As with most anthologies, when you put a lot of different voices into one volume, you can't expect them all to be winners. This book is doubly variegated due to the fact that both the interviewer and the interviewee change from one entry to the next. I think that this strategy (if it was, in fact, a strategy and not just a happy accident) really makes this book interesting--I had only read the work of maybe 15% of the writers represented here and hadn't even heard of half of them, but the conversational and enthusiastic style of the interviews and the creativity of the questions being asked made nearly every entry enjoyable. Highlights for me included Zadie Smith's (rather fanatical) interview with Ian McEwan, Dave Eggers' conversation with Joan Didion, and Cornelia Nixon's interview with Marilynne Robinson. Incidentally, based solely on the strength of their interviews, I almost immediately went out and found books by McEwan and Robinson and have been an ardent fan of both ever since, so I guess you could say that this book changed my life, if you wanted to get all melodramatic about it. ( )

it was alright. i really just bought it because i love the magazine and nick hornby. ( )