This study investigates how adult readers in Russia engage with self-help books within a dynamic therapeutic market, focusing on how they interpret imperatives, construct genre boundaries, and enact agency amid neoliberal discourses and evolving mental health infrastructures. Drawing on 15 qualitative interviews with self-selected participants from digital psychological communities, the study details how readers negotiate between imported and domestic texts, dynamically evaluate author credibility, and calibrate book selection through both digital and social networks. It analyzes the gendered landscape of readership, revealing patterns shaped by social positioning and access constraints. Findings highlight that readers actively curate and adapt practices—such as selective reading, annotation, sharing, and digital curation—to manage cognitive and emotional labor, respond to cultural resonance, and critically engage with prescriptive advice. Barriers including market saturation, cultural mismatch, and linguistic disconnect foster strategic resistance and critical boundary-setting, positioning readers as active cultural intermediaries. By foregrounding the creative, emotional, and critical work of Russian self-help readers, the study contributes to the cultural sociology of reading, demonstrating how agency, meaning-making, and genre legitimation are collaboratively produced at the intersection of market logics, digital infrastructures, and individual subjectivities.
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