(Image Source: Cinema Blend )

 

BY LOGAN TITTLE

 

She’s BAAAACK!!

With a brand new book club.

 

Oprah Winfrey announced Saturday she’s opening a whole new can of book worms with her Book Club 2.0—all thanks to a good read.

 

“I was reading this book, as a book, as a real book…and I was like, ‘Where is the Oprah Winfrey Show when you need to announce and tell everybody…?’ …I need the Book Club!” (Video source: Oprah.com )

 

The press release sent out on Friday revealed Book Club 2.0 will have extra digital elements including a weekly series of webisodes, social networking connections to Oprah.com, and a mobile messaging application called GroupMe that lets readers create smaller book clubs with their friends.

 

A writer for the New York Times suspects this might also be a strategy to boost ratings for Winfrey’s cable channel, OWN.

 

“In theory, Ms. Winfrey now has more room than ever to promote a book club, with a 24-hour cable network…but the show draws between half a million and two million viewers on a typical week, a relatively paltry number compared to the six to eight million …for her…talk show that ended in 2011.”

 

So will Winfrey be able to turn her audience of soccer moms into digital media masters all for the sake of reading? A writer for Cinema Blend isn’t seeing a problem with it.

 

“People reading is a great thing, and the reason why the book club took off is because those reading the selections genuinely enjoy them. I, for one, couldn’t be more pleased Oprah’s picking books again, and I’m sure my mom is quite pleased too.”

 

Her first pick of the new club is Wild by Cheryl Strayed and will be available for Kindle, Nook, the iBookstore and others starting Monday.