I’m still mad at Oprah and her Book Club
by Gene Taft
I’ve been a reader for more than 40 years and I’ve spent more than 20 years as a book publishing professional, so it may surprise you to learn that I’m still holding a grudge against Oprah. Yes, I am mad at Oprah Winfrey, the woman who 17 years ago almost single handedly resurrected the act of reading books and may have actually saved the book publishing industry with her Book Club.
You may not recall, but after the initial positive response to the Club, there was some odd, but not insignificant, backlash against Oprah, America’s arbiter of literary taste, culminating in Jonathan Franzen turning down an appearance on her show. The general sentiment of the backlash was that she was too powerful and no one should be able to dictate to the masses what to read. I was not one of those people. I was quite pleased that Ms. Winfrey was causing so many people to go read… and helping to sustain the industry that put food on my table wasn’t such a bad thing either.
So why was I mad at Oprah then, and remain so to this day?
I’m not mad at her because of the books she was or wasn’t choosing. I am mad, or jealous I suppose, that she, a virtual stranger, was able to influence millions of people to read specific books while I often am unable to convince even my friends and family that a book I recommend is worth picking up. Oprah said “Read this,” and people knocked each other over to get to the store or library to pick up a copy.
I’m mad at Oprah because she made successfully recommending books look easy!
Despite the sorcery of Ms. Winfrey, I firmly believe the art of choosing good books to read, or (horrors!) good books to recommend, is very difficult. So why in the world did I join the Gaithersburg Book Festival planning committee and become part of the author selection process? Well, I’m obviously a glutton for punishment, but I’m also an advocate for reading, a lover of books, and a diehard promoter of authors.
How do we select books/authors for the GBF?
Choosing books is as much about your gut (art) as it is about your head (science). You need to love and have faith in a book, to fully embrace it, before you can give it a heartfelt recommendation. Other readers can tell when you’re faking it.
Books, much like the people who read them, are unique. So just as everyone’s favorite color isn’t blue (mine’s green), every book you like is not to everyone else’s liking. As hard as it is to pick out a worthy book for yourself to read, magnify that decision making process by about 20,000 to find potential books/authors for the GBF. Believe me, if we could select books that would appeal to every single festival goer, we would select a lot more of them, although that would make a heck of a mess out of the scheduling process—how can everyone at the Festival be in every tent at once?
I cannot speak for the entire selection committee, but I have three rules guiding my book recommendations for the GBF…
- The book absolutely must be WELL WRITTEN!
- It must be ENJOYABLE. For fiction: Was it entertaining? For non-fiction: Did you learn something?
- And perhaps most importantly, it must have an AUDIENCE BEYOND MYSELF.
If a book has those qualities, I believe it has a fighting chance to succeed at Gaithersburg and in the wider world.
For better or worse, books are part of a private club–larger than even Oprah’s Book Club–but it’s a club that welcomes all who undertake the initiation of reading.
Gene Taft is a member of the Gaithersburg Book Festival Author Selection Committee and the owner/operator of GTPR, LLC, a small public relations shop for books and authors. He remains mad at Oprah Winfrey and the 1972 Miami Dolphins.
