Despite bad blood, Oprah selects Jonathan Franzen's FREEDOM for next Book Club pick.

Sounds good. I loved The Corretions.

I suspect she picked this book because of the bad blood, not despite it. It makes her look good, and him look bad.

Either way, I won't be reading it.

I know it wouldn't be right to do so, but I kind of wish Oprah would purposefully choose books that didn't get a lot of press and that would truly benefit from her selecting it, as opposed to books that are already huge.

But I know the point is simply to choose books she likes, it's not meant to be strategic. Still. Think of all the other brilliant not very well known authors out there for whom this would be a life changing moment. As opposed to Franzen who is already big, AND who already had one of his books picked.

Beloved aside I don't care what books Oprah likes or puts on her show. I didn't care that she backed Obama and I don't care that she hates Frey. I don't care if she hosts her show in the center of a Hawaiian volcano or on the moon. I don't care if she builds a giant ice machine in Africa via Mosquito Coast or if she finds a cure for cancer or settles tensions in the middle east.

Maybe she's a good person, maybe she's a publicity hound. Maybe she's a saint maybe she's the devil incarnate.

I have more intelligent ways of choosing books. If Franzen's book is good, and it fits my tastes, I'll read it. If not, a proud-spirited TV show host isn't going to convince me.

Fair enough, I don't tend to make my book choices from her recommendations either. BUT. Many people do. Millions of people do. And to be one of her picks is a career changing opportunity. So to give the opportunity to someone already huge seems like a waste of one.

However I acknowledge that it isn't Oprah's job to give people opportunities, that she just wants to choose the books she likes. Still . . .

I've never heard of Franzen.

The Lonely One said:

Beloved aside I don't care what books Oprah likes or puts on her show. I didn't care that she backed Obama and I don't care that she hates Frey. I don't care if she hosts her show in the center of a Hawaiian volcano or on the moon. I don't care if she builds a giant ice machine in Africa via Mosquito Coast or if she finds a cure for cancer or settles tensions in the middle east.

Maybe she's a good person, maybe she's a publicity hound. Maybe she's a saint maybe she's the devil incarnate.

I have more intelligent ways of choosing books. If Franzen's book is good, and it fits my tastes, I'll read it. If not, a proud-spirited TV show host isn't going to convince me.

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Well, I would care if she found the cure to cancer....

But the point is, as Toothpaste said, that thousands of people buy the books that Oprah recommends. So while I personally don't care what she likes, if she liked a book of mine, the popularity of the book is bound to soar (at least for a while). If the book was really good, then it could go on to become a bestseller.

I've never watched Oprah's show and have only ever seen glimpses of her on TV or in magazines, so I personally don't care what she recommends. But she's obviously not a force to be flippantly dismissed, because her influence on the reading public is enormous. But, Toothpaste, I thought she had discovered a few new authors? I was under the impression that that was what she was famous for -- raising unknown authors out of obscurity?

Franzen is a great author and I'll definitvely read his next one, though I'm not sure Franzen needs Oprah's publicity anyway.

aruna said:

I've never watched Oprah's show and have only ever seen glimpses of her on TV or in magazines, so I personally don't care what she recommends. But she's obviously not a force to be flippantly dismissed, because her influence on the reading public is enormous. But, Toothpaste, I thought she had discovered a few new authors? I was under the impression that that was what she was famous for -- raising unknown authors out of obscurity?

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Sometimes she picks unknowns, sometimes she picks authors who are already famous (and in some cases, dead, since she's picked classics like Anna Karenina and The Sound and the Fury; Tolstoy and Faulkner need the publicity even less than Franzen does...).

The Lonely One said:

Beloved aside I don't care what books Oprah likes or puts on her show. I didn't care that she backed Obama and I don't care that she hates Frey. I don't care if she hosts her show in the center of a Hawaiian volcano or on the moon. I don't care if she builds a giant ice machine in Africa via Mosquito Coast or if she finds a cure for cancer or settles tensions in the middle east.

Maybe she's a good person, maybe she's a publicity hound. Maybe she's a saint maybe she's the devil incarnate.

I have more intelligent ways of choosing books. If Franzen's book is good, and it fits my tastes, I'll read it. If not, a proud-spirited TV show host isn't going to convince me.

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Lmao. I don't think one method is "more intelligent" than other. As long as someone's reading, what does it matter? Unless you're never read a book based on a recommendation from ANYONE. I mean, Christ, if someone out there has tastes similar to Oprah, why not give it a go? Or if someone's a reluctant reader, why not go based off a known tastemaker and expand from there?

I was more referring to those individuals whom watch her show as if her opinion were God, including book recommendations, health recommendations, presidential recommendations, and everything else. They think she's the messiah or something. It's the follower mentality I urge against. Reading a book based on her recommendation then realizing you actually like it because of your own tastes is one thing. ONLY reading what's on the book list because the O says so seems hardly fair to the wide world of literature. If everyone followed Oprah no one else would get read. And the size of her following is not to be ignored.

I don't blame her or think she's evil, I just think people should think for themselves.

leahzero said:

I agree with Toothpaste. The whole point is the free publicity, and Franzen sure as hell didn't need it this time around.

