What do Ved Mehta, Gabriel García Márquez and Agatha Christie have in common—apart from being celebrated writers, that is?

What makes a writer or a book ‘great’ and canonical while others that sold millions of copies in the first years after publication fade into oblivion?

How much of a reader’s appreciation of a book stems from their own early reading and friendships?

Journalists, novelists, ghostwriters, translators, playwrights and poets—what are the hierarchies to contend with in the world of publishing?

These are some of the thoughts that light up this eclectic collection of essays which seek out the pleasures and techniques, the spaces and memories, the little moments and the life-changing sentences that encompass and enrich a reader’s life. A natural fit in every book lover’s heart and shelf.

Literary writers occasionally write on their passion for sport. The traffic is seldom in the other direction. This book is a small attempt to redress that—a sportswriter writing on his passion for literature.