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People follow Oprah and book club recommendations because there are simply too many choices available and they have found that their taste and the recommender's taste coincide. I see it as no different than reading a New York Times review and then buying or not buying a book. Just the recommender is different, but no less competent.
In the beginning, the book clubs gave readers an opportunity to read new books at a lower price in the "club" edition, which was generally a less-well produced book than the publisher's version. Prices were lower and there was some weeding out of the junk.
As for followers of Oprha being lemmings, I don't see how that is any more true than those who read Joe Blow's Book Review blog/website faithfully and buy books he recommends, or buy books that Amazon recommends or says others have bought who have bought the book you are buying, are any different. Oprah's taste may not coincide with yours and Amazon's might, but that doesn't validate one and invalidate the other.
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