Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting and Living with Books

by Michael Dirda

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). In addition to the Pulitzer Prize he was awarded for his reviews in The Washington Post, he picked up an Edgar from the Mystery Writers of America for his most recent book, On Conan Doyle.

Dirda's latest volume collects fifty of his witty and wide-ranging reflections on literary journalism, book collecting, and the writers he loves. 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, not to overlook a few rants about Washington life and American culture.

As admirers of his earlier books will expect, there are annotated lists galore—of perfect book titles, great adventure novels, favorite words, essential books about books, and beloved children's classics, as well as a revealing peek at the titles Michael keeps on his own nightstand.

Genres: Nonfiction, Books About Books, Essays, Memoir, Audiobook, Literary Criticism, Literature

246 pages, Hardcover

First published August 15, 2015

About the author

Michael Dirda (born 1948), a Fulbright Fellowship recipient, is a Pulitzer Prize–winning critic. After earning a PhD in comparative literature from Cornell University, the joined the Washington Post in 1978.

Two collections of Dirda's literary journalism have been published: Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000; ISBN 0-253-33824-7) and Bound to Please (New York: W. W. Norton, 2005; ISBN 0-393-05757-7). He has also written Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life (New York: Henry Holt, 2005; ISBN 0-8050-7877-0), Classics for Pleasure (Orlando: Harcourt, 2007; ISBN 0-151-01251-2), critical biographical study On Conan Doyle (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011; ISBN 0-691-15135-0), which received a 2012 Edgar Award, and the autobiographical An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland (New York: W. W. Norton, 2003; ISBN 0-393-05756-9).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_...

Reviews

[Jeffrey Keeten · Rating 4 out of 5]

The hazards of being in a bookstore.

”But, ah, those three hours or so of wandering the shelves, pulling out interesting-looking titles, checking prices, trying to remember if I already own this book or that and, if I do, whether I really owe it to myself to upgrade to an incredibly pretty copy for only $5. Before long, my one or two books is a stack, then a boxful. Should I, perhaps, put back a few? Naah. You only live once. Besides, with any justice, Heaven itself will resemble a vast used bookstore, with a really good cafe in one corner, serving coffee and Guinness and kielbasa to keep up one’s strength while browsing, and all around will be the kind of angels usually found in Victoria’s Secret catalogs.”

My issue is, and the same applies to a reader such as Michael Dirda, is that I’m interested in too many things. What makes both of us more vulnerable to increasing our stacks in a bookstore is that we also recognize a deal and it is so hard to put a book back on the shelf, that we desire, that is vastly underpriced. I don’t get to bookstores much anymore. I moved to the bookless wastelands of Kansas, where I own 85% of the books within a hundred mile radius...I don’t count Bibles or the local library. I buy most of my books online, using a combination of sources, Abebooks, eBay, and Amazon. I also go to bookstore websites to buy directly when I can. I find that, if you cut out the huge fees that Amazon, especially, requires from any transaction, sometimes you can get the book a lot cheaper.

Well, at least while reading this book I lived vicariously through Dirda for a few excursions to his favorite bookstores. It certainly brought back memories of living in the Bay area and having a plethora of wonderful bookstores to plunder.

These are a collection of articles that he wrote for The American Scholar, and sometimes he drifts away from the things I want him to talk about, but most of the articles are right in my wheelhouse. He talks a lot about the “age of storytellers” from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve started mining more of that era for my reading experiences. For me, everytime I read an “entertainment” from that era, it reminds me of the first time I picked up Treasure Island and became a lifetime reader. One of the risks of reading a Dirda book or a Alberto Manguel book is the extensive list of books I always compile from their writings. I also come away feeling humble at the numerous books they bring up that I’ve never heard of. What have I been doing with my life? Picking the wrong books to read, obviously!

