Since it’s the holiday season, I’ve been shopping a lot. Every shopping trip involves a trip to a bookstore (and sometimes several-Matt can vouch for that!) and this bookstore is often Chapters/Indigo.
Every Chapters and Indigo has a giant display of Heather’s Picks–books the CEO has “read and personally loved” and this cheery little sticker is supposed to entice buyers to buy the book. “Well, Heather loved it,” they are supposed to tell themselves “my mother/friend/brother/father/Secret Santa/I surely will love it too.”
The problem with this situation is that I genuinely do not care what Heather is reading. It doesn’t help that her choices are always safe sure-fire best-sellers or books clearly on their way to that status. It doesn’t help her monthly Globe and Mail ads about these picks say nothing personal or insightful about these books. It doesn’t help her interviews with these authors are vacant, impersonal and ill-prepared. There is nothing appealing or intriguing about these selections because Heather does nothing to make herself or her picks appealing or intriguing.
This isn’t the problem with Oprah. Oprah picks books out of left field and she seems genuinely enthralled by and educated about them. Say what you will about the Oprah Bookclub stigma, she is an interesting and passionate woman, which inspires interesting and intriguing picks. Sometimes they are chick lit, something they are classics, sometimes they are cliche, but they are never boring.
So, what should Heather and Chapters/Indigo do about this?
I think they should do something along the lines of “Canada’s Picks.” Line up a string of Canadian celebrities and public figures and have them select a book-any book-with the only stipulations being that they read it, they loved it, they want others to read it, and it can’t be self-promotion in any way. Imagine how much more intriguing book selections from Peter Mansbridge, Mary Walsh, Rex Murphy, Sara Slean, the Tragically Hip, Jean Chretien, Ben Mulroney, Leah Miller and Paul Gross would be? They wouldn’t have to be A-list stars. One pick a month. Each star would do a teeny segment about their selection on a CBC show (preferably George Stromobolopous). This would be more interesting, engaging and Canadian than Heather’s Picks could aspire to be. It would be like Canada Reads. All year long.
I recognize there would be for greater resources needed to make this program work. But I think we need to be aspirational in our efforts to promote books and Heather’s Picks isn’t. It’s a shell of what Oprah’s bookclub is-and what it could be.
Image credit: Joshua Sherurcij. Found via Wikimedia.