Week 7 Prompt: The Oprah Effect

I don’t think any of us would be surprised by the findings of Butler, Cowan, and Nilsson in their article, “From Obscurity to Bestseller: Examining the Impact of Oprah’s Book Club Selections.”  I’m not a statistician, but I managed to squint and squirm my way through the tables and the conclusions are clear.  Getting the Oprah seal of approval resulted in dramatic sales spikes and sustained high sales for nearly every one of the books selected for her book club.

I was especially interested in the evidence that books selected earlier in the run of the book club tended to fare better than books chosen later (Butler, Cowan, and Nilsson, p. 29).  While Oprah’s influence was undeniable, there was also a backlash effect.  In an article I found called “Reading as a Contact Sport: Online Book Groups and the Social Dimensions of Reading,” Barbara Fister recalls that Marketing departments also experienced a flip-side to the “Oprah effect.”  A book that became popular because it was being embraced by middle-class women (Oprah’s stereotyped audience), took the risk of being intentionally shunned by highbrow and/or male readers.

Fister also reminds us that “The power of a television celebrity to influence reading practices has made some critics worry that book groups, often supported by chain bookstores and big publishers, are commodifying reading – that we are witnessing a corporate takeover of literary practices that engages readers in formulaic, shallow analysis of texts” (Fister, p. 303).

Personally, I loved the idea of Oprah’s Book Club more than the books themselves.  I probably read about half a dozen before deciding that my taste and Oprah’s were not in sync.  (Yeah, not even close.)  But I applaud the fact that – lover her or hate her – Oprah re-popularized the idea of talking about books.  Not just reading them, but talking about them.  Reading in contemporary society is so much more individualized and personal than it used to be.  Don’t get me wrong, I love curling up alone with a great book.  But it’s important to remember that reading can also be a social experience.  Book discussions bring with them an inherent sense of community, broadening participants’ critical perspectives and providing them with connections to others in a reading world. 

I guess I’m just a believer in the transformational power of book discussions.  So if a celebrity can inspire the public to talk about books, I’m on board.  (Although I might politely suggest that getting some RA guidance from Nancy Pearl or Mary Chelton could result in better book selections!)

References:

Fister, B. (2005).  Reading as a contact sport: Online book groups and the social dimensions of reading.  Reference & User Services Quarterly, 44(4), p. 303-309.  Retrieved from Academic Search Premier.

Butler, R.J., Cowan, B.W., and Nilsson, S.  (2005).  From obscurity to bestseller: Examining the impact of Oprah’s book club selections.  Publishing Research Quarterly, 20(4), p. 23-24.  Retrieved from Academic Search Premier.