What do Ved Mehta, Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez and Agatha Christie have in common?apart from being among the most celebrated writers in the world, that is? Their ability to hook the discerning reader and never let go. What have some of these great writers said of their own work? What, for that matter, makes a writer, or a book, ?great? and canonical while others that sold millions of copies in their own lifetimes fade into oblivion? How much of a reader?s appreciation of a novel or an essay stems from their own early reading practices and friendships? And why, oh why, do they not give the Nobel to the writers who most deserve it?