This book studies the "grey area" of the success story of rural lending libraries in the Nordic countries through the activities of people's libraries in one area of Central Finland, in the parish of Kivijärvi and its neighbouring parishes. The study explores the influence of social, cultural, geographical and economic phenomena, such as the spread of revivalist movements, on the reading habits of the local population and reveals interesting reasons why the establishment of elementary schools and popular libraries and the growth of functional literacy did not automatically increase the informational capital of the common people of remote regions or lead to their social advancement. The combination of collective biographical and (transnational) comparative methods with rarely utilized original sources in this study is innovative and has not been used before in Finnish historical research on functional literacy and popular libraries. This book is primarily intended for academic professionals, but it can also be used as a university textbook.