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topic: new Oprah pick
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To be announced on the show when she has McCarthy on for his interview, or so I hear.
Hmm!
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Jenny
(last edited 06/05/2007 01:24PM)
06/05/2007 01:23PM
I'm always so torn on these. I am protective of the books I love, and a so I get a little snobbish about letting Oprah have it. But then, I'm excited for the authors, because their readership will increase significantly, so good for them.
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I guess the McCarthy episode was just today, actually.
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Wow! I'm totaly surprised that Oprah picked this up! This is one of my favorite books. I'll have to record the show if it hasn't already happened.
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Why do people snub Oprah's picks??? She's had a few dogs but also some great ones...McCarthy, Tolstoy, Faulkner! The woman had people reading Faulkner!!! I had Middlesex on my "To Read" list so as soon as I heard I reserved a copy at the library, and I'll pick it up tonight.
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I think it's great that Oprah picked it up. If I missed the show I'm going to scream. I really loved the book, and I read it when it first came out. Yay for Eugenides!
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I don't snub Oprah's picks but I make an effort to buy books without Oprah's logo on the cover. It seems to me that Oprah postures herself as the person who "discovers" these books in many cases when in fact the books her staff chooses have stood very well on their own and have sold millions of copies without Oprah's seal of approval.Why does she have to have her name plastered on the cover of classics such as Anna Karenina,Night, and The Good Earth? Deceased nobel prize winners do not need Harpo Productions' PR!!
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I don't snub Oprah's picks but I make an effort to buy books without Oprah's logo on the cover. It seems to me that Oprah postures herself as the person who "discovers" these books in many cases when in fact the books her staff chooses have stood very well on their own and have sold millions of copies without Oprah's seal of approval.Why does she have to have her name plastered on the cover of classics such as Anna Karenina,Night, and The Good Earth? Deceased nobel prize winners do not need Harpo Productions' PR!!
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I agree with you! Why DOES she need her name on these books? Is it purely ego?
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Obviously Tolstoy is not going to get royalties on the sale of Anna Karenina! But Eugenides will and I bet he's thrilled! Jackpot!
I just checked Barnes & Noble and Amazon for Anna Karenina, Night, and The Good Earth. Night is in Top 100 at BN but none of the others are there, none of them are on Amazon's Top 100. They all were Top 20 on both when Oprah was reading them.
I also checked with my public library...plenty of copies available of all three. There are no copies of Middlesex available. I actually reserved mine the day of the Oprah show. I had been planning to read it and I figured I'd better grab it while I could. There were plenty of copies that day. Also the status has since been changed and I can no longer renew it which was not the case the day I checked it out.
According to a recent study by the National Endowment for the Arts the number of people reading literature is declining rapidly. The study is on their website and frankly, it's frightening. I think anything Oprah or anyone else can do to reverse that trend is a good thing. Yes! Get people to read The Good Earth in mass again!!! What is terrible about that?
Just MHO but I think something deeper is at play here. I've been pondering it. What is it exactly that upsets people when Oprah picks a good book? For the most part she picks good books. If she was picking garbage I could understand...but nobel prize winners? Pulitzers? Hmmm... Is it because she African American? Is it because she's female? Is it because she's powerful and people actually READ what she suggests? Or maybe it is not Orpah, but Oprah's audience that's so annoying? Oh no, not housewives reading Anna Karenina!!! I can't quite put my finger on it.
All I know is that she gets people to read and she gets people to read some really great stuff. Why isn't that a good thing? Would the book selections be better coming from someone else? Barbara Walters? Regis Feldman? Mickey Mouse?
Whenever I read a book I like I tell my friends about it and my friends suggest books they like to me as well. I'm always excited to share my discovery with others. Why can't Oprah?
Please, please, please...someone help me understand!!!
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Not all of the original Oprah Book Club choices were that great IMO. I personally couldn't get into either of the Wally Lamb books (She's Come Undone, I Know This Much Is True). When she came back to it (after a hiatus) she picked much better books.
(Yes, I realize this is a subjective opinion.)
Also, because she and her show are part of pop culture, what she recommends (books, CDs, Favorite Things, etc.) ends up becoming part of pop culture, and there are a lot of people who deride pop culture as meaningless, shallow, etc. even though the show's subjects (and audience) aren't always meaningless, shallow, etc. I think Jonathan Franzen was in that mode when he turned down the opportunity to have The Corrections made a Book Club pick.
As a writer, I would be in (financial, at least) ecstasy if anything I wrote got picked by Oprah. Hopefully I'll get something out before she retires. ;)
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Folks, its not Oprah that decides to put her name and logo on all the books, its the publishing companies. They know that if a book says Oprah on it, it will sell better than if it says Pulitzer on it. Sad but true. I don't think its an ego thing although she is probably making money off it.
I agree with Ivy up there, there is no good reason to snub her selections. I think it may be some form of intellectual snobbery that causes people to feel like the popular masses just couldn't possibly relate to or understand Nobel prize winning authors, but these books are great precisely *because* they can be enjoyed on so many levels. Like Anna Karenina is a rich and complex book chock full of things to reach in and take apart on an intellectual, philosophical, historical, or emotional level but its also just a good and beautiful story that can be enjoyed with a nice cup of tea.
We need to let it go.
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There is a book group in my town that on purpose will not read "Oprah" books because they are "depressing"--usually about someone who has overcome some kind of struggle. Just my two cents.
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Aren't all stories about overcoming some kind of struggle??? It was a long time but I think we learned in the 8th grade about man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. himself.
"Listen. All great literature is about what a bummer it is to be a human being: Moby Dick, Huckleberry Finn, The Red Badge of Courage, the Iliad and the Odyssey, Crime and Punishment, the Bible and The Charge of the Light Brigade."
- Kurt Vonnegut
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I just went to the taping for the Oprah show on Middlesex. It airs Friday the 21st. I think the most interesting information came after the show stopped taping and the author took questions from the audience for about 30 minutes, but it was still an interesting show if you have read the book!
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Ugh! I totally agree! Why DO they put that stupid logo on them?????
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In the UK we have similar chat show, albeit on a much smaller scale than Oprah, where the hosts (or rather one of their employees) pick a series of books for winter and summer reads and the viewers can post their views on a forum and guest "celebrities" come in and give their views too.
We also have some snobbery towards books of this sort as they have a label Richard and Judy (the show hosts) emblazoned on them but I think most sensible readers realise that the more people read the better. Yes, any books they pick are destined to head straight to the top of the best sellers lists but they have encouraged a lot of people to read more books and some of their choices have been very good, The Kite Runner, My Sister's Keeper, The Shadow of the Wind - all of their picks are new or recent releases and local supermarkets usually have them on sale at a discounted rate - all of which serves to get more folk reading. All for the better, I say!
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