Is It the Author or the Book?

Yesterday at the library, a friendly-looking woman saw me checking out a novel by Jennifer Weiner. She enthusiastically pointed at the book and said, "Oh, I LOVE her!" I naturally asked, "So this book is good?" She replied, "Oh, I haven't read anything she's written, but I saw her on the 'Today' show and she was fantastic!" I of course nodded and said something innocuous like "Great!" But I went away wondering about admiring authors as personalities without actually reading their books, or apparently even planning to. (The woman hadn't even said something like, "Now I want to read her books," or "I'm planning to read her new book as soon as I have time.") It was as if seeing and hearing the author, especially on TV, where she was framed as a sort of celebrity, was enough. Obviously there is nothing essentially "wrong" with this. And in the interests of supporting and preserving authors and publishers and good literature, it could be argued that any exposure of authors is good for the overall cause. But this concept of "loving" the author without reading her work seemed odd and a bit sad to me.