Book clubs popular again after decline

NEW YORK, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Book clubs are booming as never before in the United States after years of decline that resulted in the Book-of-the-Month Club firing its celebrated panel of judges in 1994 as irrelevant in an era of online retailers capable of reaching geographically isolated or lazy book buyers.

The spread of big chain bookstores throughout the nation, often offering books at discount prices, also contributed to the near-death of the Book-of-the-Month Club and its major rival, the Literary Guild, which also were in the discount business. They discovered they were no longer needed in helping to define American middlebrow culture.

"The BOMC has gone the way of the British royal family and other preposterous pleasures," wrote writer Wilfred Sheed, one of the club's judges, when he was sacked. The panel had been headed over the years by such intellectuals as Henry Seidel Canby and Clifton Fadiman and included Dorothy Canfield Fisher and Heywood Broun.

But last year the club, founded in 1926 as a mail order business, reinstated the judges panel, naming authors Annie Proulx, Nelson DeMille, Anna Quindlen, and Bill Bryson to lend their authority to book selections, and it merged with the Literary Guild. BOMC, which had more than 1.5 million members only 15 years ago, had by then slipped to 700,000 members.

Taking up the slack in advising the public on what books it should be reading in the 1990s was TV personality Oprah Winfrey. She was credited with sending millions of customers to bookstores to buy books she recommended, but she did not distribute books.

When Oprah dropped her popular book list last April other book clubs were quickly organized by USA Today and such TV shows as "Good Morning America," the "Today" show, and "Live With Regis and Kelly." It seemed as though a nation that no longer discussed books but preferred to gossip about TV's "The Sopranos" was finally reading again.

Not to be left out, book publishing firms began forming their own clubs to promote niche interest books (Christian topics, cooking, sports, gardening, interior decorating) and books by black authors on the black experience (Black Expressions Book Club, which claims 250,000 members). Not to be left out, the biggest book club in the country - Bookspan -- is also promoting niche interest books as alternative choices to its main monthly selections.

Bookspan is the giant resulting from the merger of BOMC, owned by AOL Time Warner since 1977, and the Literary Guild, an acquisition of the Bertelsmann publishing empire. By pooling their resources, the two clubs, which have retained their individual identities, have been able to expand online and continue their traditional appeal to customers who feel they need advice on what to read.

"The Internet is not a threat for us anymore," Markus Wilhelm, chief executive of Bookspan, told UPI. "It is the biggest opportunity in 30 years. We review more than 10,000 manuscripts a year and provide guidance up front. Other online booksellers will only tell you what their customers like."

Bookspan has been attracting more than 200,000 new members a month and now has e-mail newsletters for members interested in niche subjects. By this means, it has been able to start up about 10 new specialized book clubs a year and now has more than 50 of them. Its Christian Book Club is the largest with 800,000 members, slightly more than BOMC itself, and its Jewish-themed club also is growing rapidly.

Essence Magazine also has become a player, issuing a book list quarterly -- starting last month -- for its mostly black readership. The Essence Book Club is different from other book clubs in that its readers will help make selections for the list. The magazine encourages about 60 bookstores in black neighborhoods across the nation to stock its selections.

Readers also will be given the opportunity to vote on book selections they would like to discuss on Essence's online chat line. The magazine also will offer members Web site chats with living book club authors or a guest author if a club author is deceased. Also offering chats with authors on the Barnes & Noble bookstore Web site is the African American Literature Book Club, which gets about 1.3 million online visits a month.