Searching for self in literature? - Young adults’ reflections on importance and meaning of reading fiction in the digital age This paper aims at investigating young adults’, 16 - 25 years old, discussions on topics concerning uses of literature as a fictional medium, its importance as art and potential source of self-understanding and empathy, and how the experience of fiction and poetry in books differs from other fictional media. Finally, if and how fictional and reality-based narration on the whole are thought of as sources of truth or speculation. According to these topics, questions to be answered are: 1/ how do interests in and attitudes towards reading fiction and poetry appear in conversation among young adults? 2/how does reading literature and fiction relate to personal and social identities among young adults in conversation? 3/ how does conversation on these topics manifest itself in similarities, differences, groupthink, etc. within and/or between groups of young adults? The theoretical framework is based on literature and reception studies, the philosophy of dialogue and hermeneutics, social psychology, and media and communication studies. The method used in this study is focus-group interviews based on groups consisting of 4-6 respondents in each. The population is pupils in upper secondary school, in theoretical as well as practical programs, and in folk high school. Each category is represented by two groups, which will be approximately 30 respondents in all. The dialogue between the respondents is important within the focus groups. The analysis will be processed in three stages. First, conversational and communicational analysis is processed in search of patterns of associations and uses of analogies, distinctions, metaphors, and examples. Second, narrative analysis will be applied in search of personal experiences within the respondents’ conversation, considered as narratives. Third, content analysis is processed in order to find patterns within each category as well as similarities and differences in between the three categories.