Oprah Winfrey's Book Club - Worthy of More Than a Little Praise
I admit, I'm a snob. I mean, I'm not at the Frasier Crane level but I do have an unpleasant habit of turning my nose up at anything which has a whiff of populism about it. It's wrong, I know, and the whole point of this article is to redress the balance a little.
Oprah Winfrey. When it comes to popularity, there are very few who can compare. On a scale of 1 to 10, it's a cliche, I know, but she scores an 11. Her show airs in over 140 countries internationally, and in the U.S. alone she is regularly viewed by an estimated 30 million people each week. Like I said, 11 out of 10.
It's that vast popularity which makes it difficult to take Oprah's Book Club seriously. At least, it does for people like me. Snobby people. Again, it's wrong, I know. So, I sat down with my negative, sneering thoughts, and made a conscious decision to banish them, forever. I took out a pen and a note pad and decided I was going to write a list of five things which were unarguably fantastic about Oprah's Book Club. And here it is. The astonishing thing is, even for a snob like me, it really wasn't that difficult.
1. Literacy is a good thing. Can't argue with that. Anything that compels someone who might not ordinarily be seen with a book in their hand to pop into their local bookstore and pick up some reading material... well, you just can't knock something like that.
2. If Oprah's Book Club limited itself to the author-of-the-minute, you could label it 'populist nonsense' and never give it another thought. Oprah does no such thing, however. She frequently reaches back through time and brings classic literature, East of Eden, for example, to the attention of the masses. Got anything sneery to say about that? Me neither.
3. Oprah isn't afraid to choose controversial or difficult books. It would be very easy for Oprah or her production team to look at a book like Sheri Reynold's 'The Rapture of Canaan', for example, and say, "No, no... we're not going there."
4. Without Oprah's Book Club some excellent authors may well have been marooned to this day in thoroughly-undeserved obscurity.
5. Whilst many in the literary establishment still view modern technology with a combination of disdain and distrust, Oprah has made full use of the power and reach of electronic media.
6. When Oprah says she loves a book, by golly, she means it. She's passionate about good literature. You may well disagree with her choice of book but there's nothing uniformed about those choices. When she loves a book she can hardly contain herself. You've got to admire that. I mean, would you rather have someone coldly and clinically dissecting a book or someone who's so excited by what they've read they bubble over with emotion? I know which I prefer.
Okay, I said 5 and I gave you 6. Like I said, it really wasn't difficult.
In fact I was so enthused, I decided to write a letter to Oprah Winfrey, thanking her for freeing me up from a lifetime of grim snobbery. You can get in touch with Oprah Winfrey here: Send a Letter to Oprah Winfrey
