When I was handed the chance to concentrate part of my reporting on books nearly 20 years ago, the Post-Gazette's approach to the subject was, at best, indifferent. Reviews were printed because somebody liked a book and wrote about it. Maybe space could be found, usually on Saturdays, when the classified ad space wasn't filled, to run it. Reviewers got a free book and a byline for their effort.

So, the "book beat" started from scratch -- and started badly. For my first author interview, I picked Sir Stephen Spender, the legendary British poet then in his 80s and perhaps in need of a few American dollars. Why else would he speak at a small women's college in rural Western Pennsylvania?

The moment has stayed with me as one of the most painful episodes of my new life as the book reporter. The great man was wrapped in a gray wool double-breasted suit worn shiny with age. The collar of his white shirt was frayed and yellowed at the edges, and his silk tie had survived decades of tea parties. We stared at each other for what seemed a fortnight until I mumbled some inane question and he mumbled a reply.

It went on like this for 45 minutes until Spender, bored, and I, exhausted from the effort to pry anything interesting out of him, called it a day. I padded my story with a lot of biographical material, and the editor ran Spender's photo a bit larger than necessary to fill the page. Readers must have glanced at this dinosaur from the 1930s with puzzlement while turning quickly to the funnies.

Later, American David Leavitt would write a novel, "While England Sleeps," that benefited greatly from Spender's writings and caused one of those minor literary tempests that soon blow over. At that point, I had interviewed both writers and realized with some pride that I had shared a small part of a rarified world of books. I had "arrived."

Many interviews, most more productive and entertaining, have followed with bright, creative and engaging people. Writers as a rule are far more interesting than actors, athletes and circus performers -- a few of the other professions I've encountered in this line of work.

Profiling authors is only a part of the book editor's responsibilities. Over the years, the field has relentlessly grown bigger, fed by the arrival of the bookstore chains, the introduction of creative writing courses by universities, the explosion in print-on-demand titles and the publishing industry's frantic attempt to fill American households with thousands of titles.

Part of my duties calls for me to do something with upward of 250 books a week that arrive at my desk, from the cheesy paperbacks illustrated with heaving bosoms to an earnest attempt to explain the Social Security system. Somewhere in that pile is the Great American Novel or the true answer to finding happiness, but I'm sure I've missed it.

(Reviewers still get to keep the books they review. All other books go to the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, which distributes them across the county.)

Another responsibility -- and a major one -- is to report and review the work of the city's wide-ranging literary community. This town is full of poets, novelists, essayists and memoir-writers. Most nights, some of them are reading from their work somewhere -- a back room of a tavern, among the hiss of an espresso machine in a coffeehouse or on a rickety stage in a half-renovated storefront of a still-dangerous neighborhood.

These evenings are in addition to the parade of national and international authors and poets who visit Pittsburgh annually in search of publicity, fees or often just to see their readers in the flesh in several lecture series. Our readers need to hear of them as well.

These duties keep me busy, but I still continue to review books -- and have others do it, too. Criticism should be the foundation, the "given" of a book editor's responsibilities. Reading the writing of others engenders a reaction, fuels opinion, makes the reader think and feel. Few put down a good book without a reaction to it. A book review enlarges that experience.

On our best days, we book editors select a sampling of books that reflect the current tide of subjects and issues, the most interesting novels and poems as well as paying attention to the established authors of the world. The goal of the best newspaper reviews is to provide subjective, opinionated and entertaining writing about titles that are chosen objectively.

Publishers and booksellers do not support newspaper book reviews for financial reasons, and that's the way it should be. Our independence is preserved that way. We owe allegiance to our readers and look to their support in return.

Threats to the book review section reflect challenges to the newspaper business overall these days. Survival is a real concern, but there will always be the hunger and the necessity for books no matter what temporary replacement is touted.