This article discusses interconnections between research methodology and English pedagogy in a recent study I undertook. The study was designed to deepen understandings about adolescent reading, using particular English teaching approaches to generate data, mindful that ideas about what constitutes the act of reading are often wide-ranging. I elected to work with young people who regularly read for a variety of purposes and pleasures, in order to discover what construction of reading might be brought into relief by those who count reading as a habitual pursuit amongst the many other activities with which they engage. Readers' representations of reading and readership were also analysed from multiple theoretical perspectives: sociocultural, spatial and historical. The article focuses specifically on some of the implications of undertaking multi-faceted research in English classrooms, raising questions about how certain kinds of English pedagogy combined with case study research may lead to different constructions of young people as readers.