Week 7 Prompt

I happened to be working at Joseph-Beth Booksellers, a large independent bookstore in Lexington, Kentucky during the early years of the Oprah Book club (1996-1998).  Of course, Oprah books sold more than the others and I think I read most of them myself.  After reading a few and liking them, it was a good way for me to feel confident I would like the book.  I think most people felt this way.  It was almost like a recommendation from a friend.  The books were marketed by booksellers and publishers as Oprah books, long after the selection had been made.  The booksellers, the publishers, the authors, as well as Oprah herself, benefited from her celebrity book club:  “each Oprah pick generated about $80 million in new sales for retail bookstores, a large part of which we can safely assume, went towards the purchase of the very books she recommended” (Butler, R, Cowan, B., Nilsson, C., 2005).

There seems to be no question that Oprah’s pick vastly influenced the bestseller list:  “A striking indicator of Oprah’s ability to influence consumer book-buying in the short term is the enormous difference between sales of her books immediately prior to their pick dates and sales in the few weeks following those dates” (Butler, R., Cowan, B., Nilsson, C., 2005).  I guess the question is:  Is this okay for one person to dictate what so many people will read?  Personally, I have no problem with it.  Celebrity culture influences behavior in all sorts of ways.  This seems to be a good one.  I think people who may not have been avid readers picked up books because Oprah recommended them and found themselves enjoying reading.  Second, Oprah picked books with diverse themes and topics that probably opened up new worlds to these readers.  It is a fact that in our culture, people worship celebrity.  What great use of her celebrity to share her favorite books with her fans.

Just the other day, I had a young patron come in and request one of my favorite books—Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl.  Apparently, Chris Martin (?) of Coldplay had recommended it to his fans.  I have to say if a rockstar is going to influence his fans by sending them to the library in search of a classic book about the holocaust and his book about not only his survival but using his experience to create a philosophy that would inspire and influence many people, I am all for celebrity culture.