Television chatshow queen Oprah Winfrey received a rock star’s welcome when she spoke to a heaving audience of thousands of fans at the Jaipur Literature Festival in India.

It has been one of the greatest life experiences I have ever had

Ms Winfrey, wearing a gold and red Indian outfit, told the packed crowd that her love of books had helped her education and enabled her to rise from a poor childhood in Mississippi to become one of the world’s most influential women.

“Reading is what I do for pleasure, what I do to relax myself,” she said to cheers from spectators. “My ideal day is to spend a day reading a great book, and knowing I have another one to read.”

“At school I turned in assignments a week early to get another book. The other kids hated me,” she joked, before naming Gregory David Roberts’s 2003 bestseller Shantaram, which is set in Mumbai, as one of her favourite novels.

Ms Winfrey, who ended her chat show last year after 25 years, has been in India for a week filming for her new TV channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network.

“It has been one of the greatest life experiences I have ever had,” she said, adding that she felt expanded, enriched and deepened by her first trip to India.

She drew laughter by saying she was shocked at the huge numbers of people everywhere and at the refusal of drivers to stop at a red light, but said she had learned that there was a calmness underneath the chaos of Indian life.

Ms Winfrey, who has nearly nine million followers on Twitter, admitted that she worried that reading habits are being damaged by increasing use of computers for social networking.

“I feel that, because when I am on it (Twitter), I feel I could be reading a book right now,” she said, receiving a loud round of applause from the crowds, many of whom stood several rows deep for her one-hour appearance.

Ms Winfrey’s book club is credited with reviving reading among many Americans and her personal choices have had a huge effect on sales.