I'm choosing to talk about celebrity book clubs: "Numerous celebrities have decided to encourage reading by becoming bookstagrammers or launching their own online book club." I say if it calls for a certain celebrity to start a book club to get people involved and interested in reading then let's get them involved. Reading is an important life long skill people need. I believe that celebrities are in an unique place of being a role model and their reading and book clubs have the opportunity to reach a lot of people who may otherwise not e interested in books and reading. These celebrities maybe getting some kind of 'payment' (more followers to their book clubs, money, etc.) for sharing their reading, however I think if they didn't enjoy reading they wouldn't be out there promoting it. So, I say, bring on the celebrities who want to start book clubs and promote reading, I'll let them do it all day long.
- Liao, Angela. (2017) Celebrity Book Clubs Create Virtual Reading Community. Retrieved from https://www.bookstr.com/celebrity-book-clubs-create-virtual-reading-community
Mary:
ReplyDeleteI agree with you in that....if it gets reluctant readers to read....then it's a great thing! What do you think about the article on Oprah's book club and the strong link between a celebrity's recommendation and the book then making the best 150 list? There could be an otherwise highly reviewed book, but it doesn't catch the eye of a celebrity, so it remains hidden? Should authors market to celebrities in hopes of being mentioned and, therefore rewarded? Just a thought. Thank you.
I think that the better known celebrity recommending the book the better the book will do on the best 150 list. That's just one of the perks of having a celebrity recommending your book. I don't think that an author should market to celebrities unless they wrote that book just for that particular person. The rest of us are still the ones who buy the books and therefore get their books on the list. What if that celebrity falls from the public's graces, then I think that we'll stop listening to what the celebrity says about books and the books will not make any lists. Then the author wasted their time marketing their book to someone the public doesn't listen to anymore and their book may do poorly because of choosing the wrong celebrity to recommend their book.
DeleteMary, I totally agree with you! I'm personally not a huge book club fan, and especially not a celeb book club fan, but I think that efforts like Andrew Luck's book club (http://andrewluckbookclub.com/) are fantastic way to encourage reading in people who may not otherwise read. While I don't follow football, and therefore not AL, I do admire his determination to provide that role model to fans who may need that extra incentive to get reading.
ReplyDeleteI too agree, overall if it gets people reading, it's a win. Even if the books are "crap" or there is an agenda, at least people are reading.
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