BETWEEN THE LINES

Book Talk by Joe


You Don't Need Oprah to Pick a Book For You!

Depending on how you count them, Oprah Winfrey and her Oprah's Book Club recently picked the fifty-something book in her 10-year old project to get America to read really good books. The newest selection, A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, is a memoir and, as such, is a departure from her tendency to pick mostly literary fiction titles. Frey is also the first living author selected in a while.

Her previous selection last June was a 3-book set of novels by William Faulkner. Sales of the Faulkner boxed set were extremely disappointing, with sales only a third of what was published, and returns (the phenomenon of bookstores sending their unsold copies back to the publisher) still continuing at a high rate. I don't know about you, but I find it tedious to read even one Faulkner novel, let alone three! What was Oprah thinking?

To her credit, the very existence of the Oprah Book Club has motivated a great many non-readers to read books and a great many readers to discover books they normally would not have read. And, despite less than expected sales of his three novels, it's kind of fun to see old William Faulkner back on the bestseller lists, if only for a short time, particularly since he's been dead for 43 years.

But you don't need Oprah Winfrey (and/or the committee she hired to make the Book Club selections) to pick a book for you to read. For the most part, her se-lections speak to a very narrow demographic of the book-reading public, i.e., people who watch her television show. You may or may not be part of that audi-ence.

There are so many resources available to help you find a new book or a new author to read - bestseller lists are a regular feature in most metropolitan news-papers and articles about books are published in the weekly news magazines. But word of mouth is probably the best resource of all. What are your friends, family and associates reading? What books and authors do they like and dis-like?

And, let's not forget the recommendations of your local bookseller. Browsing around a good bookstore and discussing your preferences with a knowledgeable bookseller is one of the best ways to find that next book to read and enjoy.

Regardless of how you select your own personal reading list, finding a new (to you) book or author that you thoroughly enjoy will always be one of life's simple pleasures.

Take a chance, try something new. Happy reading!