Oprah. I’m not a fan.
Lots of people will have stopped reading this post now that I’ve said that as it seems her fans are many and loyal. But those shiny ‘Oprah’s Book Club’ stickers on the front of books – urgh. Sure fire way to make me move to the next book on the shelf. It’s not to say that the books Oprah gave her stamp of approval to aren’t great books – I just hate the hype.
I’ve read lots of interesting stuff about Oprah’s book club over the years, including that she has single-handedly launched authors to fame but at the same time killed book sales as her fans slog their way through Tolstoy (or not).Of course, who could forget the Franzen Unpleasantness and the Frey Furore?! So although I’m not a fan of Oprah per se, I am fascinated by the interest her ‘book club’ generates.
Today Oprah relaunched her book club – middle-aged women the world over are now grabbing their Kindles (or equivalent) and gearing up for Oprah Book Club 2.0. I hash-tagged this news on Twitter with #goodgrief and here’s why:
“Ms. Winfrey has updated the club with digital and social-media elements. The e-book versions of the selected book, for instance, will include margin notes from Ms. Winfrey highlighting her favorite passages.”
Lordy – obviously it’s not enough for people to be told what books to read – let’s add some margin notes so that their opinion and thoughts about the book can be guided in the ‘right’ direction as well. Again, #goodgrief.