We all have books that our reader’s brain tells us we are supposed to read. War and Peace, Les Miserables, and Moby Dick just being a few examples. I enjoy those books when I read them and fully understand why they are classics and should be read by any discerning reader. Like Dirda, though, I also like what many people would call...junk. ”Weird, old stuff...many reasonable people must view my fascination with Victorian and Edwardian popular fiction--mysteries, fantasy, and adventure--as eccentric or merely antiquarian. Still, these books, despite some period prejudices, do offer good storytelling, moral clarity, and an escape from meretricious times.”

I’ve always been amazed and a little bit disappointed about how many readers I meet who have found this narrow niche of books they enjoy and have become trepidatious at even considering venturing forth onto unknown paths. They become locked into a genre or even in some cases one author...yes, I’m talking about the Stephen King fanatics. When I worked in bookstores, I couldn’t even tempt some of those King readers into reading other horror. Everytime I would run into one of them about town, they’d ask when’s the next King coming out? It is an advantage to know what you like, and most of your reading choices should be safe, but...”True readers boldly go where they haven’t gone before.”

As I was reading this book, I ordered some books immediately and put many books on my list for future purchasing. I do have to show restraint, or the household budget will start to strain, and my wife will start giving me that look...I know you are gently mad, but don’t let it spill over into bat shit crazy.

Captain Blood by Sabatini (1922). How crazy is it that I’ve never read this book? I’ve seen the Errol Flynn movie numerous times, but never ventured into the book. Dirda convinced me this is an oversight that must be corrected.

Memoirs of a Midget by de la Mare, an author with a supernatural and gothic reputation, which is right in my wheelhouse. Okay, so midget is not an acceptable modern term, but I’m just too curious about the book. This book went into multiple printings back in 1922. I found a 3rd printing for $8. The first was going for around $150. ”The books you really covet always cost more than you want to pay for them.” Oh, how often I’ve found that to be true. The 3rd will make a nice reading copy until someone, somewhere, has a first for way less than what it is worth.

Dukedom Large Enough: Reminiscences of a Rare Book Dealer, 1929-1956 by Randall. These are the types of books that I need to read more often. What a fabulous era for books that was, and what a collection I could have amassed in those days.
Six Novels of the Supernatural by Wagenknecht. It contains A Beleaguered City, The Return, The White People, The Terror, Sweet Rocket, Portrait of Jenniewhich are all gothic tales I’ve never read before. What a treat it will be to dig into a few of those in the month of October.

”None of us, of course, will ever read all the books we’d like, but we can still make a stab at it. Why deny yourself all that pleasure? So look around tonight or this weekend, see what catches your fancy on the bookshelf, at the library, or in the bookstore. Maybe try something a little unusual, a little different. And then don’t stop. Do it again, with a new book or an old author the following week. Go on--be bold, be insatiable, be restlessly, unashamedly promiscuous.”

If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
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[Paul Secor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Browsings is the sixth of Michael Dirda's books that I've read. One was a memoir, the others were musings about books, reading, and book collecting. If I were making a recommendation on a Dirda book to begin with, my choice would be Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments. Browsings is a worthwhile read, but it covers some of the same subjects that are discussed in some of his other books. To be fair, these essays were written as weekly entries for The American Scholar, and I can only imagine the difficulty in finding totally new subjects to write about every week for a year.
That was the downside of this book for me, and why I'm giving it a four star rating rather than five.

The upside was Michael Dirda's infectious enthusiasm for books and reading. (I should mention here that Mr. Dirda is an enthusiastic, some might say, fanatic, book collector. He refers to himself at least once in this collection as a hoarder, which is probably an apt description for someone who has boxes of books stored in his garage, since there's no more room in the house for them. That's a problem for Michael Dirda and his wife to deal with. I'll stay out of it.)

I will say that some of Mr. Dirda's enthusiasms rubbed off on me. While and after reading this book,
I added books by Julian Maclaren-Ross, Sylvia Townsend Warner, John Dickson Carr, Walter Tevis, and G.K. Chesterton, to my Want to Read shelf. I also added Christmas related books or stories by John Masefield, P.G. Wodehouse, Damon Runyon, and Henry Van Dyke, plus a Christmas mystery anthology and a Simenon Maigret Christmas collection, neither of which were mentioned by Mr. Dirda, but he got me into the spirit ten months early. He's either a great salesman or I'm an easy mark. There's probably a bit of both there.
Whether I'll eventually read all or any of these remains to be seen, but I'm happy to know that they exist. I didn't know about most of them before being introduced to their existence in the pages of Browsings.

