Interesting and (to my way of thinking, anyway) valid points all. So given this, where do things like the NYTimes “best books” list figure in? Does the Times do something more like you? The celeb lists?
I think you break this all down really well and give a fair assessment of the trend. I think the whole "book-tok" movement dovetails nicely here with your argument. This is not a conversation about celebrities, but rather a discussion of the lemming nature of the masses (we've ways been lemmings, it's just that now our cult leaders are online, accessible).
The real tragedy, I think, is that there seems to be a yawning gap between the populariry of the club and the quality of the book. Oprah's books were often outstanding. Witherspoon's seem fine. But the rest...
Thanks so much for your kind words! I really appreciate that. And agree re book-tok, social media, etc etc.... when there's so many books out there, its almost amazing that we've found a way to recommend so few.
And fully agree about the quality– Oprah's really were great, but then again, she wasn't contending as much with the short attention spans of people as books today contend with tiktok/instagram etc... Also she wasn't picking things easily made into movies, so maybe that helped..?
Thanks so much for reading and for your insightful comments!
That's a good point about Oprah's goal (I didn't know those details about RW's model!). In fact, as I'm sure you know, Oprah invested a lot in making Beloved into a movie.
I would love to see the likes of Reese take up a reading challenge that includes more diverse and translated works. Perhaps that just means there’s room for other book clubs to fill that space? I personally feel like in the current age of publishing, all publicity for books is good publicity and that if the fluff is the only stuff that gets people reading then that’s a good thing because they’re unlikely to seek more interesting works anyway. Loved this article so much!
thank you so much jen!! yea i would love to see her expand a bit, i imagine if i were reading all her recs i’d be getting bored by now…😂 but totally all reading is good. just wish more of the $$ was going to authors I guess…
I mainly stay away from celebrity book club picks for one reason…the cover. I hate the “sticker” they put on it. Or in the case of books picked by Reese…when they become TV shows or movies, the covers change completely.
I seldom read "best sellers" as I can seldom relate to those stories, which are far from my experience, my being, often even my values and in general do not offer me enough to waste my time on them.
By switching to e-books I have now the opportunity to browse the library's catalogue online and I often pick books from authors I never heard and sometimes discovered new ones. It is though a pity that also libraries tend to stay within set parameters. Well, I guess bookstores do that too...
Anyway, I agree with the points you made. The lack of diversity in the offer is also why so many authors, like me, turned to self-publishing and it is a beautiful thing that nowadays there is this option, offering more variety and topics which are otherwise not interesting to traditional publishers, as they might not sell so well.
Such an interesting perspective on celebrity book clubs - I had no idea about the business model. In the UK the Richard & Judy book club is probably a similar model to Oprah’s
I'm with you. Complicated feelings about a celeb book club. I think people like Oprah were doing a great thing and getting women to find community with each other through reading...the most recent celeb book clubs seem like them "capitalizing" or a trend or "branding" themselves as bookworms. I'm less interested in that. I rely on non-celeb book rec's....my local bookstore, NYT/NPR or other publications, BOTM has become a great resource because of it's diversity in genre, and looking to what my friends are reading. I've seen a flattening in terms of what get's recommended to me online, these things might all be linked. It's a good problem to have I think, the abundance of book talk has been great for my reading appetite. It just means I have to work a little harder to find the things on the fringe.
so well said. i think you nailed it, in far fewer words than i could 😂 Luckily the search is part of the fun (in my opinion!) so going to have continue fighting that good fight! 📚🤠
I know, me either! Not my thing- but same re social media. I was interested in how many I had already read– a lot of Oprahs are older and very good books that I've enjoyed. Reese's taste is not for me, but def want to see what some of the newer celeb book clubs are choosing... 👀
I definitely have mixed feelings about celebrity book clubs. They definitely encourage people to read more, however, some clubs (like Reese's Book Club) often highlight the book with the same sort of plotline (with slight tweaks to make it appear different) and that just gets boring after a while.
Plus, there's definitely the feeling that the celebrities who run these book clubs sometimes don't even read the books that they're promoting. Or at least, their publicist (or whoever is in charge of signaling out potential book picks) tells them to pick a book out of these selected titles, so it wouldn't be like they read/picked this book out of genuine interest most of the time.
totally!! and definitely don’t want to take away from the positive— fully agree that all reading is good reading, and i’d rather have someone read a celeb book club pick than not read at all! It’s definitely not a black and white issue, lots to consider and that’s what made it so fun to research!!
Interesting and (to my way of thinking, anyway) valid points all. So given this, where do things like the NYTimes “best books” list figure in? Does the Times do something more like you? The celeb lists?
