Oprah makes way for Obama in sparking reading frenzy

Washington, May 31 (ANI): Oprah Winfrey may have a strong influence in the literary world, but the spot seems to have been taken over by Barack Obama, for when the US President revealed that he was reading "Netherland", the novel began flying off the shelves.

Sales of the critically acclaimed novel by Joseph O'Neill shot by 40 per cent, and more than 95,000 copies had been sold till last week.

Russell Perreault, vice president and director of publicity at Vintage Books, the novel's publisher, revealed the sky rocketing popularity of the book after Obama's revelation had deterred the paperback's release.

"It was getting so much attention and we were in such demand that we decided to move up the release of the paperback by a month. It's been fantastic," the Politico quoted Perreault as saying.

A similar boost was witnessed when Obama suggested he was forming his Cabinet on Abraham Lincoln's "Team of Rivals," and Doris Kearns Goodwin's book by the same name caught fire, three years after it was published.

Howard Yoon, a literary agent with Gail Ross said: "There's Oprah and now Obama. Those are the two titans. But it's more than just influence. It's also respect and trust.

"Here you have a sitting president who's not only trained as a legal scholar but also a New York Times best-selling author. His credibility and trust is extraordinarily high when it comes to book recommendations." (ANI)