From Browsings:

"Weeks go by or even months, as you read The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty, but inevitably there comes a day when you decide you just can't face another page about the inhabitants of Morgana, Mississippi, and you find yourself suddenly, irresistibly attracted to James Salter or Sarah Orne Jewett or Alice Munro. Your friends may shake their heads over the break-up - you were so crazy about 'A Worn Path' and 'Why I live at the P.O.' - but still, it's the modern world, what can you say, these things happen. Besides, more often than not, after a few mad, wonderful weeks or months with J.G. Ballard or Robert Aickman you'll find yourself remembering 'The Petrified Man' or 'No Place for You, My Love,' and then one evening you'll be standing at Eudora's front door. This being literature, not life, she'll take you back without a word."

"None of us, of course, will ever read all the books we'd like, but we can still make a stab at it. Why deny yourself all that pleasure? So look around tonight or this weekend, see what catches your fancy on the bookshelf, at the library, or in the bookstore. Maybe try something a little unusual, a little different. And then don't stop. Do it again, with a new book or an old author the following week. Go on - be bold, be insatiable, be restlessly, unashamedly promiscuous."

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a review copy of this book through Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Another book on books! Please don't let it mention Proust.

Okay, it can mention Proust, as long as it isn't all Proust.

And thank goodness, Michael Dirda is a bookman who reads more than just the narrow literary canon. He takes absolute pleasure in adventure stories, science fiction, conventions, used bookstores, collecting, and comparing versions of books. I am wary of books on books by so-called experts because they tend to be dismissive of genre fiction and heavy on Proust references, to the extent that they become repetitive and reflective of each other, but not of the joy of reading. Dirda is not a snob, and I enjoyed reading this compilation of his Browsings column because of that fact.

I'm also joining a local book club that wants to read classics so I've already requested Classics for Pleasure by the same author. I know he will steer me well.

"Fiction is a house with many stately mansions, but also one in which it is wise, at least sometimes, to swing from the chandeliers."

[Micah Cummins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a charming book. I think this is a must read for anyone with a burning passion for the wonderfully bookish reading life. I cannot recommend it enough.

[Connie G · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Michael Dirda wrote about his lifelong love of books in a weekly series of essays for "The American Scholar" website in 2012-2013. The essays about the joy of reading, literary conventions, favorite book titles, publishers, bookstores, his work in literary journalism, and the fun in collecting were gathered into this book. Dirda writes in a conversational style with a self-deprecating sense of humor. He's intelligent and enthusiastic, but occasionally redundant, especially when he writes about the thrill of finding bargains or rare books at thrift stores and used book sales.

Dirda favors older science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, and adventure stories. Although they are not my favorite genres, I noted some titles that looked interesting. The books he mentions have a very high percentage of male authors, maybe a reflection of his favorite genres. He's a big fan of Sherlock Holmes and has written the book "On Conan Doyle". His next big project is a book about popular fiction from around 1860 to 1930.

Dirda is an avid collector of older books, as excited as a kid in a toy store whenever he hits a used book sale. He's had to rent a storage unit since his home is overflowing with books. But his collection of books gives him so much happiness! He writes about leaving a book store with a big box of books: "My wallet was certainly lighter than when I arrived, but then so was my heart." It's an attitude that any bibliophile will understand.

[JimZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Michael Dirda had a weekly column in 2012/2013 that he wrote in The American Scholar and he published them as a collection in this book. He advised the reader to take one or two at a time and to go slowly through it as I suppose reading 52 essays in one sitting could be a bit much and be exhausting. So, I read 3 a day and got done in about two weeks. Most of the essays were enjoyable…they were about 3 pages in length.

