I have enjoyed Oprah's book club because I am a reader and so like to know what others are reading and like to hear discussions about books. So I suppose that list wouldn't really faze someone like me.... its sort of the same kind of list that any other suburban book club might have ... a list for readers rather than to draw people in to reading in the first place. I did read an interview with Oprah the other day and she was quoted as saying that she found it difficult to come up with a book each month and she basically chooses the books that she likes to read. Apparently she doesn't have many close friends/relations that are readers so in some way, the book group was a way to talk about the books that she liked. Guess when you are a talk show host, that means creating a national book club unlike if you are just a suburban woman starting up a book group in your new town (ie. me). I suppose she might have had good intentions about encouraging more people to read but maybe, as suggested, the means are not particularly thought out.

I also wanted to say that regardless of Oprah's intention in setting up the book club, another reason that I've liked it is that when you are living in a remote rural location, one where sport is the ultimate past time and no one reads, its nice to hear discussions about books even if it is on TV.

In my local book club, we have banned Oprah's choices from our consideration. She often seems to choose books that are "issue" oriented and the few times I've seen the on air discussions, the focus has been on the issues rather than any other aspect of the book. I'm not anti-issue fiction, but Oprah seems particularly fond of books with very vivid depictions of misery (Jane Hamilton's books, The House of Sand and Fog, etc.) We never chose a book simply because Oprah was doing it, but at times our choices overlapped and my group came to the consensus that reading too many of Oprah's choices made us want to slit our wrists because they were so damn depressing (we aren't proponents of happy clappy fiction, but novels like "The Book of Ruth" and the aforementioned "House of Sand and Fog" are absolutely relentless. I don't care how beautifully written they are.) Obviously not all the books on the Oprah list fall into that category, but a good many do. I know this is just one little group of 10 women, but unfortunately, Oprah's seal on the cover of a book more often than not turns us away from reading it.

But hey, I don't have any problem with the concept of using her celebrity to promote reading. I just don't read for the same reasons that Oprah does.

I'm always a little embarrassed when I find out that I book I read was an Oprah pick because...well.. because she's Oprah. 90% of what she does is by design and the design is to tug your heartstrings and jack you around emotionally. She intentionally appeals to the widest swath of the population. Not the smartest, not the most balanced, not the most interesting - just the widest. That tends to be the most easily influenced, least intellectually developed swath of the population. Thinking individuals regard the whole Oprah schitck with great distain.

I believe Jonathan Frantzen felt the same way and when he said he wasn't too happy about being an Oprah pick because it meant he was just 'popular' and not probably worthy of a Pulitzer, she was immediately pulled him from the list. She even asked the large booksellers to remove all copies of the book that had her Oprah Book Club logo on the cover. It wasn't long after that that she shut down the club with the flimsy excuse that she didn't have time to read anymore. Now she just picks the Classics - the ones you figure Aunt Nancy would not be able to digest. Prior to that she picked the emotionally titillating books some of which were good and some of which were treacle.

Toni Morrison has a Nobel Prize for literature,

Well here's the kind of aspiring writer I am-- I didn't even know there was such a thing as a Nobel Prize for literature.

As far as Oprah's club-- I believe the original purpose of a book club was two-fold. 1) the club would make a certain effort to vet the work for the consumer, so that people in the club didn't have to spend valuable time looking for good books and 2) book clubs got bulk rates on books, reducing the cost of the books for individual members. Some book clubs had orders large enought to warrant special editions. Unlike Oprah's editions, I gather that the old-school book-club editions were marked by lower-quality binding, paper, and printing-- in line with their status as a consumer good rather than a collector's item. Back when I used to dumpster dive for books to pay my grocery bills I learned that a lot of book resellers wouldn't take book club editions as a matter of general principle.

All that said, Oprah's book club has always seemed to me to be a fairly straight-forward celebrity endorsement; an endorsement of reading as a pastime, in addition to endorsing certain books. If it gets people reading, great. But I don't think of her reading list as breaking a lot of new cultural ground or forging any new literary traditions.

People want to read the Kaballah because Madonna's into it, right? What're ya gonna do?

Joshua -- are you sure about the fact that Oprah does her own editions of the books she picks? Because as far as I know, all that happens is that the publisher puts a medallion on the cover. If she did her own editions, the whole enterprise would take on a different slant.

