Posing with book in hand and a gracious grin, Reese Witherspoon announced on Instagram last week that her April book club pick would be Romantic Comedy. Oprah’s Book Club chose Hello Beautiful. Model Kaia Gerber selected In Memoriam, while rapper Noname went with Elite Capture by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò. Musician Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine is prompting her book club members to join her for Patricia Lockwood’s memoir Priestdaddy, and Jenna Bush Hager landed on Camp Zero. Read in between the lines, and you might glean who’s missing: Do famous men know how to read?
To put it plainly, celebrity book clubs are girls clubs. While men are certainly allowed within their ranks, the literati within Hollywood is a matriarchy. Exceptions include former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck, who has not updated his club’s Instagram since August 2020, and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who on random occasion hops on Instagram Live to breathlessly discuss what he’s reading. LeVar Burton, whose life work is promoting literacy, hosts a virtual book club on the app Fable. As far as famous men consistently and currently recommending books in reading-group format, that is it. One guy.
Considering the current landscape for fame-backed business endeavors, I’m actually quite surprised more famous men aren’t tapping into the market. Even if they’re free to join, celebrity-helmed book clubs have the capacity to be cash cows. And more than raking in that sweet, sweet money, leading a book club is a smart way to cultivate a fan base. Unfortunately, their lack of hustle only strengthens my suspicions that leading men aren’t reading men.
“I love books,” Oprah Winfrey told her show’s live audience in 1996. “When I didn’t have friends, I had books. And one of the greatest pleasures I have right now in life is to be reading a really good book and to know I have a really, really good book after that book to read.” She then announced her…
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