On Celebrity Book Clubs

 

My mom has always been a big fan of celebrity book-clubs. She gives me access to her Audible account and is frequently giving me a call to see if I’ve heard of a book that she’s heard Reese Witherspoon talk about. And I’ll admit that I’ve looked over them before as well - I read Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies after seeing that Barrack Obama marked it as his favorite book of 2015. 

I think these book clubs are great. They get people reading with an enthusiasm they may not have alone. If a person’s trusted talk-show host Oprah recommends a book, then why shouldn’t they pick up the book as well to be a part of the conversation? This is only something that is becoming more and more popular at smaller and more niche levels with TikTok and the impact of BookTok. A creator that I follow on the app, @/bigbooklady, hosts and invites her viewers to join her book club on the app Fable, which allows users to host and moderate online book clubs. The app Fable is a hit with BookTok influencers, giving folks perhaps more trustworthy (or at least more relatable than mega-stars like Witherspoon and Oprah) micro-celebrities to follow. They, of course, don’t have the influence that bigger celebrities have, but they still have a platform that they use to promote books - and don’t think that these influencers aren’t receiving some incentives for doing so either.

Celebrity book clubs can shine a spotlight onto up-coming authors and give them a real chance to succeed, but I think the real value is getting public eyeballs on books. There are so many different things a person can do for entertainment now, between countless streaming services, activities, games, movies, etc, it’s nice to have the attention placed on books. People are nosy. They want to be a part of the conversation. If Oprah makes the conversation about books, I think that’s a good thing.