3.5
Browsings
ByPublisher Description
Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Michael Dirda has been hailed as "the best-read person in America" (The Paris Review) and "the best book critic in America" (The New York Observer). His latest volume collects fifty of his witty and wide-ranging reflections on a life in literature. Reaching from the classics to the post-moderns, his allusions dance from Samuel Johnson, Ralph Waldo Emerson and M. F. K. Fisher to Marilynne Robinson, Hunter S. Thompson, and David Foster Wallace. Dirda's topics are equally diverse: literary pets, the lost art of cursive writing, book inscriptions, the pleasures of science fiction conventions, author photographs, novelists in old age, Oberlin College, a year in Marseille, writer's block, and much more. As admirers of his earlier books will expect, there are annotated lists galore—of perfect book titles, great adventure novels, favorite words, books about books, and beloved children's classics, as well as a revealing peek at the titles Michael keeps on his own nightstand.Funny and erudite, Browsings is a celebration of the reading life, a fan's notes, and the perfect gift for any booklover.
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3.5
Books And Dogs
Created 7 months agoShare
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“I love books about books and reading, and this one is lovely. A collection of Michael Dirda's musing collected from the American Scholar, these pieces range from erudite to enthusiastic, but all are interesting and worth reading.”
Chance
Created about 1 year agoShare
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“DNF! This wasn't my type of read”
Patte Harding
Created over 1 year agoShare
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“I listened to the audiobook. During the first few essays, I had difficulty relating to Dirda and his scholarly view and vast knowledge of books. He is a true book nerd.
I was sometimes bored listening to him go on and on with lists. His many lists make the print version better as a reference than the audio.
I also disagreed with him on some points. The one I specifically remember is his point of view that libraries should be reserved for preserving the most hard to find rare books. He argues against libraries becoming the digital hub of communities because "all but the poorest" own a laptop. Couldn't the same argument be made about books? Why have libraries at all? Surely, the poorest people don't deserve books and certainly not access to the digital world.This is the out-of-touch ivory tower tone that I picked up on throughout the book.
I also picked up hints of a misogynistic attitude when he slipped in side comments about women, such as only being interested in a paperback if it had an attractive blonde on the cover.
This collection is from Dirda's year of writing about books for a scholarly journal. I was just beginning to warm up to him when the book was coming to an end. In one of the later essays, he described his dream life of traveling around the country in a van and visiting bookstores and resting places of writers. I do that! He also suggested we not limit our reading to the popular best-seller lists, but to seek the hidden gems of literature--out of print and small house published books. I do that!
Literary scholars will probably appreciate and relate to Dirda's ideas and knowledge about books better than I do. I don’t come from that academic background or experience. However, book reading and collecting (and writing) as they relate to my other interests is an important and enjoyable part of my life now.
I will be on the lookout for a print copy of Browsings at used bookstores during future road trips. Yes, I could order it on Amazon or at my locally owned bookstore, but, as Dirda would say, that would be "shopping" not "collecting."”
William Buser
Created almost 2 years agoShare
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About Michael Dirda
Michael Dirda is a Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and longtime book columnist for The Washington Post. He was once chosen byWashingtonian Magazine as one of the twenty-five smartest people in our nation’s capital (but, as Michael says, you have to consider the competition). He also writes regularly for the Times Literary Supplement;the New York Review of Books and other literary journals. His previous publications include the memoir An Open Book, four collections of essays—Readings, Bound to Please, Book by Book, and Classics for Pleasure—and On Conan Doyle, for which he won an Edgar Award. A lifelong Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle fan, he was inducted into The Baker Street Irregulars in 2002. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Other books by Michael Dirda
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