Thinking about the whole thing as nothing more than a celebrity endorsement might work, though there's something different about this I can't put my finger on, right now. But wait. Don't celebrities usually get paid for their endorsements? If Actor X endorses Candy Bar Z, that's a kind of advertisement and Actor X gets paid. But I don't think Oprah gets paid by publishers. Which is one of the reasons they love it when she picks a book. A ton of relatively free advertising.

I agree that Oprah's choices are a tad depressing (probably says more about her than anything else I think) ... even the "classics" are a little on the bleak side.... but I'm not so sure that I would avoid a book just because it was an Oprah book choice. I have to admit I do get a little uncomfortable with the whole idea that an Oprah book choice isn't necessarily a literary choice ie. because its a "popular" choice. Isn't that part of the same dichotomy that we've been discussing recently? Popular/Genre fiction vs "real"/literary fiction. I just get so tired of it ... can't a book be good just because its well written with a ripping yarn rather than because its won lots of awards and deemed serious literature?

Jacqui -- crickey. My concerns with her choices have nothing to do with the artificial literary/commercial divide. Just the opposite, really. I get the sense she picks some books for reasons that are mostly political or socially driven, rather than because a given novel is well done, with a story that will make people want to read more, and enliven discussion.

s/r

I wasn't referring to your comments or anyone in particular on this forum when I said that I was uncomfortable with the whole literary/commercial devide that surrounds people's responses to an Oprah book club choice. I just think that a lot of people do make that judgement... speaking just from my own personal experience with people in my own life. Guess all my questioning was really rhetorical. And yes, the political, socially driven aspect of her choices is pretty strong. (though there are political/socially driven novels out there that aren't quite so bleak).

I've said it before - Oprah is a turnoff for me when I'm in a book-buying mindset. I've developed the mindset over many years - it's unique to me, and I don't appreciate someone authoritative looking over my shoulder while I shop. (Sara – if you were to walk up to me in a bookstore and suggest a book, I wouldn’t be offended – it’s Big Brother in all its myriad forms that tends to irk) Even reviews *for me* are a titch too dictatorial. And Amazon reviews – I don’t really read them unless it’s after I’ve read a book, for fun, to see whose views match my own experience.

For those who have not bought a book, ever, I hope that an encouraging review or a stamp of someone they like's approval (word of mouth or Oprah's gold star) helps them take that first step into being "someone who would buy a book."

The one Oprah book given to me was Isabel Allende's and I was disappointed. Somehow I expected the book to deliver on women’s issues, perhaps cleverly hidden in the fiction. Instead, I spent a lot of time wondering where the blood and life was in the story. Come to think of it – I found the characters compelling, but more as devices to move the plot forward instead of for their own sakes. At the end, when two characters were finally united, (as you were told would happen, in the opening chapter), I was left wanting more about how they would become intimate (sex or no sex), would they finally laugh together, share more than they had to that point.

Just like Oprah’s books, Oprah herself is not for everyone. One of my sisters, who does happen to live in a small rural community, loves her show. The book club inspired her to read, or at least made her think about reading more. I remain unimpressed, and at this point, I think Oprah would somehow have to overcome my appreciation for Dave Letterman’s jokes about her show. Maybe her issues aren’t mine because I’m not from the U.S.A. That’s a strong possibility.

I am a reader, but I would not have read some of the books that have been chosen since Oprah started choosing classics for the Oprah Bookclub - not for the TV shows about the book, but for the joy of reading along with your friends and discussing, and also the myriad of background information that is provided on the website.

I would have got around to Anna Karenina and probably East of Eden...one day. I would never have read 100 Years of Solitude, but now it is one of my favourite books, and I most certainly would never have read The Good Earth or Cry, the Beloved Country.

As to whether the choice of these books gets non readers to read...well, I'm not sure. The hype certainly gets them to think about reading if nothing else!

In all good faith, I just can't see this working. Not as a first try. Maybe in a few months time when Nancy is already on the hook.

Anna Karenina opens like the "previously on The O.C. ..." or any other continuing family drama on television. That might pull Nancy in, even if she doesn't stay 'til the end.