Pulitzer winning novelist Jane Smiley is able to vary her settings -- from 14th-century Greenland (Greendlanders) to a modern-day agricultural college campus (Moo) without missing a beat. In our interview, Smiley talks about how reading can be a democratic act. "The essential feature of a novel is you can stop reading or you can keep on reading -- it's your choice," she explains. "For some people, that's the only vote they ever get... it gives them the sense that their opinion matters -- at least to them."