down into how these forces relate to reading preferences, health and wellbeing. Working with JLF gives us the chance to invite the readers of the world into ReaderBank, making it a truly global collaboration.