Thank you, thank you

The freedom of picking books that matter - chicagotribune.com

Oprah Winfrey, the most powerful woman in the history of, well, everything, selected Jonathan Franzen's novel "Freedom" for her next on-air book club. To which I moan piteously: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no …

I don't follow Oprah's book club or, for that matter, Oprah's anything else but it has become impossible to avoid this stuff, some of it at least. Also I did not read Jonathan Franzen's earlier book, nor do I care to. There is a point (I count this as a personal failing, I really do) at which a book or movie or what not becomes so famous and popular I could not possibly read it myself, not on a bet. Franzen's "Freedom" passed that point long before Oprah got involved. 

This doesn't mean I don't ever read "big" books, of course. I like, as you know, the Dragon Tattoo books, for example. It has more to do with my severe (and apparently incurable) allergy to doing required things, like eating applesauce with pork, playing bridge, or being jolly on December 25. 

Humbug.