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I was so glad to find a reading buddy, someone who just wants to read the same books during the same time and to check in (via email, since the buddy's in Scotland) about interesting points and to hear another person's viewpoint.

I was so glad!

Here's the bad part: Though this person doesn't even know of Oprah, except in the most vague way, the first two books he's suggested have been Oprified! I see the badge of honor on the book cover and I grit my teeth and (gulp) pay for them anyway and read them, too.

I feel like I'm being sucked into a vortex of O-influence here. I've finished one book, and the other one is sitting right there, the logo mocking me.

Am I a sell-out?

That's the insidiuos evil that is the OBC. Sometimes, they put it on things that are obviously good to tout their literary street cred, only to slap it on some hormone-driven sob fest for lonely desperate housewives.

Anna Karenina was in there. I've read it. Reading Tolstoy isn't selling out.

If you picked up the book on the recommendation of a friend and they happen to be on the OBC's list, that's one thing. If you go about reading books because they're on the OBC list, that's another, eviler thing altogether.

Consider yourself under a Papal forgiveness edict.

Cheers,
Brian