摘要：This study analyzes students’ reading of self-improvement books in two university contexts. The initial hypothesis originates from market studies and national surveys that show high consumption rates among these types of popular literature. One of the major goals was to discover what makes them so attractive to teenagers and young people. A theoretical discussion is presented here based in sociocultural studies and positivistic psychology. Methodology was based on a qualitative analysis of a corpus integrated by marketplace studies and public school student’s testimonies from the last two years of high school and the university level. Data sheds light on the main topics of interest from the books themselves and from the readers. Conclusions lead us to assert that more than contexts, the condition of young people defines them as readers in a society in movement. They just have different perspectives about happiness.
