The NYT is Nothing Compared to Oprah

  

 If the rumor is true (and Publisher's Lunch just sent out this photograph that came from booksellers)...  then... brilliant book and brilliant book club pick or not ...

Since Jan 2005, Oprah has picked 14 books for her club

All of them have been by men! 

All of them for the last 5 years. 

If you go back, since 2003 she's picked 20 titles.

18 of them are by men. 

I'm not suggesting affirmative action here. I never am.I don't believe in it. I just continue and continue and continue to find it curious. Is it possible that in 5 years there has not been one title written by one woman that deserved to be an Oprah bookclub selection?

FYI: She has 2 million readers in her book club over 80% of them are women and  7-9 million viewers watch the show every week and the majority are overwhelmingly female. More than  80% say some searches.

Comments

[Alex Adams]

I have to wonder if she's aware of this bias. Naturally, she's welcome to feature whomever she chooses, but this strikes me as an odd phenomenon, especially given the plethora of strong stories written by women. Like you, I find it curiouser and curiouser.

[JoeFinder]

MJ -- If you go back to the beginning of Oprah's Bk Club, the balance tips toward women. Depending on how you count "picks" (3 novels by the same author, etc?) it's 30 men vs. 37 women, or 28 men vs. 36 women. You could even see her recent picks as redressing the balance. . . .

[EdwardGGordon]

Does it really matter? I mean half the problem in the world today is because we label and discriminate.

Is it possible that the books that Oprah has picked are simply the best available at the time? Or at least the best according to Oprah's personal taste?

I mean if it is a case that you have to be a woman to get on certain lists or into certain book clubs etc isn't that just another form of discrimination.

I don't mean to rant but when I read a book I don't read it because it was written by one sex or the other, I read it because it is good - the last book I read was by Maria V Snyder (Fire Study) and it was excellent.

[Enterthebetween.blogspot.com]

If nothing else, this is an interesting observation. I'll be paying more attention to Oprah's picks in the future.

[JKW]

in 2009 The Best of the National Book Awards was held, it spanned 60years of all National Book Awards winners. Out of 77 Authors about 10 where woman, this too might seem unbalanced as well? but of the the short list of the top 6, two where woman and guess who won? Flannery O'Connor. It's not all unbalanced win you come out on top and the odds are against you, it just makes the victory that much more sweeter ! but i'm a betting man and i like long shots! lol

[ZM_Shah]

She picks some gems from time to time. I especially liked Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth." I doubt she has an actual bias toward men; perhaps the type of fiction she reads on a regular basis is dominated by male writers?

[Jessie Thurlow]

"Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove any thing."
-Jane austen

[Rental Mobil Rasuna]

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[Steven Barnes]

My guess is that Oprah simply has an affinity for male thought patterns--she certainly knows her audience is primarily female! It's fun to write characters who have tendencies like that.

www.diamondhour.com

[Jonathan Eloff]

"Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove any thing."
-Jane austen

This quote is no longer true, in fact, depending on your country of residence it may now be the opposite.

Source for my claim: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/fashion/07campus.html?pagewanted=all

www.jonathaneloff.com

[Curtrice.wordpress.com]

This is an important post. Subconscious bias is the most common explanation for this kind of thing, but it isn't until someone brings out the facts that we can confront that bias.

There are only 3 reasons women don't make it to the top http://wp.me/p1xS1Q-iB