"The actor if you missed the long piece about it in the New York Times, or the many social media posts promoting Parker's involvement served as a judge for the Booker this year, a process that required her to read 153 books, some of them on the New York subway while being followed by a film crew. Oh let me try!!! Parker had posted to Booker organisers last year, and for reasons that became obvious this week, they did."
"I know what you are going to say; that anything short of full-throated support for Parker's adorable engagement with books in general and the Booker prize in particular is just unacceptable snobbery. There is nothing wrong with an actor involving herself in literary life or using her cultural weight to promote literacy. And it goes without saying we are all weepingly grateful to anyone with a platform bigger than that of the dowdy stay-at-home novelist who harnesses her glamour and spotlight for good."
People seek small joys in celebrity appearances at literary events. Sarah Jessica Parker served as a Booker judge and read 153 books, sometimes on the New York subway while followed by a film crew. Literary figures crowded award-ceremony photographs with Parker. Celebrity book clubs and star endorsements operate as PR extensions comparable to animal-charity work or UN ambassadorships and can elevate attention to literature. Celebrity-curated bookish imagery often feels performative, using glamour to validate reading. Examples include Natalie Portman posing with Virginia Woolf, Emma Roberts pictured with a Joan Didion anthology, and Kaia Gerber styling reading as sexy. Such trends provoke questions about authenticity, snobbery, and commodification of reading.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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