In the middle of my Patron 2.0 research I came across Fans, Bloggers, and Games: Media Consumers in a Digital Age by Henry Jenkins (review coming). Knowing his books from my previous life as a film theory student, I added the book to my research pile. As that book is in some regards a sequel to Textual Poachers, I also checked it out to compare texts.
Textual Poachers is an examination of fandom, or the fen as they sometimes call themselves. As this one was written in the days before blogs, it looks at the fan fiction shared in the days of usenet and before.
There are long chapters on slash and to my disappointment a recurring assertion that men and women are fundamentally incapable of reading the same text the same way. Apparently my ovaries make me want to see a homosexual relationship between Kirk and Spock. Um no. You know how I spend most of my time watching Star Trek? I spend my time wondering why the male actors are all wearing blue eye shadow. It seems so illogical.
So anyway, I read this book primarily for fun. It wasn't on topic for my Patron 2.0 paper. It was interesting but it felt dated. It also felt too simplistic in some of its conclusions. If, though, you are a reader or a writer of fanfic, you should read Textual Poachers.