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i don't think free publicity is the whole point. i think the whole point is championing books she genuinely likes...and the free publicity is the side effect that she knows will happen.


i don't find oprah to be relevant. i don't listen to her...and i hate the little oprah stickers that get put on her picks...makes me think about not reading the book, actually.

I've read three books that have been part of her book club, and those in spite of the selection, not because of it.

Beloved, because it was foisted upon me in high school and I hated every single word.

White Oleander, because I was interning at JWP while the movie was being made, and my boss told me to and I loved it.

ETA: Where the Heart Is, because I loved the movie. The book was better.

I don't avoid her picks, but 99% of the time, it isn't something I'd have chosen to read anyway. Although The Corrections is on my bookshelf somewhere, waiting to be read....

I've read White Oleander, I Know This Much is True and She's Come Undone and wouldn't have heard of them were it not for Oprah's book club.

Newsflash: she's watched all over the world and books that are big in the U.S. don't always get the same publicity abroad.

The Lonely One said:

I was more referring to those individuals whom watch her show as if her opinion were God, including book recommendations, health recommendations, presidential recommendations, and everything else. They think she's the messiah or something. It's the follower mentality I urge against. Reading a book based on her recommendation then realizing you actually like it because of your own tastes is one thing. ONLY reading what's on the book list because the O says so seems hardly fair to the wide world of literature. If everyone followed Oprah no one else would get read. And the size of her following is not to be ignored.

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Ya know, sometimes the Oprah hate is just ridiculous.

Have you actually looked at the books she's chosen? A lot of them are not my cup of tea, but she's not just choosing frou-frou beach books.

I don't think anyone should read "only what's on her list," but considering how few people actually read books regularly, you could do a lot worse than following her recommendations. And it's been said that Oprah has been substantially responsible for keeping the mid-list afloat. When she recommends a book and millions of people read it, a lot of those people will then read other books by that author, or similar books.

Oprah is enormously popular, but I don't think she's any more "messianic" than any other popular celebrity, and I'm sure less worried about mindless Oprah fans than I am about mindless Glenn Beck or Paris Hilton fans.

I don't have any particular opinion about her show since I don't watch TV during the day, but I did google her list. Wow, I've read A LOT of the books she recommends. And I just bought FREEDOM a few days ago (not because of O) along with ROOM.

Maybe all those people buy what she recommends because they've enjoyed her picks in the past.

I just googled her complete reading list to see how many I've read or would like to.

I don't get the Oprah hate at all. I don't like movie tie-in covers or the Oprah-sticker either in case people think that's all I read, but...meh. I guess I should just stop caring whether or not people believe I've been a bookworm all my life and just enjoy what I read, no matter who recommended it.

In the Philadelphia Inquirer he deemed The Corrections "a hard book for that audience," meaning Oprah's readers.

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What an asshole! Can you say "pretentious"? I'm glad I decided not to read Freedom. I had been considering it until now.

I doubt that was called for. Is his book really so hard that an audience that reads Toni Morrison, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Cormac McCarthy, and William Faulkner would be blown away by it? I find that hard to believe.

HelloKiddo said:

What an asshole! Can you say "pretentious"? I'm glad I decided not to read Freedom. I had been considering it until now.

I doubt that was called for. Is his book really so hard that an audience that reads Toni Morrison, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Cormac McCarthy, and William Faulkner would be blown away by it? I find that hard to believe.

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That comment was only part of what Franzen said, as to why he didn't want his book in the book club.

And, unless I'm mistaken, with the exception of Morrison, all of those books/authors you mentioned came AFTER the Franzen debacle. Maybe Oprah listened? Maybe Franzen raised the bar?

KTC said:

i don't think free publicity is the whole point. i think the whole point is championing books she genuinely likes...and the free publicity is the side effect that she knows will happen.

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And I also said as much.

My point is, there are a lot of fantastic lesser known books out there, so why not kill two birds with one stone? If I had the power to push an author's career into the stratosphere while at the same time promoting reading and good books, why wouldn't I try to do both?

Now I know it isn't Oprah's mandate to do so, and I respect that she has listed some of the classics which are already popular but might have gone a bit out of favour in recent years, she breathes new life into them, but still. If I had her power, I would go out of my way to uplift unknown authors. I mean, it isn't like you'd have to compromise. Like only really famous books are good books, and therefore choosing lesser known books means choosing lesser books point blank. We all know there are brilliant pieces of writing out there that for whatever reason didn't get the acclaim they deserve. It isn't as if she'd have to compromise her beliefs in choosing something lesser known. It would, however, take more work seeking out those books, so I suppose that's part of the problem.

Anyway, she is under no obligation to help an author's career, it's just when you have the opportunity to do so, I don't see why you wouldn't. And in my mind choosing Franzen is a bit like choosing JK Rowling. Everyone's reading it anyway.

I've never read a Franzen book. I wouldn't know him from Adam.

scarletpeaches said:

I've never read a Franzen book. I wouldn't know him from Adam.

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Be that as it may, it's still been on all the best seller lists so clearly people are reading him.