Quote:
Originally posted by RougeUnderoos+Sep 13 2004, 12:50 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (RougeUnderoos @ Sep 13 2004, 12:50 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-octothorp@Sep 13 2004, 01:36 PM
She's such a cultural phenomenon. Personally, I blame her for the fact that reading literature is now seen as a primarily 'female' activity. I admire her for her attempts to encourage people to read and she does a great job of bringing good books to women who otherwise wouldn't read Love in the Time of Cholera, for example, but at the same time disuades guys from reading the same books.
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As cornball as the whole show is, she does pick very good books.
Ever hear of the Jonathan Franzen thing? He said something like "I don't want her sticker on the front of my book" and that caused a minor fracas. Pretty dumb thing to say though -- it's like saying "I don't want your million dollars".
The book was "The Corrections" and it is great, btw.
What dissuades guys from reading books? Is it the sticker on the front? Or do you think it's a whole cultural thing like "Oprah is for chicks, so books must be for chicks too"? If so, then that is pretty stupid. [/b][/quote]
Yeah, I remember the Franzen thing. As you say, it was fairly silly of him--nothing wrong with someone saying, 'I think your book is great and I want to promote it to millions, because I think it prompts interesting discussions."
Here's an article that talks a bit about the issue of men reading literature (talks specifically about a Penguin marketing campaign, but about half-way down it starts talking about the overall male readership issue):
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/ge...1233121,00.html
The idea that Oprah is partly responsible for this is completely my own conclusion, though. It's the entire 'book club culture' that I see going on right now. I know several women who belong to book clubs, and each of those book clubs has an entirely female audience, and they meet at a coffee shop, drink tea, and focus on the relationships within the novels. Two of these three clubs use the Oprah book list. I think what we need are guys book clubs, which involve going to bars, drinking beer, and keeping an eye on the sports-ticker while discussing books like Roy McGregor's great hockey novel, 'Last Season'.
edit: apologies to CBE for hijacking your thread!