Ugh

I don't HATE Oprah. I really don't. But I don't love her, either. I watch if she has something on her show I find interesting, but most of the time I find her a little, um, let's call it...lofty? She just seems a little too self-important for my tastes. And those who follow her every word kinda bug, but, really, I have better things to worry about.

The one thing I know about Oprah, though, is that I will rarely read a book club pick of hers. They are usually horrible and if they aren't, I hate jumping onto any perceived bandwagon. I've had this thing with non-conformity since junior high and I'm afraid it'll be with me until I die. The QUICKEST way for me to hate something? Make it popular. My friend Amy and I had this entire discussion while in a book store in Denver this fall. Neither of us will pick up an Oprah book club pick. She is actually the reason I won't read the latest Franzen (and, well, the tiny little fact that I hated his other book is in there somewhere, too...).

So. Imagine my torn feelings when I read the headline that her latest book club pick is A Tale of Two Cities. A book only bested by The Great Gatsby and Little Women as my favorite book of all time. UGH. I mean, GREAT! More people to fall in love with Sydney Carton (because, SWOON, people...). More people to fall in love with Dickens. But. Ugh. I hate how they rereleased it with a new "Oprah" cover. I hate how she purports to be such a champion of literature, but says she's never read Dickens before (or, maybe, that's just me being picky...Who reads as much as she allegedly does and doesn't read Dickens?) (Is this the part where you fire off an angry comment telling me how much you love reading but have never read Dickens, either? Um, sorry. NOT you...her! It's not you at all...)

So. A Tale of Two Cities. Have I ever mentioned my love of it, before? Because it is DEEP. Gatsby deep. I read it the first time in...junior high, I think. And my teenage brain fell completely and utterly in love with Sydney Carton. Who wouldn't want a man like that? He was the bar that all crushes had to be measured against; I held him dear. I became a hopeless romantic and the notion of a man dying to save my love was pumped up and held firm. I read it several more times through college, each time digging a little deeper into the story. But with each read and every nuance brought out, the romance was always first and foremost for me and the reason I read.

So I'm happy more people will turn to Dickens, who was brilliant. I really am. I just wish it didn't have Oprah's name attached to it, you know? I wish I was the bigger person who was glad people are reading, no matter the reason, but, apparently I'm not. Sigh. Just another thing to work on. (Oh, wait. She's retiring...Whew! I don't have to work on it after all!)


(if you were here - thompson twins)