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Prompt Response 4

For this response I want to focus on celebrity inspired book clubs. The article “Celebrity Book Clubs Create Virtual Reading Community” talks about the popular online book clubs of Emma Watson, Reese Witherspoon, Sarah Jessica Parker, Florence Welch, Zoella, Emma Roberts and of course the mother of all celebrity books clubs, Oprah. While some of the quotes in the article are cynical of celebrity book clubs (“they have a shelf-life and people like Emma Watson will get bored and start looking for the next new thing”-Claire Armitstead of The Guardian) there is no denying the power of a celebrity endorsement for book sales and hype.

In the article “From Obscurity to Bestseller: Examining the Impact of Oprah’s Book Club Selections”, Oprah’s book club picks from 1995 to 2002 were examined to see what impact being featured as a book club pick on her show had on the sale of the books. The researchers found that being featured on Oprah’s show as a book club pick had a tremendous impact. The first 11 books featured climbed from an unranked status to the top four on the bestseller list the week they were featured (Butler et. al. 24). Wow!

Her influence also had long lasting effects. According to Butler et. al. even the lowest ranking book choices were still making the top 150 list a full three months after being picked (25). Even though this information is from 20 years ago it helps show the precedence for celebrity book clubs and their tremendous influence on pop culture and reading.

Are these modern celebrity online book clubs just an exercise in vanity? Is this just a new way for celebrities to stay relevant to us? Whether you are skeptical of celebrity book clubs or all for it there is no denying their tremendous power and tremendous responsibility. When someone with as much pull as a celebrity is endorsing a book they have the power to bring an obscure or little known book to the forefront. They had better make sure the book is a good one! Who can forget the A Million Little Pieces controversy and subsequent roasting of James Frey by Oprah?

Celebrities have the power to encourage millions to read a book. This power should not be taken lightly. Emma Watson is a good example of a celebrity using her sway to bring classic feminist literature back into the consciousness of a younger generation. Whether this is just the “hot thing” currently doesn’t really matter to me- I think promoting feminism and authors of color in today’s climate is a great thing.





References:

Liao, Angela. “Celebrity Book Clubs Create Virtual Reading Community”. Bookstr, 30 June 2017, https://bookstr.com/article/celebrity-book-clubs-create-virtual-reading-community/. Accessed 22 February 2019.

Butler, Richard et. al. “From Obscurity to Bestseller: Examining the Impact of Oprah’s Book Club Selections”. Publishing Research Quarterly, 20(4), 23-34, 1 January 2005, https://web-a-ebscohost-com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=022c57a6-a6b9-4116-a229-77014a32bb21%40sessionmgr4009. Accessed 22 February 2019.

Comments

  1. JasonFebruary 22, 2019 at 5:42 PM

    Hi Caitlyn. No doubt that celebrity book clubs have an over-sized influence. I guess a part of me is just happy that people with such influence promote reading. We use Andrew Luck's book club at our library. I can see the concern caused when one person, think Oprah, has so much influence. I guess we just hope she uses her superpower for good. :)

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  2. Caitlyn TobinFebruary 23, 2019 at 7:19 AM

    Yes let's hope they use their powers for good! I forgot about the Andrew Luck Book Club, I think having a well known male athlete promoting reading is a great way to help out reluctant readers. I don't have any formal evidence but I notice that most of my reluctant readers happen to be boys, and having a sports figure modeling reading is a great thing

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  3. Sam SmuckerFebruary 24, 2019 at 5:08 PM

    I agree that as long as celebrities are using their influence for good causes, we should encourage them to continue doing so! I think celebrity book clubs present a good opportunity for libraries to gain some public attention, and they might lead to some great readers' advisory interactions if a patron likes a book they read from a celebrity book club and come to the library looking for more like it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Erin CataldiFebruary 25, 2019 at 7:52 AM

    Great insight, excellently defended, I think when celebrities use their power for good, everyone wins. Full points!

    ReplyDelete

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