Media: Oprah Turns the Page

Why the end of her influential club spells big trouble for publishers and booksellers

It's not true that Oprah Winfrey's book club was the most important development in the history of literacy. For instance, there was the invention of the written word. Then there was movable type. So Oprah comes in third. But no lower, at least not in the opinion of publishers and booksellers, who binge every month on the demand for whatever title she features on her show. In a nation where reading serious fiction is always in danger of becoming a specialized pursuit, something like playing the dulcimer, Oprah's Book Club, with her 26 million U.S. viewers a week, has made reading...

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