SEATTLE _ Within the highly automated folds of Amazon's online bookstore, there's a small team of literary types whose main job is rather old school.
They read books, write about them and rank the works according to their qualities, helping readers sift through thousands of offerings while also planting the tech juggernaut's flag in the world of literary culture.
In an engineer-driven company ruled by algorithms and metrics, the Amazon book editors are rare birds. Once in a while, they're misunderstood by authors and publishers who retain a deep suspicion of Amazon.com after years of clashes over the book industry's future.
The editors produce Amazon Book Review, an online offering similar to literary supplements newspapers have been putting out for more than a century. They also put together frequent lists of recommendations prominently displayed on Amazon's bookstore.
The current team was assembled by Sara Nelson, a renowned publishing veteran who was Amazon's editorial director until recently ending her four-year stint to become executive editor and vice president at HarperCollins, one of the big New York publishers.
Even with Nelson's departure, though, evidence is clear that Amazon intends to leave its mark in book culture as much as it wants to sell books.
