Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In these playful, erudite, and idiosyncratically personal essays from the Washington Post Book World, Michael Dirda shares some of the pleasures of the reading life. His subjects range from classics in translation to fantasy and crime fiction; from children's books to American and European literature; from innovative writing to neglected novels; from the dark joys of collecting first editions to the untroubled pleasure of P. G. Wodehouse. Dirda is a writer's reader and a reader's writer. He is a sure guide to good reading from the casual to the scholarly, and his columns are always diverting and informative, always worth coming back to. Readings presents many of his most memorable essays, including "The Crime of His Life" (a youthful caper), "Bookman's Saturday" (the scheming of a book collector), an annotated list of 100 comic novels, "Heian Holiday" (on The Tale of Genji), reflections on sex in literature, "Mr. Wright" (an exemplary high school teacher), "Listening to My Father," "Turning Fifty," and "Millennial Readings." In all these, and in 40 other pieces, Michael Dirda shows us books as sources of aesthetic bliss, comfort, and not least, amusement.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Since 1993, Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic Dirda, senior editor of the Washington Post Book World, has been beguiling readers with charming tales of a passionate life spent among books. This collection of Dirda's monthly "Readings" columns ranges over topics as diverse as book collecting, classic children's books (he is the former children's book editor at Book World), the intoxicating delights of reading The Tale of Genji, and the guilty pleasures of omnivorous reading. In rich and elegant prose, Dirda pens a poignant paean to his father, waxes wistful about turning 50, and muses mirthfully on the stories of P.G. Wodehouse and other comic writers. From the storehouse of his accumulated literary learning, Dirda happily shares a number of gems about the reading life. For example, on the pleasures of book reviewing he writes, "to open a new book tentatively, with indifference even, and to find oneself again yet again in thrall--to a writer's prose, to a thriller's plot, to a thinker's mind. Let the whole world crumble, so long as I can read another page." Dirda both instructs and entertains with his delightful wit and his zestful insight. Anyone who loves books is bound to love Dirda. Highly recommended.--Henry Carrigan, Lancaster, PA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A delightful compendium of Dirda's most memorable Washington Post Book World essays revels in seven years' worth of bibliophilic passion.