Oprah's Book Club

So the deal was, Oprah would pick a book, and everyone would read it, and the country would take a giant leap forward in literacy.

Nope.

While sales of the books she recommended went up, sales of other books went down. Worse, since the recommended books as a general rule were brainers (as compared to no-brainers), people got discouraged by them and went off reading altogether, at least for a little while. Result: a small slip backward into less literacy.

Here's the details: The Unintended Consequences of Oprah's Book Clubs