How a Film Critic Was Lured Back to Literature

Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.

For more than 20 years, A.O. Scott, who was until recently a co-chief film critic for The New York Times, had a routine.

Look at the movies he’d been assigned to review for the week. Go to a screening. File a review the next morning. Rinse. Repeat.

But now, since pivoting to a role as a critic at large for The Times Book Review in 2023, Mr. Scott, 58, has been able to step back from the deadline grind and focus on his passions: Rereading classic novels. Defending bad commencement speeches. Demystifying poetry.

Since last November, Mr. Scott, who has a bachelor’s degree in literature from Harvard University, has written a popular monthly column that scrutinizes a single poem, examining it line by line. He recently expanded the exercise into a weeklong challenge, in which readers were asked to memorize a poem as a way to soothe their nerves or “grant a moment of simple happiness,” Mr. Scott wrote.

“I do think that it is something that people want, and in a way, something that we’ve maybe helped them discover that they want,” Mr. Scott said in a recent interview in the Book Review office, where Stephen King’s “Holly” and Samantha Harvey’s “Orbital” sit on a bookshelf behind him.

In an hourlong conversation, Mr. Scott outlined his goals for his new beat and why he thinks readers enjoy being asked to slow down and spend time with a piece of writing. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.