Oprah's outta her mind

I get an email every week from Borders with picks and coupons and what-not. I nearly soiled myself when I got the latest, because apparently Oprah has chosen Cormac McCarthy's The Road as her latest book club pick.

For those who have read his stuff, let that settle in for a second. For those who haven't, let me describe his writing. Bleak. But not just bleak, it's bloody, idiosyncratic, jarring, violent, and just plain...well, NOT Oprah. Blood Meridian is practically a horror novel, despite its Western setting. And No Country for Old Men reads like a Coen Brothers movie.

And The Road is about a father and son trying to get through a violent post-apocalyptic landscape alive. I can't imagine one of her Followers picking up anything else by him: The screeches would be deafening.

But the absolute worst part is that I'm now forced to buy a hardback copy of the book rather than the brand new trade paperback, which will be soiled by that little "Oprah's Book Club" mark on it. Sigh.

I don't think this will be a popular choice at all.