I have a confession to make. I am a reformed TV book snob.

Richard and Judy: Tastemakers

In the past, if I went to get my summer holiday ‘3 for 2’s, and there was a ‘Richard and Judy Book Club’ sticker on a cover, I would peel it off before leaving the store. I was embarrassed that anyone would think two daytime TV chat show hosts dictated my reading. ‘I read proper books! I’m well-informed!’ I want my books to say to the other commuters or bods on the beach. Not, ‘I watch and am brainwashed by morning television.’

In fact, I never watched Richard and Judy, so it was a very ill-informed judgement of mine to think they didn’t know what they were talking about. Especially because the books they picked…were great. Consistently, really excellent. Rachel Zadok’s debut novel ‘Gem Squash Tokoloshe’ was outstanding; I’m still affected by it five years later. Last summer ‘Mr Toppit’ by Charles Elton, similarly, blew me away. I was insanely upset, actually, that I’d read such a fantastic book before my holiday, because I was worried nothing else could come even close to being so good.

Still, I peeled off the R&J sticker. Even though experience told me the contrary, I couldn’t shake off the prejudice that a book they picked was somehow dumbed down, lower tier.

This was madness. Many of their picks crop up on prize lists, such as Zadok’s Whitbread First Novel Award nomination. Pure snobbery on my part.

But then Judy and Richard went off to Watch, and no one watched them, and their book club went away. Publishers were devastated because of the massive sales power the promotion had on books. The standard example cited is Joseph O’Connor’s ‘Star of the Sea’ which went from paltry sales to selling a massive 10,000 a week and more, and to date has passed the 250,000 mark, all from appearing on daytime television. Yes, publishers like to sell books, and they like even more having a platform from which to tell people about their brilliant books so the people can buy them.

It’s the same moan you hear from music and film PR types now Jonathan Ross is bowing out from the BBC. They will sorely miss their prime-time, Friday night platform to push their people and place their products with a mass audience.

But now there’s a new TV book club in town. Or, really, the same book club, just with a facelift.

The woman behind Richard and Judy’s books was Amanda Ross. Once called the most influential woman in publishing (despite a long career in television), she actually picked the books that featured on the show. She now has five new friends on sofas who get together to talk books on The TV Book Club. Publishers are happy, their books have a chance to get chosen again and sell lots of lovely copies. Right?

A bit right, a bit wrong. There was huge backlash against the first aired show. No one liked the format, Gok kept saying ‘gorgeous’, they didn’t discuss the set book for long enough, Chris Evans was on plugging his memoirs, and many more moans.

But the worst crime of all was that there was no one with any ‘gravitas’ or ‘credentials’ to tell the audience what the book really meant, or to bring the discussion together ‘properly’ and ‘meaningfully’. Publishers thought their poor books were not being treated with enough respect by the pleb celebs.

Snobs.

The TV Book Club is utterly marvellous. People complain about the lack of diversity in publishing, well look right here – men, women, young, old, gay, straight, white, Asian, and all reading. Not only reading, but caring enough about the books they’ve read to discuss them.

People complain about literary elitism, well, here the only qualification you need to discuss a book is to have read it. All readers are equal. It’s not a tutorial, it’s a club. A social gathering. No one’s trying to sound clever or prove anything, they’re just trying to get more out of a book they’ve read. It’s entertaining and engaging and I enjoy this cultural discussion more than anything supposedly more intellectual on Newsnight Review where everyone’s trying to out-insight each other and end up saying nothing.

Amanda Ross has once again got us talking about books, which is a wonderful thing. She’s still picking great books for her audience – Sarah Waters’ ‘The Little Stranger’ was Booker-shortlisted, there’s no dumbing down here. I think it’s the best thing to happen to reading so far in 2010, and from now on I shall wear my TV Book Club paperback stickers with pride.