i went back to the top, since i wanted to comment on the original question and some comments..
i don't watch Oprah, i have seen some of the show, but its just isn't a show i watch normaly
I have read some of the books from her book club, though, and while some were drivel, (a 16 year old girl takes up residence in a Wal-mart, and her life is magically improved... everyone in town befriends her, get her jobs, housing eventualy and she lives life happily ever after) but some were good.. a touching story of how hard it is for a woman to leave an abusive man, her running away from him, the difficulty in finding a job, housing, and other services once she arrives in a new town, the difficulty keeping a job with low wages, broken down car, kids to care for.. her small grudging success... not great literature, but atleast a believable story line, with interesting realistic characters.
any 90% of the books on her list are good reads.. not great books, no interesting words, or difficult styles, simple clear cut domestic fiction.
i haven't read Steinbeck's East of Eden, but i have read some of his other works, and they too, are good to better than average domestic fictions.
it will be interesting to see how it works out... when she stopped her book club some civic groups attempted to do the same sort of thing, (chicago did something, but no one in NY could agree on a book!)
Reading is a good habit. are some books better than others? sure. in general, i think non fiction is better than fiction, and i try to read a balance. I have read harry potter (1 & 2 so far) too, because its good to know some of the common vocabulary-- and that what harry potter- like it or hate it, its the talk of the town- and you should know something about it -- to be able to comment truthfully about it.
I do like Madame Bovery, and i think it tells a classic story well.. but i also remember the first time i read Little Women, i hated it- i have since changed my mind.
My daughter reads interesting stuff.. she wanted to know more about the phrase 'uncle tom'- so she went out and read Uncle Tom's Cabin-- has any one here read it? we all know the story-or think we do... its is a bit of propoganda as well as fiction- and Uncle Tom is not an uncle tom of the common venacular!