He likes going to used book stories a lot, as do I, and prefers books in hand to e-books (he likes looking at his books when he is at home, although some are in the attic because he has no room in the rest of his house to display them). He also likes sci-fiction — I have never been a big fan of the genre. He is uber well-read.

Names he mentioned in his essays that rang a pleasant bell for me included Dawn Powell – Elizabeth Taylor – Barbara Pym – Sylvia Townsend Warner – William Maxwell. He has an earlier book that GR reviewer liked more than this, Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments — so I will give that a try in a bit.

[Lisa (NY) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Browsings is an apt title for this collection of short essays about books and reading. Not much meat here, but well-written reflections. I appreciated his passion for used book stores! I would have enjoyed the essays more if Dirda's reading taste occasionally matched up with mine. His interest is mostly late 19th and early 20th century obscure adventure and sci-fi novels. I actually finished an entire book about books without adding to my TBR list!

[Oolookitty · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love books about books, but God this was boring. Also: let's stop the ebook hysteria. We can have both. We can have lovely shelves filled with lovely books, and still have e-readers filled with the kind of books we don't necessarily want to keep for the rest of our lives. I have more books than anybody I know and I still love my Kindle. Not all of us live in big houses that we can fill up with bookshelves.

Aside from that, again, this was just really boring. Also I bet if Mr Dirda tried, he could find more than one adventure book written by a woman.

[Julie Durnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked his style of writing- humorous, self-deprecating, and in spite of a bent towards sci-fi/fantasy, very knowledgeable! He'd be very interesting to sit down with and chat books!

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dirda wrote this pleasant set of bibliophilic essays for the American Scholar website in 2012–13. He’s the American equivalent of the UK’s John Sutherland: an extremely well-read doyen of the classics with a special love for Victorian and Edwardian genre fiction, often as revived by small presses and specialist societies. Essentially he’s a dilettante who writes about whatever takes his fancy, and it’s rather reassuring to see that someone can still make a living in that manner nowadays. “I’m a bookman, an appreciator, a cheerleader for the old, the neglected ... On sunny days I may call myself a literary journalist,” he muses.

At times Dirda’s interests can be a bit obscure for the average reader, and some of the essays feel redundant. Still, it’s easy to relate to his addictive book purchasing and hoarding (“with any justice, Heaven itself will resemble a vast used bookstore”). I, too, can never pass up a good book sale, and was pleased as punch to find several references here to my beloved Wonder Book and Video (Frederick, MD) – and, in fact, I grew up in Silver Spring, so recognize many of the locations Dirda, a longtime Washington Post books editor, mentions.

This might be one to skim or read selections from rather than the whole thing, though if you parcel the essays out, perhaps a few per lunch break, they pass enjoyably enough.

[Lea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not like this. I found the essays/columns boring and often annoying - every other one was “I went to Oberlin”, “look at all the clubs I’m part of”, “look at this prize I won”, namedropping, hoarding (and I’m not just talking about books, this guy’s house must be a nightmare), and wishy-washy political views.

(His main political motto, according to him, is “listen to the young people”, supposedly the repository of wisdom in society - I guess he’s never heard of the Tide pod challenge. Except, of course, when young people say “hey, we don’t want to read racist books and we don’t think it’s cool to celebrate their writers as geniuses” - then they’re PRESENTIST and ETHNOCENTRIC!!!! Sooo... listen to the young people, but only when their views coincide with mine. Got it).

Well, I hope the other books by Dirda are better than this one, because I had already ordered two before I read this (Bound to Please was ordered from a second hand book shop in Georgia in the US, and should take about four months to arrive - the wonders of the State-owned Brazilian mail).

I did get quite a few interesting book recs from this (hence 2 stars, not 1), so I hope the other books are more about BOOKS and not about the author. He also gets a thumbs up from me for liking Georgette Heyer.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Dirda is currently at the top of my "famous people I'd like to have lunch with" list, a list I formed about half an hour ago while trying to come up with a succinct way of describing my Dirda fangirl status. Right now, it's pretty short. But no matter how much it grows, I'm pretty sure Dirda will stay at the top, and Browsings, a collection of his weekly columns, is a good example of why.

