"The books pages were the best I've read since we began taking The News & Observer about 10 years ago. All the columns and reviews were enjoyable." -- Joan Carris.

"If today's book pages are a good preview of what's to come, I predict readership that broadens and becomes increasingly enthusiastic." -- Sally Buckner, Cary.

"As a longtime reader of the books page and longtime subscriber to the N&O, I think it's vital to keep the pages authored locally and to highlight whenever possible the books of North Carolina and other Southern authors. Great start." -- David Frauenfelder, Durham.

Those were some of the comments that new literary editor Marcy Smith and I received from readers upon the debut of the books pages under her editorship. The positive responses were gratifying and perhaps a relief to editors here who had earlier heard fears about the changes. In May, former books editor Peder Zane wrote a farewell column that set off an alarm in the Triangle reader community. A number of distinguished authors wrote to The N&O to ask that literary coverage not be diminished.

That won't be the case, says Smith. She plans to broaden the books pages to appeal to a larger range of readers by reviewing more kinds of books. To that end, she has lined up a dozen writers to do regular columns on "niche" genres: among others, children's and young adult books, food, poetry, race, women's issues, science fiction and mysteries.

Previously, Smith said, the books pages were more of a "books-based approach. This is more of a reader-based approach. It will be the big important books, but a wider range, all of the books people are reading."

She added, "I think that's what readers want, and if I'm wrong I'd like them to tell me so."

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THE CHANGES IN THE N&O PAGES COME AMID BOOK PAGE CUTBACKS at newspapers nationally, causing dismay among writers and readers alike. Hillsborough author Lee Smith wrote in May worrying in advance about the changes at The N&O.

"In the Raleigh/Durham/ Chapel Hill area where I live, you can't throw a rock without hitting a writer," she wrote on the blog of the National Book Critics Circle. "If local books coverage stops, then the local writing community -- with its corollary culture of literacy work, readings, school visits, workshops, classes and festivals of all kinds -- will have no voice, no forum, no billboard. Our cultural literacy will decline immeasurably."

(I called Lee Smith after the new N&O pages appeared; she had been out of town and had not seen the pages.)

John Freeman, president of the Book Critics Circle, says newspapers in cities from Los Angeles to Atlanta have cut book sections, reduced pages, eliminated book editor positions and replaced locally written reviews in favor of "canned" or syndicated reviews. Books coverage is another casualty of the revenue decline plaguing the newspaper industry, The N&O not excepted.

Why should anyone care? "Books are the incubators of ideas," Freeman said. "They tell essential stories. I think there's a bigger focus on popular culture. It's easily digestible and easily consumed. Books take a little more time. Books provide a direct experience. Book reviews are a guide toward that experience. The less newspapers are guiding people toward them, the less people will do it."

Freeman said he liked Marcy Smith's notion of appealing to a broader range of readers. "That sounds great, actually," he said. "I agree newspapers could be a little more inclusive of the kinds of books they cover."

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