&#62; It's possible that now, with greater knowledge of the sweep of literary history, that you'd recognize what's good (or even great) about it.<p>That's an awfully subjective field.  I think Neil Stephenson is 'great', but find most 'high literature' to be a waste of time.  I like various forms of visual art, on the other hand.<p>It's sort of like an old man here in Italy once told me when I asked him how to judge if a wine was good.  He looked at me as if I were a bit daft and says "well, it tastes good".  Granted, he probably had refined his taste buds over the years, but the main point was to drink something you like.