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As every reader knows by now, the previously well-regarded Washington Post, owned since 2013 by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, recently slashed one-third of its staff, more than 300 employees. These extreme reductions eliminated the sports department, much international news coverage and the entire section and all staff devoted to book reviews and other book talk. I’m acutely feeling the loss of Book World and especially the brilliance and humor of reviewer Ron Charles.
Newspapers have been dropping their book pages for years already and few local or regional papers still include book reviews. The Associated Press stopped publishing book reviews a few months ago, leaving The New York Times as the only general readership newspaper to do so.
We are lucky that the Anchorage Daily News has maintained a commitment to book reviews, focusing on new books related to Alaska or the North. Among the thousands of books published each year, these would otherwise get little attention.
I began reviewing for the old Sunday magazine We Alaskans in 2015. When We Alaskans was eliminated, book reviews moved to the Sunday paper. My colleague, David James, and I alternate weeks; David also writes an occasional book-related feature.
Of course, anyone can opine about a book these days, on Amazon, Goodreads, Substack, personal blogs or other platforms. That’s a good thing, a democratization of the practice. However, there are multiple reasons for dedicating pages to book reviews by those who evaluate books critically and place them within cultural contexts while guiding readers to them. Reviews create community. As Adam Kirsch in The Atlantic put it recently, “A book critic, or a newspaper book section, is a convener, bringing people together around a new book or writer, a literary trend or controversy.”
But there’s another reason why book reviews in newspapers are so important. They exist alongside national and local news, obituaries, comics, sports and feature stories. A reader doesn’t necessarily need to seek out a review but may be intrigued by a headline or title or just read the review as part of what’s in front of her on a Sunday morning. That is, one doesn’t have to be a dedicated book reader or interested in literary criticism to enjoy reading someone’s thoughtful take on a particular book and the ideas in it.
Reviews are thus not meant solely for the person who is already deeply attached to books and book criticism, but are more of a gateway to encourage new readers, readers who just might discover interests they didn’t know they had until getting hooked by something in a review. Rather than indulge a person the way a social media feed may, book reviews can challenge readers to be better thinkers and — I like to imagine — better and more empathetic citizens.
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I commit to reviewing, despite the considerable investment of time and the low compensation, because I like being part of conversations around books. It’s fun for me to think about the ideas in books, to argue with them or myself, to figure out what I think. I like creating a written work of my own — an essay, essentially — that might encourage readers to learn about a particular subject, contemplate a new idea or understand something (or someone) in a different way. I’m well aware that most readers will not follow up by reading a reviewed book, so I want to give them a significant reading experience via the review itself — whatever I can fit into fewer than 1,000 words.
Book reviewers are not publicists, and I don’t praise books to help their authors or sales. But I do want to help readers find good books to read, and I want writers to get the attention they deserve. I hear anecdotally about increased book sales and Amazon ratings after a review appears. And I frequently hear from readers who want to talk with me about books and who tell me they seek out those I’ve reviewed. All of this makes me happy to be a “literary citizen.”
Incidentally, Alaska has one of the highest literacy and book reading rates in the country. According to the stats I’ve seen, Alaska is behind only New Hampshire and Minnesota in literacy. Alaska is also known as the state where readers read from among the most categories. Another survey that considered the numbers of library visits, bookstores and Kindle downloads placed Alaska sixth in “reading interest.” We are curious, interested and interesting people!
For myself and for Alaska newspaper readers, I offer my thanks to the Anchorage Daily News for its editors’ long and continuing dedication to book reviews and what they contribute to our collective understanding of the North and the human spirit.
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Nancy Lord is a Homer-based writer and former Alaska writer laureate. Her two books forthcoming in 2026 are “Alaska Literary Field Guide” (as co-editor) and “Let Them Tell You: New and Selected Short Stories.”
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