But I'm Not On The Bandwagon

Yesterday, even though I had a mountain of laundry to finish folding and put away, I spent an hour surfing Amazon. The way I keep track of the books I want to read is to just add them all to my Amazon cart, and every once in awhile I let myself buy some of them. Or when I get a book from the library or buy it somewhere else, I take it out of the cart. Only I'd not done that for awhile, so yesterday part of my surfing was browsing through my own cart (all 637 bucks of it...imagine if I accidentally submitted that order, lol!) and found some books I'd forgotten I desperately want to read. One of them is The Road by Cormac Mcarthy. There's something intriguing about post-apocalyptic novels, the surviving with nothing and the idea of most of humanity vanished. (Oryx and Crake is my favorite one.) My library even has a copy sitting on the shelf, and I decided I'd go get it today, since they're holding something else for me (can't remember what, though).

And then I got an email, this morning, about Oprah's new book club pick. You guessed it: The Road.

Sigh.

I'm not sure why this bothers me. I remember when I finished my English degree at BYU, I had a long discussion with my favorite professor about how you go about finding real books (meaning books with literary value, texts that push you to think outside of your own mental pathways) when you don't have a reading list from a professor. I've since formulated my own trial-and-error methods, but I like to think that I'm intelligent enough to pick out books without the help of Oprah. I wouldn't be bugged if this was a past Oprah selection. But she's reading it right now. Reading it now feels like...like I'm following a trend instead of setting one, which is fairly dumb considering that probably only my sister Becky would follow my "trend"!

Of course, I'll still end up reading it---even though that library copy has already been checked out. But I am stating here, to all loyal English Geek readers (LOL) that I'm not reading it because Oprah told me to. I'm not on the bandwagon.

Although I am already looking forward to seeing Cormac Mcarthy on TV.

I'm such a dork!

Comments

[Mimi]

Yes, I agree. I've had some heartburn over the fact that Oprah has chosen two books that I read and loved - "The Midwife" and "The Poisonwood Bible", and we won't even go into the "Anna Karenina" debacle.

[hwalk]

I was in a college literary theory class, and we were talking about taste and culture and how when something becomes popular, a lot of time a person won't like it anymore because it's popular. Good taste comes from liking those things that are more obscure.

I think that's why you don't want to read something of Oprah's list--to have good taste and to read good things, you want to be different than everyone else. You want to read books that make you feel better than the masses.

(Hopefully that made sense.)

[Lara]

I totally agree with the above poster. As soon as Oprah recommends a book, it's over. Everyone will have read it. And good luck ever finding it at the library now. :)

[Karen Greenfield]

gee, I do so wish we all lived closer-- tea and a good discussion with you and these three commenters would be so interesting!! So what does comprise "good taste?" And who has it?? And whose taste do you all admire/want to emmulate? Why is popular culture as defined by Oprah not good taste--just because it's "of the masses?" What did you read in college--where did you go to school? So much to explore...we need the teleportation from Star Trek or Harry Potter's flue powder.

[Stephanie Howell]

that is SO annoying to me too...as i'm a self-proclaimed literary snob.

oryx and crake was great, huh??? i used to work at a little bookstore on Main Street in a tiny town (military life, huh?) and all i did was read all day. found some great ones that way.

[Stephanie]

I think you are beating yourself up. Consider that you have great literary abilities and be honored that you first chose this book and then Oprah announced it. What I'm saying is that you did not need her book club to open your mind, you did that for yourself and that is a huge accomplishment. To push ourselves over our own limits.

I myself would be more inclined to jump on the bandwagon. I read a book by a certain author and get hooked on their writing style and then have the need to read everything they wrote.

[kelly edgerton]

Amy, you are so cute, and this entry is so YOU. *I* would never assume that you selected a book based upon Oprah's suggestion. You are too particular and discerning for that. I would, however, select a book based upon *your* suggestion, and since I've never even heard of The Road until I read this entry (don't watch O much anymore), I will be adding it to my list of must reads. Currently, I'm rereading the Earth's Children series by Jean M. Auel (7th time!). I do that each summer - reread a series that I loved in the past. I guess this summer is for Ayla (I've got the Harry Potter series lined up next). Come fall and winter, I'll get back to the literary selections, until then, it's Ayla and Harry for me.