More celebrities are starting book clubs
NEW YORK - Jimmy Fallon remembers a summer a few years back when it seemed everybody was reading “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn.
“Everyone had that book. If we had people over, or went on vacation poolside, people had that book wrinkled and curled up. I read it with my wife and we read every chapter together and we’d be like, ‘(Gasps) This is great!’ It was the world’s smallest book club,” he laughed.
This summer, Fallon decided to expand his book club of two to include his late-night audience. In June, he launched “Tonight Show Summer Reads.” Fallon presented five book options on his show and instructed viewers to go online and vote for their favorite. The results exceeded his expectations with 140,000 votes. The winner was “Children of Blood and Bone” by Tomi Adeyemi.
“Any way to engage the audience and to do stuff with them is always more fun,” said Fallon.
“When a celebrity decides to get behind a book, we generally see a lift in sales,” said Chris Schluep, an editor at Amazon. “For instance, ‘Children of Blood and Bone’ has been selling well this year. But the week after Jimmy Fallon selected it as the first ‘Tonight Show’ book club selection, it sold nearly three times the number of print, Kindle and Audible books that it had sold in the previous week at Amazon.”
Fallon isn’t the only celebrity to follow in Oprah Winfrey’s footsteps with a book club. Reese Witherspoon has made a success of her monthly literary picks.
“It’s fantastic and we have a great experience,” said Witherspoon. One of her selections, “Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng, will be a limited series on Hulu starring Witherspoon and Kerry Washington.
Emma Roberts has turned her lifelong love of reading into a pet project she calls Belletrist. A website and social media for Belletrist celebrate all things books. Each month they feature a new book.
“One of the most exciting things about reading is thinking about how to bring it to life. I’m always imagining the show or the movie. We’re in an exciting time,” said Roberts.