Dirda is a discursive, light, chatty companion: he admits to working hard to make all these essays seem like they were tossed off the cuff in half an hour. He's read more than you have, probably, and he reads widely and enthusiastically. His tastes are his own--he has a strong enthusiasm for late nineteenth/early twentienth century storytelling fiction, adventures and mysteries and science fiction, and he loves finding minor and forgotten authors in secondhand bookstores and falling in love with them. In short, he's my kind of guy. Here he's writing about almost everything under the sun: the decline of CDs as a format, transitioning from reading anthologies to reading collections, attending Readercon, bookish art and Edgar Allan Poe action figures, French intellectuals, Dover Press, favorite small presses, classic Christmas book gifts, and what we should pay teachers. He's funny, smart, passionate, and pleasant.

If the week-to-week format of Browsings makes it a little less substantial than something like Readings or Classics for Pleasure, that doesn't hurt the fun of it. As always with Dirda, I ended the book by adding about seventeen books to my wish list.

[LibraryReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

“This collection of Dirda’s musings on writers, book collecting and the literary landscape is a must read for all bibliophiles. Michael Dirda won a Pulitzer for his work at the Washington Post and has been called “the best-read person in America”. I always learn something new when I read his work and this book is no exception. Great fun for all book nerds!”

Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Library, Hilliard, OH

[Kevin McAllister · Rating 4 out of 5]

For as long as I can remember I've had the problem of having more books that I want to read, than the time to actually read them. Recently a friend gifted me with this book thinking I would enjoy it. Enjoy it I did, but now thanks to my friend and author Michael Dirda my problem has gotten worse than ever. So many great reading suggestions, but nowhere near the time, to get to them all...

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mostly enjoyed this book, which is really just a compilation of columns written about books and books collecting. I can certainly sympathize with the desire to constantly acquire "new" books, even if you own a different edition of the book already. I am also drawn like a magnet to used book stores, and I almost never leave without buying something.
The only place the author lost me was when he went on non-book related rants, on such topics as gun control and socialism. These distracted from the tone and charm that the column maintained from one installment to the next, and caused me to deduct a star from my rating.

[Lobstergirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of Dirda's very light and breezy columns about reading, and even more, book buying. I could relate to his frequent trips to Second Story Books in Rockville, MD and Dupont Circle, and he shopped for many years at the Vassar, Brandeis, and Stone Ridge used book sales before they all shut down, as did my father. But his main area of interest is fantasy and sci-fi, and adventure books for boys of the late 19th-early 20th cents. The only overlap here for me is John Buchan. So it did get a little tiresome reading about all the anthologies on these subjects he was recommending.

This was serendipitous: "I'll be working steadily when suddenly, as D.H. Lawrence remarked at the beginning of Sea and Sardinia, there "comes over one an absolute necessity to move."" I just found a copy of Sea and Sardinia in a Little Free Library several days ago.

But - ACK - how can someone who writes for a living - who has a PhD in comparative literature - not know that the simple past tense of spring is SPRANG, not sprung?? (p. 161)

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read Michael Dirda when I was living near DC and commuting every day on the train, thinking that I was the only person alive who was reading Somerset Maugham's Cosmopolitans or the mysteries of Margery Allingham. Dirda's Washington Post column made me believe that there might be at least one other person (other than my brother or selected friends) who wanted to read what I wanted to read. He introduced me to Terry Pratchett and gave me a hundred other writers to explore. And made me feel less lonely. I am so grateful to him.

This book isn't perfect: Dirda's breezy, chipper written persona can get wearying reading little essay after essay in a row (which I think he understands). A couple of the essays about less literary subjects--a bad trip to the Rockies, school shootings--come off whiny and flat. And I feel that the serious (which he is perfectly capable of discussing) gets lost in his joy in rediscovering the obscure and forgotten adventure books he loves. But who can resist joy? I now have a dozen new possibilities to explore, and I still get a rush and a comfort when he recommends a title that I thought only I cared about. Thanks again, Michael.

