Prompt 7 Response

For this week's response I wanted to touch on celebrity book clubs, as I feel like they are something that has continually increased in recent years. Growing up, Oprah was a tv show that I watched with my mother and when I was finally old enough to comprehend the fact that she had a book club and could read books from that list I was thrilled. It may seem funny, but I felt like I achieved a close bond with Oprah when I read my first book from the list because Oprah herself had read these books!

I found it interesting and not surprising that once a person with a well known name such as Oprah announced a book, that it instantly became popular. In the article they talk about the correlations between the restructuring of the club with the waning popularity of the book club, which they make a very good argument for, however I would push the discussion past the restructuring of the club to take a look at Oprah's ratings. Would Oprah's TV ratings/viewership affect the popularity of the book club? Was there any time during the later years that the study looked at that Oprah's viewership started to dwindle and for what reason? These would all be things to discuss and look at to further discuss the rise and decrease in her book club.

Today, there are still celebrities that have book clubs and while they are not widely televised like Oprah Winfrey, they use social media and their websites to promote their clubs. Two that stick with me, as I am largely a fan of both are Florence Welch (Singer from Florence + the Machines) as well as Emma Watson (most well known as Hermione Granger and soon to be Belle). Florence's book club is mostly books that she is reading with no specific theme to it. However, Emma Watson's book club is a feminist book club that she chooses each month and she takes part in the conversation through the use of a GoodReads book group.

Sources:

Butler, R., Cowan, B., & Nilsson, S. (2005). From Obscurity to Bestseller. Examining the Impact of Oprah's Book Club Selections. Publishing Research Quarterly, 20(4), 23-34. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/BetweenTwoBooks

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/179584-our-shared-shelf