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There are millions of titles published each year.
And Alexandra Alter, who covers books, publishing and the literary world for The New York Times, along with a team of critics and other reporters, must wade through news about all of them.
“It’s a lot,” Ms. Alter, who joined The Times in 2014, said. “I usually read a couple of books a week. I wish I had more time to read for fun, but I feel like I can’t sacrifice any reading time for something that’s just for myself.”
Ms. Alter had always been an enthusiastic reader, but she followed another passion in college: She earned a bachelor’s degree in religion with a focus on Buddhist philosophy from Columbia University, followed by a dual master’s degree from Columbia in journalism and religion. She covered religion for The Miami Herald and The Wall Street Journal before pivoting to reporting on books and publishing for The Journal and then The Times.
“I just couldn’t believe that I could get early copies of books, talk to some of my favorite authors, help people figure out what drove a certain book, or what’s driving a certain literary genre,” Ms. Alter, who grew up in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, said of her pivot to the books beat.
In recent months, she has written about the publication of Joan Didion’s therapy notes, the role of elaborately designed book covers in making a sale and the rise of the buzzy fan-fueled genre known as romantasy.
In an interview, she shared how she stays on top of the news, why books still matter in the age of social media and the book she would take with her to a deserted island. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Tell me about how you initially decided to pursue a career as a religion reporter, and how you became interested in Buddhist philosophy.
I had a sense as a young person in my late teens, early 20s, that this idea of a fixed self was always changing. Every time I changed grades or schools or traveled to a new country, I was received differently. And so why was it that I was walking around the world thinking of myself as this fixed, solid thing?
So I started reading about Zen Buddhism. Eventually I traveled to Nepal, spent some time in a monastery and found the Tibetan Buddhist philosophy very appealing. It really resonated with how I saw the world. And so that was what led me to pursue it, both academically and personally.
How did you become interested in covering books?
I’ve always been a big reader — fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, literary fiction. And there’s always that moment when you finish a book, and you really want to ask the author: Why did you do that? Where did this idea come from? That was something I never imagined I would get to do career-wise.
Where do you find story ideas?
They usually come from reporting. When I’m interviewing authors, I always ask them: What’s exciting to you? Who are you reading now? What are you noticing in the industry? Of course, the publishing industry moves very slowly — it typically takes authors years to write a book and can take a year or more for publishers to release books they’ve acquired because of production and marketing timelines. So it’s actually really convenient, because you can see what’s coming out in three or six months, read the books and see trends emerge.
What piques your interest for a feature?
I’m looking for either a book that tells us something about what’s happening in the publishing industry, or about what is resonating with readers widely. When I’m writing about a single author, I love somebody who will open up about their process and talk about the inspiration behind a book, and the struggle to create it, because these are projects that people have invested sometimes 20 years of their lives pursuing. I really want to get inside the process and give readers something that they’re not going to get just from reading the book.
Now that people can reach millions, or even billions, of followers on social media without going through editors and publishers, why are they still writing books? Why don’t aspiring writers just publish online?
It’s something I’ve been thinking about, too. With the rise of BookTok, we’ve seen that TikTok influencers now have the power to catapult a book onto the best-seller list, which used to be in the hands of editors at newspapers or Oprah’s Book Club. It’s become democratized, and it’s also helped keep younger readers interested in reading — and particularly interested in print. They love to have the book to hold up in their videos. So in that way, it’s been hugely positive for the industry.
Do you have any time to read for fun? And in what format — hard copy or audiobook?
I do occasionally read for fun while on vacation. I always like to catch up with the authors shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
I read in all formats now, by necessity. I will read in print. I will listen to audiobooks. I will listen to narrations of PDFs when there’s not an audiobook yet. I read digitally, which I find incredibly useful, because I always have my books on me, on my phone or on my Kindle, and I can search them when I’m fact-checking. I do think listening is still reading for sure.
What was the last book you read for fun?
“Orbital” by Samantha Harvey, on my Kindle.
What book would you take with you to a deserted island?
Could it be a trilogy? I’d read Hilary Mantel’s “Wolf Hall” trilogy over and over. Or I might bring something like “The Tibetan Book of the Dead.” Or maybe a survivalist guide.
Sarah Bahr writes about culture and style for The Times.
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