Oprah

This is kind of a pet peeve of mine, and I apologise if I just go off on a rant here, but...

Yesterday, we received the second book in Oprah Winfrey's resurrected book club. Like the first, as it came in from Simon & Schuster, instead of actually telling us what the book was on any of the boxes, or even on the invoice, it's listed as "OPRAH BOOK CLUB BOOK TWO". Like with Steinbeck's East of Eden, it completely saddens me that the fact that it has been selected as part of Oprah's book shindig overshadows the work itself. I know sticking her silly little sticker on the book will increase the book's sales, but come on. The first time around, the "Oprah" edition of Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance didn't come in as "OPRAH BOOK CLUB BOOK N", it came in as Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance. We're a fairly intelligent bunch operating our bookstores, if you told us that Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country was the next selected for the book club, we know what to bloody do with it.