Now that everyone, their brother and their brother’s news channel have let me know that Oprah is going to wrap up her show in 2011, I have mixed emotions.
On the one hand I’ve always looked at Oprah’s show as the tv equivalent of a woman’s magazine, glossy, slick, full of human interest stories, cute products and sometimes insane self-helpy kind of stuff. That’s the stuff I’ll miss, particularly when I’m flipping channels at lunch time (when the show airs here) looking for something light and even (maybe, possibly) ridiculous to watch.
On the other hand, Oprah’s Book Club has been the bane of my existence as a reader/librarian/writer for years. I even contemplated writing my MLIS thesis on acquisitions and Oprah’s little club. I truly believe the publishing industry will be better off without it and I hope that readers (and librarians) will take it back upon themselves to browse the shelves and catalogues instead of passively grabbing the book du jour.
Of course now that I’ve said this, it has occurred to me that maybe her Book Club will live on after the show stops.
Frightening!
Just wondering, from a purely academic/professional point of view, do you take issue with her book choices or the fact that people only choose what she puts out there? I don’t really have an opinion so I’m just wondering.
I guess it was like shorthand for people; if O likes it then it must be good. But her taste was so Predictable! The second-hand shop near me in Bkk used to have a shelf dedicated to O Book Club reads which people had bought for the flight over and then just left behind. And yes I did try them, some were good but mostly not my kind of thing. Now I’m sitting here trying to think of a talk show host whose opinion I would follow?? Miriam O Callagahan maybe?
Did you know that Oprah makes so much money per year that if she dropped a $20 note, it wouldn’t be worth her time to bend down and pick it up? Just sayin’.
I really need to get myself to Chicago before she leaves! I idiolize Oprah and everything she has touched. Love, love, love. Love Harpo Productions, love the magazine, love the charitable work she’s done.
I agree about the bookclub and pretty much everything else, that if O says it’s good, we all HAVE to have it! I am guilty of that for sure! However, her bookclub maybe got a lot of people reading that probably wouldn’t have as much, and different types of books that people would not have been inspiried to read originally. It did always irk me how if an author appeared on Oprah, he/she was instant success in sales! I am sure it will live on after her show ends….!!!