Illiterate to Icon: How Oprah’s Book Club Used TV Copywriting to Spark a Global Reading Revolution | Chinecherem Enujioke
"I am confident in most things that don't require mathematical or technological skills. In those areas, I'm not just challenged—I'm functionally illiterate. I have actually had to call for help to get my TV turned on.” –Oprah Winfrey, What I Know for Sure.
Oprah Winfrey, American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor, is best known for her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show. On September 17, 1996, she announced her first Bookclub session on The Oprah Winfrey TV Show.
This began as a literary initiative aimed at improving the reading culture among her audience in America and beyond. She would select a book for viewers to read and discuss. This way, even authors who no one knew came to the limelight.
In its 15 years, Oprah has selected 120 books for the Book Club. When her show ended in 2011, she launched Oprah's Book Club 2.0 as a joint network between The Oprah Winfrey Network and O, The Oprah Magazine, to continue her dream. The 2.0 version utilizes social media platforms to reach and engage with the audience.
While there have been criticisms and controversies surrounding the selections and what the Book Club means to literature, Oprah has successfully improved reading in a time of scrolling. A remarkable phenomenon related to this is ‘the Oprah Effect,’ in which books she selects amass millions of sales, and they usually become a New York Times bestseller.
In Oprah Daily, her monthly magazine, she writes, ‘That’s what great books do, especially when shared. They shine a light on the unfolding of our own stories. And this I know for sure: If you open yourself when you open a good book, it will continue to illuminate your life even after The End.’
Oprah Winfrey has published self-help books such as The Path Made Clear: Discovering Your Life’s Direction and Purpose (2019) and What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing (2021; written with Bruce D. Perry).
References:
Britannica.com
Oprahdaily.com
Photo credits:
GettyImages
