O Boy!

Alright look, here's the thing.

I respect and admire Oprah Winfrey's legacy. But I'm not what you'd call a fan.

Yet and still, today I went and picked up her latest book club selection, The Pillars of the Earth

Here are the top reasons, I'm embarrassed to admit it:

1) I HATE being a band wagon person when it comes to purchases

2) I definitely do not want to be labeled an Oprah fanatic (i.e. lap up whatever she sells)

3) I' m a little salty that she pays no attention to the YA genre (just a tad)

The truth is, I've never paid much attention to her selections, other than to marvel at the phenomena that is her announcing them and then the soaring sales numbers afterward. And I've only ever read one other book from her list based on her gushings and that was Wally Lamb's And This Much I know Is True.

Damn good book, by the way.

So that's why I'm not utterly embarrassed to buy the latest selection. When she cherry picked Lamb's book from the shelves, I was intrigued by her fascination of the book. Both me and my mom enjoyed the book, immensely.

Until now, I've not been compelled again to book shop based on O's recommendation. I think because of that whole band wagon phobia I have.

Just like with Lamb's novel, Follett's Pillars is huge! It's 978 pages, which means in order to finish it I'll have to ignore my family for at least two or three days straight.

But also like Lamb's book, it seemed to totally enthrall Oprah. The two things she said that compelled me to hit B&N today were:

It takes place in the middle ages. A good period book always gets my juices flowing -and- that it was 978 pages.

I see it like this - only the best authors have the cojones to write a book that long. Besides, no editor in their right mind would allow a thousand page book out of the gate unless it was really worthy.

So I'm expecting to enjoy this.

As pressed as I was to get it today, I purposely managed to snag the only book on the shelf without a "Oprah Book Selection" sticker on it.

I know, I know, this phobia is out of control.

Totally unrelated to my Oprah bandwagon phobia - as I was purchasing the book, I was telling my friend, Meg, that if the book is as good as Oprah said, I'd likely wrap myself in it until I was done. I went on to say that I could easily finish the book in two days.

I found it interesting that the sales rep at B&N felt the need to say, eyebrow raised, "It's 978 pages."

First of all, duh! The book is huge. Pretty obvious it's lengthy.

Second of all - did I stutter? All I need to get through a book is time! If I have that, I inhale them like air.

So I said to him, "Yeah, I know...two days, that's all I need."

He looked at me like I was insane.

Yeah, like that's the first time I've ever gotten that look!