I am trying to get my head around the idea of different types of reader. As someone with scientific training, I tend to look for definitions, yet I am not sure that is particularly helpful here. I read an online article just now by Jane P. Tompkins in which the ‘mock reader’ is described as “… another ‘author’ whose existence was entirely a function of the text.” who “… directs attention away from the text and toward the effects it produces.” To me, this implies that the effects produced by a particular text are consistent, but surely that is not the case. I have read the same passage in a book at different times and have discovered a different meaning. My response has varied with mood and even surroundings, and different people certainly have a different response to the same book. My question is, what do we make of this?