I think you break this all down really well and give a fair assessment of the trend. I think the whole "book-tok" movement dovetails nicely here with your argument. This is not a conversation about celebrities, but rather a discussion of the lemming nature of the masses (we've ways been lemmings, it's just that now our cult leaders are online, accessible).
The real tragedy, I think, is that there seems to be a yawning gap between the populariry of the club and the quality of the book. Oprah's books were often outstanding. Witherspoon's seem fine. But the rest...
Thanks so much for your kind words! I really appreciate that. And agree re book-tok, social media, etc etc.... when there's so many books out there, its almost amazing that we've found a way to recommend so few.
And fully agree about the quality– Oprah's really were great, but then again, she wasn't contending as much with the short attention spans of people as books today contend with tiktok/instagram etc... Also she wasn't picking things easily made into movies, so maybe that helped..?
Thanks so much for reading and for your insightful comments!
That's a good point about Oprah's goal (I didn't know those details about RW's model!). In fact, as I'm sure you know, Oprah invested a lot in making Beloved into a movie.
I would love to see the likes of Reese take up a reading challenge that includes more diverse and translated works. Perhaps that just means there’s room for other book clubs to fill that space? I personally feel like in the current age of publishing, all publicity for books is good publicity and that if the fluff is the only stuff that gets people reading then that’s a good thing because they’re unlikely to seek more interesting works anyway. Loved this article so much!
thank you so much jen!! yea i would love to see her expand a bit, i imagine if i were reading all her recs i’d be getting bored by now…😂 but totally all reading is good. just wish more of the $$ was going to authors I guess…
I mainly stay away from celebrity book club picks for one reason…the cover. I hate the “sticker” they put on it. Or in the case of books picked by Reese…when they become TV shows or movies, the covers change completely.
No totally— the sticker is like a warning label to me at this point 😂
I seldom read "best sellers" as I can seldom relate to those stories, which are far from my experience, my being, often even my values and in general do not offer me enough to waste my time on them.
By switching to e-books I have now the opportunity to browse the library's catalogue online and I often pick books from authors I never heard and sometimes discovered new ones. It is though a pity that also libraries tend to stay within set parameters. Well, I guess bookstores do that too...
Anyway, I agree with the points you made. The lack of diversity in the offer is also why so many authors, like me, turned to self-publishing and it is a beautiful thing that nowadays there is this option, offering more variety and topics which are otherwise not interesting to traditional publishers, as they might not sell so well.
Such an interesting perspective on celebrity book clubs - I had no idea about the business model. In the UK the Richard & Judy book club is probably a similar model to Oprah’s
i’ve never heard of that one!! i’ll have to take a look. thanks for reading!
I'm with you. Complicated feelings about a celeb book club. I think people like Oprah were doing a great thing and getting women to find community with each other through reading...the most recent celeb book clubs seem like them "capitalizing" or a trend or "branding" themselves as bookworms. I'm less interested in that. I rely on non-celeb book rec's....my local bookstore, NYT/NPR or other publications, BOTM has become a great resource because of it's diversity in genre, and looking to what my friends are reading. I've seen a flattening in terms of what get's recommended to me online, these things might all be linked. It's a good problem to have I think, the abundance of book talk has been great for my reading appetite. It just means I have to work a little harder to find the things on the fringe.
so well said. i think you nailed it, in far fewer words than i could 😂 Luckily the search is part of the fun (in my opinion!) so going to have continue fighting that good fight! 📚🤠
the search IS absolutely a part of the fun! thanks for writing this, lots to chew on!
thank you for reading! 💕
A very interesting article! I didn't know all those behind the scene details about the business of Reese's book club.
Very interesting read! I never really pay much attention to celebrity book clubs, but I do get a lot of my recommendations off of social media!
Now I need to check the book clubs to see if there are many that I have already read.
I know, me either! Not my thing- but same re social media. I was interested in how many I had already read– a lot of Oprahs are older and very good books that I've enjoyed. Reese's taste is not for me, but def want to see what some of the newer celeb book clubs are choosing... 👀
Thanks for reading!
I definitely have mixed feelings about celebrity book clubs. They definitely encourage people to read more, however, some clubs (like Reese's Book Club) often highlight the book with the same sort of plotline (with slight tweaks to make it appear different) and that just gets boring after a while.
Plus, there's definitely the feeling that the celebrities who run these book clubs sometimes don't even read the books that they're promoting. Or at least, their publicist (or whoever is in charge of signaling out potential book picks) tells them to pick a book out of these selected titles, so it wouldn't be like they read/picked this book out of genuine interest most of the time.
totally!! and definitely don’t want to take away from the positive— fully agree that all reading is good reading, and i’d rather have someone read a celeb book club pick than not read at all! It’s definitely not a black and white issue, lots to consider and that’s what made it so fun to research!!
As always, thanks for reading Madeline!