How else can you refer to an audience, beside as audience, when you mean people who are reading a book?
I have thought of:
audience
readership
readers/reader
etc
To clarify: I want words that refer to the audience of a text – doesn't have to be a book per se. So, in this sentence it would be "The simile makes the _ feel happy" where _ is replaced with audience, readers, us, etc..
Best Answer
With regard to books, the traditional way is to refer to "the reader" (singular). This means the typical reader. Sometimes this phrasing is even used within a book (especially in a Preface) to avoid saying you. "the reader should note that...." Likewise "the author" is sometimes used to avoid saying I or we.