P.S. I love this so much: "It's certainly not as though I need any more books. Just yesterday I was up in the attic creating neat stacks of those I would like to read Right Now." Story of my life.

[Rikke · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Books don't just furnish a room. A personal library is a reflection of who you are and who you want to be, of what you value and what you desire, of how much you know and how much more you'd like to know.”

Michael Dirda is a self-proclaimed "bookman". A book critic, a writer, a journalist, a literature teacher but first and foremost a reader. This book is a collection of the essays he wrote weekly for the American Scholar website in 2012. And they revolve about his life and his love of books. Of course.

Though Dirda's words flow nicely, this isn't really a book you should read in one sitting. It's the sort of book, you need to dip in and out of; reading a single chapter every now and then. The essays are charming when spread over a long time, but can be quite repetitive, always ending up with Dirda buying used books or praising various Victorian authors you've never heard of.

Reading this, did however feel like talking to a friend. Every bibliophile while recognize a bit of themself in Dirda's ravings about Sherlock Holmes conventions, used bookstores, bookshelves that has run out of space and the feeling of disappearing completely into a book.

Lovely.

“None of us, of course, will ever read all the books we'd like, but we can still make a stab at it. Why deny yourself all that pleasure?”

[Charles McCaffrey · Rating 1 out of 5]

My first negative book review - As a lover of books who enjoys books about books (and bookstores) I was at first excited to find "Browsings" but became quickly disappointed in the author's too frequent digressions in the face of such a rich topic. It didn't take many pages before I felt like I was reading a really long Facebook post written by a grumpy old man with a penchant for 1920s mystery novels. I'm sorry about the hardships of road construction and power outages (which someone like Bill Bryson could have made funny) but I felt the topic of books was shortchanged as a result. I'm not so much finished with this book as I'm through with it.

[Chris Via]

Literary Pringles!

[Chrissie Whitley · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Dirda starts off this set with a note to read through his collection slowly. He's right; the days where I tried to tear through this audiobook were the days that I grew tired of them. But, if I carefully spaced out my visits with this book, I found that he was correct — which makes sense given that these were first published as his weekly column for the Washington Post.

Aside from having to wade through this book as slowly as I was told to do, I was delighted to find the typical little anecdotes about books, book hunting, overspending, being accused of owning too many books, and . . . lists of books to read, to own, or to gift. And then, amidst the expected and middling offerings, Dirda would drop into a soulful recollection, passionate point, or painful moment in history's timeline.

Audiobook, as narrated by John Lescoult: Lescoult did a fine job of narrating this collection from Dirda. While there are not pointed flaws to speak of, neither are there many outstanding enthusiasms to express. He sounded like someone reading someone else's essays...which, at that point, I'd rather have heard in the author's voice to begin with.

[Lori L (She Treads Softly) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books by Michael Dirda is a very highly recommended bookish book and perfect for bibliophiles.

If you need more of an explanation, it is a collection of fifty essays that Dirda wrote between February 2012 and February 2013 for the American Scholar. These are not heavy, scholarly essays, although they do contain a wealth of information, but they are for the most part personal reflections written in a conversational style.

In the introduction Dirda writes: "Please bear in mind that these are light essays, meant to be entertaining. They aren’t jokey precisely, but they do have jokes in them. And lots of allusions and quotations, as well as the occasional pun. Now and again, I go off on rants, sometimes I make up lists, at other times I describe my misadventures at literary conventions and conferences." He continues "I’ve retained the name Browsings as the title of this collection, even though it is something of a misnomer. Rather than chronicling “the adventures of a soul among the masterpieces,” I quickly gravitated to talking digressively, and I hope amusingly, about bookishness itself. These are, in fact, very much personal pieces, the meandering reflections of a literary sybarite."

