Book smart: Par's lit scout Patricia Burke: the last of a dying breed. (Inside New York).(Paramount Pictures)

NEW YORK For the last 11 years that she has headed the New York literary office of Paramount Pictures, Patricia Burke gets a sneak peek each week at at least four books in raw form. She reads them all cover to cover with the same level of enthusiasm.

"I can't help but always think this is going to be the greatest book," she says. "Even though most times it isn't, I plow my way through. I read these books so early that they're often unedited, and I have to carve away in my head the prose I know is going to go.

"I am looking for an intellectual, emotional and gut reaction, and then trying to figure if the story can translate to the screen, and what kind of …