I love that Oprah loves books. It's good for books. She can pick a book for her book club and sales will automatically go through the roof. I think that says a lot... about her and about readers.
For me, what it says about readers is that they (we) are hungry for recommendations. We are busy and harried (maybe that's just me) and we don't have time to sort through all the choices and we can rely on Oprah to pick a good book.
The downside for me is that I don't like to be told what to do. A friend saying "Hey... I liked this... you should try it" is one thing, but someone telling me what to do is another. For example, when my dental hygienist tells me to floss all it does is make me want to eat more Laffy Taffy. So in order to minimize that effect, I have decided to consider Oprah a friend. Maybe someday we'll do lunch.
And since you are all my friends, I thought I would share with you the fact that Oprah has published her O Magazine Summer Reading List for 2010. Here are a couple of the titles:
THE LOST SUMMER OF LOUISA MAY ALCOTT by Kelly O'Connor McNees
KINGS OF THE EARTH by Jon Clinch
THE PARTICULAR SADNESS OF LEMON CAKE by Aimee Bender
SOMEONE KNOWS MY NAME by Lawrence Hill
There are 16 more titles on the list, so you'll want to check it out on The O Magazine site. Let me know if you've read any of them. Or plan to!
-- Dana Barrett, Contributing Editor
