Book City: A chat with Amazon's Kindle and books editorial director

Amazon exec Sara Nelson also used to work with Oprah Winfrey. She dishes about the start of Oprah's book club, a job that's the most fun in the world and how she tries to keep organized about what she reads.

Author Barry Eisler has become controversial for signing with Amazon as his book publisher. He ventures to Bainbridge Island to explain his views to a community that loves its library and its local bookstore.

Fri, Apr 20, 2 a.m.

The founder of Sasquatch Books in Seattle recounts how publishing has been squeezed by the big chains and the tight-fisted practices of Amazon. Worse, book publishers have been willing partners in their own demise.

Sara Nelson may be the ultimate book world insider. Since June 2012, shes been the editorial director of books and Kindle for Amazon.com. From 2005-2007 she was editor-in-chief for Publishers Weekly. She was book editor for O, the Oprah Magazine and helped launch Oprahs Book Club 2.0. If her name sounds familiar, its because Nelson is the author of the best-selling memoir/reading guide So Many Books, So Little Time.

Val Easton: You were book editor for Oprahs magazine could you share an Oprah story with us?

Sara Nelson: Oprah is a real reader; when she loves something, shell call you up and babble on about a scene or a character or a line in a book. That happened a few times when I was working for her and she came upon a book she loved. It happened with Wild (by Cheryl Strayed), which is the book we launched the club with.

What book(s) are open on your nightstand right now?

Im reading Kate Atkinsons forthcoming Life After Life, which is ... fantastic. But I feel a little guilty reading that because there are so many things Im supposed to be reading, books that are coming out in January that were considering for Amazon Books of the Month.

Any book youve read lately that really caught your imagination, inspired you or changed how you look at the world?

A novel I love, and this was really exciting because I came upon it with no prior knowledge of the author, is The Middlesteins, by Jami Attenberg. Im not sure it changed the way I look at the world; its more that it confirmed for me that some of the thoughts and experiences Ive had arent completely weird, that there are other people (the characters in this book) who are somewhat like me.

Have you read a truly great book lately? One youd unhesitatingly recommend to friends and colleagues?

SN: I absolutely loved The Round House by Louise Erdrich even before it won the National Book Award for fiction.

Do you have one or two books you recommend as gifts?

Out of respect for Philip Roths announcement that he is not going to write fiction anymore, I think everybody should go out and read his very best book (among many great books) American Pastoral. At the same time, Id say you really cant go wrong withJohn Grishams latest, The Racketeer.

As author of So Many Books, So Little Time, do you have a system of figuring out what books are worth your time and attention?

I have so many systems I lose track of what they are! I have piles all over my house and my office, I dip in and out of things. I used to think I had to finish every book I picked up, but now I try to read 30-40 pages before I make a decision to continue or quit. But a new thing Im doing is reading an opening scene and then jumping ahead to something else that catches my eye, so I get a little bit of a sense ! of where ! the book might be going. But once Ive decided Im going to read the whole thing, I start back at the beginning.

Any well-reviewed or popular book you didnt feel lived up to the hype?

Well, this is tricky. Yes, there are some, of course, but Im not sure its the books fault. I mean, sometimes NO book could live up to the hype it gets.

What is your favorite part of your job?

The books, of course! Honestly, its Christmas all the time around here. I still get so excited when the mailman drops a box of books at my door.

What does it mean, day-to-day, to be editorial director of books at Amazon?

I think of myself as curator-in-chief. I work with a team of five full-time people and lots of helpers we write trend pieces, share reviewing, choose the best books of the month and the year. We meet and talk about what were reading and sometimes we yell back and forth. Its the most fun in the world.

What do you read for your own personal enjoyment?

This is a hard one because theres so little separation between my work and my life. Its not as if, at Amazon, I have to read science textbooks or something. The great thing about this job is that my team and I get to praise and promote stuff we really love.

What were your most cherished books when you were a child? Can you name a childhood favorite that influenced you?

Pippi Longstocking. Does anybody read that anymore? And then, when I was 13, my mother gave me two books. One was Them, by Joyce Carol Oates. The other was Erica Jongs Fear of Flying. My mother was very progressive.

Can you think of a particularly powerful passage from a book thats stuck with you?

I think often of a line in one of Jamaica Kincaids early novels Lucy or Annie John, I think about how when a womans relationship with one of her best friends starts to sour thats when they p! ledge to ! room together, or otherwise pretend theyre still close.

Do you have a book or two that youve re-read over the years and will no doubt read again?

Dont laugh, but I read Herman Wouks Marjorie Morningstara lot. And once I read Anna Karenina, finally, for So Many Books, So Little Time, I return to it often. Cant wait to see the movie!

Do you have any favorite mysteries? Or favorites in another genre?

I likeLaura Lippmans books, and Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen.

Do you read poetry? Any favorite poets?

I used to translate poetry from the Spanish, so Ive read a whole lot more Octavio Paz than John Keats.

VE: What do you see as the future of books?

It seems to me that people talk about books more and more, not less and less. So it feels to me that the future of the book is very bright. And I dont really have any patience with people who make a distinction between books and e-books: The fact is, if the story is good and the experience is seamless, how you read doesnt matter. And honestly, I felt that way before I came to Amazon.

What Vals Reading This Week:

Shes re-reading Carl Jungs autobiography Memories, Dreams, Reflections, and loving how attuned Jungs deep musings are to these short, dark days, and the transition between one year and the next.