Oprah Winfrey cutting back on book club recommendations

Friday, April 5th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ Oprah Winfrey, publishing's No. 1 hit maker, is cutting back on her book club recommendations. The TV personality who helped make best sellers out of such little-known authors as Rohinton Mistry and Jacquelyn Mitchard said she had been struggling to find suitable works to recommend.

"It has become harder and harder to find books on a monthly basis that I feel absolutely compelled to share," Winfrey said Friday in a statement. "I will continue featuring books on the 'Oprah Winfrey Show' when I feel they merit my heartfelt recommendation."

Vowing "to get the whole country reading again," the talk-show host founded her book club in 1996. Her recommendations soon became publishing's version of winning the lottery. Thanks to Winfrey, novels such as Mitchard's "The Deep End of the Ocean" and Tawni O'Dell's "Back Roads" reached hundreds of thousands of additional readers.

Publishers were understandably grateful, but some critics complained that Winfrey favored sentimental stories over quality literature. Winfrey herself seemed aware of these concerns and in recent months had picked such weighty books as Mistry's "A Fine Balance" and Jonathan Franzen's "The Corrections."

Ironically, Franzen became her most notorious selection. The author made several disparaging remarks about Winfrey and her previous book club picks and Winfrey responded by canceling the dinner she traditionally throws for her chosen author.