For those of us who are fellow bibliophiles, not only are these essays entertaining and engaging, they also will provide you with a list of things you simply must read someday. Keep a preferred writing implement handy so you can make lists on your preferred type of paper/notebook. This is especially true if you enjoy discovering early, classic science fiction or adventure tales. Dirda has a wealth of information and knowledge that he shares in these essays. Some extoll the wonder of discovery when a perfect, longed for edition of a book is found by chance in a used book store, a feeling many of us can appreciate. Dirda, for all his unpretentiousness about his knowledge, accomplishments, and literary acquaintances, will impress most book lovers. Some of these essays filled me longing and a desire to sit down and just listen to him talk. And maybe get a peek at his basement. And book shelves. And then listen some more.

Not all of the essays are about books. There is one about pets. There are several essays that are best described as rants. These include a trip to a Colorado state park that was undergoing road construction, enduring repeated week long power outages by Pepco (Potomac Electric Power Company), life in Washington DC area, and American culture. Most of the essays, even if they touch on other subjects, have some tie-in to literature.

In the afterword Dirda notes all the other writing he did during this time. It's impressive. Dirda is the weekly book columnist for the Washington Post and received the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Pegasus for review purposes.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book very much as it seems that my tastes and the authors align pretty closely.

He taught a course and I plan to read as many of these books that I haven't read as of yet.

“The Modern Adventure Novel”—A semester course, a follow-up to “The Classic Adventure Novel,” taught as a visiting professor at the University of Maryland:
Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars (1912)
Rafael Sabatini, Captain Blood (1922)
Georgette Heyer, These Old Shades (1928)
Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest (1929)
H.P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness (1931)
Eric Ambler, A Coffin for Dimitrios (1939)
Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination (1956)
Chester Himes, The Real Cool Killers (1959)
Charles Portis, True Grit (1968)
William Goldman, The Princess Bride (1973)

“The Classic Adventure Novel: 1885-1915,” covering 10 books. Given those dates, you can probably guess half the titles on the reading list: H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon’s Mines; Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped; H. G. Wells, The Time Machine; Baroness Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel; E. Nesbit, The Story of the Amulet; G. K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday; Rudyard Kipling, Kim; A. Conan Doyle, The Lost World; Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes; and John Buchan, The Thirty-Nine Steps.

My only complaint is that the author often rails against ebooks, which is understandable for a book collector. What's truley ironic is that I'm reading the kindle edition of his book. I'm a reader, not a collector and I just want to read, those 10 books he taught about, would be easy to carry around in my ereader, along with the fact that I'll be able to pick up at least a few of those books for free from sites like Project Gutenberg or the Internet Archive and a host of other sites.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the most interesting nonfiction books I've read. The whole thing is a series of short essays that the author wrote for a newspaper column about his own life in books (mainly his addiction of acquiring books) I really related to him on a bookish level, even if we don't read a lot of the same stuff.

I didn't agree with his philosphy on lots of other topics that would come up though, although there wasn't a lot he talked about other than books. But overall, I did enjoy these essays. They were fun and humorous, if a little sarcastic (which I don't mind). And I found it interesting in how similar our thought processes were concerning books in general. If books are your life, you'd probably enjoy this book.

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

dirda had a gig writing weekly short, 'funny', bookish pieces for 'american scholar', 2012-2013. these are the collected short pieces, all about books and the people who read them and write them, make them, sell them.
very entertaining, fairly light, but tons and tons of book recommendations. one could read their life just from the recommended titles/authors, in this fast reading book.

[Gary Anderson]

I like to read on my Kindle in bed at night. The light is low-intensity, as are the books I choose for that time. Critic and literary journalist Michael Dirda’s Browsings was a good night-time reading option. This is a year-long collection of his weekly columns for The American Scholar touching on mostly bookish topics but occasionally straying into other interests. Some of these columns amounted to little more than lists of obscure books that fascinate Dirda for one reason or another. To be honest, I wasn’t compelled to seek out any of the dozens of titles Dirda mentions in Browsings, but I’m grateful that his ruminations and clever language lulled me to sleep over the past few weeks.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Mohamed Yamani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a single page was read that I did not greatly enjoy. It has been a long time since I saw such passion and ambition for reading books, stories, fiction etc. Michael Dirda has a gift for writing; every combination of words seems to embody his character and convey his being, that was very beautiful to notice.

