Book Controversies
While it's not really a controversy, the article by Angela Liao on Celebrity Book Clubs caught my attention. In general, I'm okay with celebrities having book clubs, mainly because if it gets more people to read, the better. It's along the same reasoning I have with editing Shakespeare plays for performance: if someone will go see a two-hour "Hamlet," but won't go see the four-hour "eternity" version, I'm not going to insist on the full text as the point is to expose them to Shakespeare. If someone is going to actually go to a library, check out a book, and read it because their favorite celebrity recommended it, great! While some of the "book clubs" listed and others I found in a quick internet search seem to me more like publicity occasions for the celebrity, the end result is really what we're after.
The article by Butler, Cowan and Nilsson about the influence of Oprah's book club selections was interesting; it showed what seems to me a bit of blind following by her fans early in the book club's history and then a tapering off as either those fans matured in their reading and decisions or as Oprah's overall influence in media waned. This article highlighted a problem with the celebrity book club phenomenon in that some books that may not be all that good are elevated without perhaps much thought by those following the club, skewing the reviews and numbers for libraries and bookstores, which could then affect future purchasing and collection decisions.
Another problem I saw was all the book clubs mentioned in the Liao article were led by female celebrities. After a brief search on 'celebrity book clubs,' I found that out of 27 such book clubs I could find, only three were by males. These search results were all of the "10 best celebrity book clubs we recommend!" variety. A more targeted search to 'celebrity book clubs men' only netted one more result. Either there really aren't that many male-led celebrity book clubs, or there may be a bias in favor of female-led celebrity book clubs.
I'm not sure how many men read books because their favorite male celebrity (be it a movie star, tv star, or athlete) recommended it, but I'm guessing it's not many. I'm more inclined to pick up a book recommended by a male celebrity than a female celebrity, but I'm not all that inclined to pick up a book just because a celebrity recommended it in the first place. I don't know what the remedy would be, as we can't force male celebrities to run book clubs or male patrons to choose their reading based on them, but if men come to the library asking about them, it would be nice to have more than four to recommend, especially since one of them I found was a politician and those tend to turn off half of the potential reading audience.
You make an interesting point about celebrity female led book clubs vs male led book clubs. I think it still stems from a cultural standpoint- more women at stay at home moms then men and I think book clubs have always been a social outlet for them. My husband would never participate in a book club, but I love a good social book club and we a somewhat stereotypical family with me working part time or just staying at home depending on where each of our moves take us.
ReplyDeleteThe article about American Dirt definitely speaks to the negative influence celebrity book clubs can have on books that aren't necessarily as good as they're portrayed. I appreciate that you took that further and connected it to how that effects libraries! The point you bring up about the amount of female vs. male celebrity book clubs is something I've never noticed before. I could only think of one off the top of my head--Andrew Luck--and it's geared toward kids, not adult men but I can think of at least three female lead ones without research. Very fascinating.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading your post I was thinking about how many celebrity male led book clubs there are, and you answered my question. I wish you had named them as well, now I will have to look it up. I have to agree with Jennifer that it seems to be a cultural orientation that books clubs are more female oriented than male. I think males find it less 'macho' to be part of a club and the females in the club are not very welcoming (at least in the movies I seen about book clubs) at first.
ReplyDeleteIt does look like that a novel gains more recognition when a celebrity endorses it. And the more publicity a novel gets, more negative than positive, the more it stays in the limelight. It's human nature to be attracted to the controversial.
The male names I found were Andrew Luck, Jimmy Fallon, Bill Gates, and Barack Obama.
DeleteThanks. I found the same except for Bill Gates.
DeleteThanks for giving the names of the male celebrity book club leaders you found. I was also curious! And I had no idea about any of them, except for Luck. It would be interesting to see statistics on how many more women read for pleasure than men, but I suspect that the number of female bibliophiles probably is greater. Most men that I know prefer non-fiction to fiction, and non-fiction doesn't seem to be a focus of book clubs. Also, these male readership stats may be further reflected in the imbalance between female and male librarians. In any event, it seems more likely that men would more highly value an athlete's recommendation than a film star's. I believe that Andrew Luck had a book club for adults as well as one for children, so he may very well have had some influence on adult male readership.
ReplyDeleteI'd agree with you about men probably accepting recommendations from an athlete over a film or tv star, as well as an imbalance in female book clubs and male book clubs. This more than likely stems from what Jennifer said in that women have usually had more time for leisure reading than men. It may also be affected by an imbalance in librarians, as you stated; hopefully I can do a little to rectify that. I'm comfortable asking any librarian for recommendations, but I can see how in general men would probably feel more comfortable talking about books and reading with another man than they might with women.
DeleteTotally agree. If a celebrity sticker makes people read, Cool. My actual interest is in that, not who promoted it. I was surprised that was even a controversy. Great point on the men's book club though! I, sadly, had not noticed that.
ReplyDeleteThe thing I hate about celebrity book clubs is just the fact that it's hard to keep up with who has a book club. The same with organizations that make recommendations about books for book clubs. I take calls in our Popular Materials department where I hear from those that say they want to know what this or that person specifically thinks about a book - wanting to know the reviews rather than what is actually suggested.
ReplyDeleteI certainly want more people reading though. That's for sure. One session I attended at PLA talked about the decay of the reader culture; that is, we simply see more people bingeing on the latest streaming show than reading a book. I hope it's not forever.
Perhaps there's a way to do a "binge read" program or display to take advantage of the binge-watch culture and start swinging the pendulum back towards a balance.
DeleteYou bring up so many great points! I'm glad you sought out male celebrity book clubs just to get a feel for who was out there. I only knew of Gates and Luck! Full points and good job generating good discussion with your classmates!
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