I absolutely loved the author, I will read his "An Open Book" memoir soon.

[Jenny's Book Life · Rating 3 out of 5]

*** 5 Stars = An enduring classic to be read by all; 4 Stars = I LOVE IT! You gotta read it!; 3 Stars = A great book for a specific interest/type of reader/very casual read; 1 or 2 Stars = no comment***

This is one of MY favorite types of books - a book about books, which is mostly what Mr. Dirda writes. I believe I do own most of his collection. This volume is a treasure-hunt map, sending me Googling/Amazoning/Goodreading off in many directions to look up the books and authors he talks about. My TBR was shockingly lengthened and I learned a lot....which is the reason I read. So thanks, Mr. Dirda for that. I would recommend this book to any bookworm.

Mr. Dirda's taste does especially lean toward adventure, fantasy, and science fiction; and elusive or out-of-print books. (He seems like a brilliant, charming and quirky book nerd.) My interests were stretched by his mother lode of history with these genres. I found this very exciting and educational even though they are not my go-to genres.

As this book is a collection of the essays/columns he wrote for the online 'American Scholar' (to which I subscribe in its print version), some of the articles are more about "bookish" topics than directly about books themselves. I might have liked those pieces best -- paper and writing implements, obsessive-compulsive book buying and collecting habits, reading styles, autobiographical tidbits, and even a few rants. His pieces are personal and grounded and sometimes made me laugh to remember that I am not alone in my bookwormish ways......I am a 'type!' Only one comment in the whole book made me feel sour. In his article titled "Money" he ends his opinionated comments about our government with the statement that "it's enough to make even a mild-mannered book reviewer depressed and ashamed of his country." I wish he had not put that in because it felt more like a bash than a thoughtful critique. The United States has its problems but those are not what I picked up his book to hear about. Thinking over all the other countries on the planet, I'll take this one and anyone "ashamed" can feel free move to another -- because everything is relative.

Anyway, since it's my book, I scratched that line out and now will keep the book on my shelf and remember all the rest of the book as a gem. It actually will be a reference book that I may return to for Sci Fi/Adventure suggestions or if my TBR (To Be Read) pile ever dwindles. Hahahaha

[Karen Floyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Browsings" is a year's worth of short essays from Michael Dirda's weekly column of the same name on the American Scholar homepage. He planned to write these for just a year, and, sadly, stuck to this plan. Sadly, because it means that means there are no more of these wry, entertaining essays revolving around books. Dirda is a man after my own heart. He loves books, a wide variety of books, ancient and modern, obscure and well-known, classics and genre books, though he's not much impressed by the New York Times Bestseller List. That only tells you if a book is popular, not whether it's good. He is anxious to share his love of books, especially his favorite books, with us. He particularly likes old mysteries, old science fiction and the supernatural, old adventure stories; old being from about 1850-1950. He talks about them with great enthusiasm, recommends titles and authors. Besides reading, and writing about what he's reading, he loves to acquire books, preferably as bargains, but sometimes a splurge is necessary. He takes us along on expeditions to book sales and used book stores, from which he rarely emerges without a boxful of books. He has so many books that he doesn't have shelf space for all of them. Too many are packed away in boxes, and he ends up rotating them on and off his shelves. He dreams of owning a big English country house just for its huge library, so he'll have room for all his books. Of course, since he obviously has no intention to stop acquiring books, in spite of protests from his Beloved Spouse, this is just a stop-gap solution.
My own, very humble, suggestion, is to purchase a large, flat piece of land, and build in the middle of it a comfortable-sized house, but not one so big that you would always need to be cleaning or entertaining. Then, when you have filled up all the bookshelves and bookshelf space in your house, you would simply add on another room to handle the overflow. And every few years you could add on another room as needed - until you reach the edge of your property. Then you start adding on to another side of your house.....And however big it gets isn't important because your children will be the ones to have to deal with it.
I envy you getting to read Browsings for the first time. In the meantime I'm off to abebooks to look for more books by Michael Dirda. And maybe some of the many he recommends....