Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life

by Michael Dirda

A Pulitzer Prize-winning critic's often surprising meditation on those places where life and books intersect and what might be learned from both

Once out of school, most of us read for pleasure.Yet there is another equally important, though often overlooked, reason that we read: to learn how to live. Though books have always been understood as life-teachers, the exact way in which they instruct, cajole, and convince remains a subject of some mystery. Drawing on sources as diverse as Dr. Seuss and Simone Weil, P. G. Wodehouse and Isaiah Berlin, Pulitzer prize-winning critic Michael Dirda shows how the wit, wisdom, and enchantment of the written word can inform and enrich nearly every aspect of life, from education and work to love and death.

Organized by significant life events and abounding with quotations from great writers and thinkers, Book by Book showcases Dirda's considerable knowledge, which he wears lightly. Favoring showing rather than telling, Dirda draws the reader deeper into the classics, as well as lesser-known works of literature, history, and philosophy, always with an eye to what is relevant to how we might better understand our lives.

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

170 pages, Hardcover

First published May 2, 2006

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

[Valeriu Gherghel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cartea unui înțelept la care mă întorc adesea cu plăcere. Volumul cuprinde o colecție de extrase din autori reputați, ordonate tematic + cîteva liste + cîteva eseuri introductive la fiecare temă:

- folosul lecturii;
- menirea vieții;
- finalitatea educației;
- legătura dintre cărți și experiența de viață;
- iubirea; în ce mod a fost înrîurită și modificată de cărți;
- cunoașterea de sine etc.

Reproduc (de la p.8) o listă de cărți. De altfel, Dirda propune mai multe, inclusiv o listă de albume muzicale (pp.114-115). Afirmă: pentru cei care vor studia răbdător titlurile enumerate în listă, toată literatura lumii va deveni „o carte deschisă”. Nu poți fi considerat „cult / citit” fără să studiezi răbdător cărțile de mai jos:

* Biblia (Vechiul și Noul Testament)
* Thomas Bulfinch, Mitologia (sau orice prezentare a miturilor grecești, romane și nordice)
* Homer, Iliada și Odiseea
* Plutarch, Viețile paralele
* Dante, Infernul
* O mie și una de nopți
* Thomas Malory, Moartea regelui Arthur (povestiri despre regele Arthur și cavalerii săi)
* Shakespeare, principalele piese; nu trebuie să lipsească Hamlet, Henric IV : Partea întîi, Regele Lear, Visul unei nopți de vară, Furtuna
* Cervantes, Don Quijote
* Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
* Jonathan Swift, Călătoriile lui Gulliver
* Frații Grimm și Hans Christian Andersen, Basme
* O colecție de legende și eposuri populare (ceva de genul cărții lui Al. Mitru, Din marile legende ale lumii)
* Jane Austen, Mîndrie și prejudecată
* Lewis Carroll, Alice în Țara Minunilor
* Arthur Conan Doyle, Aventurile lui Sherlock Holmes.

Și o anecdotă. Cînd Franz Kafka a trimis Metamorfoza la publicația berlineză Neue Rundschau, unul dintre editori - și anume prozatorul Robert Musil - i-a cerut autorului să taie cel puțin o treime din nuvelă. După cum bine știm, Robert Musil a prețuit dintotdeauna concizia. Deși Omul fără însușiri (aproape 2000 de pagini) încalcă (uneori) principiul sacrosanct al laconismului...

[Jessica (thebluestocking) · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, I love books about books. And in this one Pulitzer prize-winning critic Michael Dirda provides glimpses of and comments on his own commonplace book. This eclectic collection contains delightful thoughts, lists, and book recommendations. I can’t do better than Dirda’s own words, so here are my favorite passages:

On discussing books with philistines:

“Quote a verse from the Bible or a line from William Wordsworth, mention the date of a battle or a character out of Charles Dickens, and expect to be regarded with a mixture of awe and suspicion. Erudition makes people feel uneasy; at worst it can seem vaguely undemocratic. Better to talk about last night’s episode of the latest sitcom, something we can all enjoy equally.”

On guest room libraries:

“Now the essential quality of a proper guest-room book is that it must avoid all the normal requirements of a ‘good read.’ Nothing too demanding or white-knuckled suspenseful. Ideally, items should be familiar, cozy, browsable, above all soothing . . . .”

On pride and prejudice:

“One of the reasons we should read widely is to avoid falling into the more obvious rifts of prejudice and paranoia. . . . Books, by their very nature and variety, help us grow in empathy for others, in tolerance and awareness. But they should increase our skepticism as well as our humanity, for all good readers know how easy it is to misread. What counts is to stay receptive and open, to reserve judgment and try to foresee consequences, to avoid the facile conclusion and be ready to change one’s mind. No matter how sure you may be of a course of action, no matter how committed to any belief, remember Oliver Cromwell’s plaintive entreaty: ‘I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.’”

On rereading:

“Once we know the plot and its surprises, we can appreciate a book’s artistry without the usual confusion and sap flow of emotion, content to follow the action with tenderness and interest, all passion spent. Rather than surrender to the story or the characters - as a good first reader ought - we can now look at how the book works, and instead of swooning over it like a besotted lover begin to appreciate its intricacy and craftmanship. Surprisingly, such dissection doesn’t murder the experience. Just the opposite: Only then does a work of art fully live.”

Read it. Slowly, savoringly. Or devour it. But, by all means, mark your favorite passages and read it again.

[Diana Higgins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It's a fusion between Dirda's commonplace book and one of those "Booklust" type of books. I own Booklust, but am very impatient with it. I have a hard time getting past one of the very first lists of books, where all of the authors are named "Alice."

I'm supposed to read a bunch of books whose sole connection is that they were written by an Alice? I just don't get that. In fact, it pisses me off. I've got at least 200 unread books on my shelf all clamoring for my attention; I don't need cutesy ploys to get me to read books.

But I digress. Dirda's lists of books make me yearn to drop everything and read every book mentioned because his lists are well thought out. The books he suggests are all connected in real and intelligent ways, not artificial and stupid ones.

It's not just a book of lists and quotes from books, though. He has essays mixed in, too, and not hollow "why reading is good" essays (another sort of thing that pisses me off because I'm not an elementary-school reluctant reader). They're essays about life and morals and being a thinking human being.

It's a short little book but I loved every minute of it, enough so that I ordered my own copy immediately.

[Noninuna · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.8 🌟

After a few pages in, I thought this was more like a commonplace book, full of quotes from other books. Immediately, I felt detached because reading a single quote by itself could lead one to misunderstand what it really means. However, the more I read, the more I like the way the author put down his perspectives. There are 10 different topics discussed in this book. By page 8, book recommendations are getting out of hand.

It also made me realized that what I'm looking in reading is stories; good stories and new knowledge. Yes, I couldn't care less if the author of a certain book wins an award or not, a certain book is popular or not. If I find the story is good, it's good, doesn't matter what language, what kind of literature or where it comes from. It also made me think
of those who read only the list-of-book-that-should-be-read books without having the desire to browse in a library and finding hidden gems.

I had a hard time trying to rate this book. Some chapters are either I totally can't get into or I just don't agree but a few others, I really like them. Especially at the end, the author reminds us to read but don't forget to live life.

[Yana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read, then no one can resist revisiting the book again and again. A wonderful source of inspiration by Michael Dirda who’s not only succeeded in compiling a huge list of great authors together with their great quotes in one small book but also in showing the readers how the power of the written words could make your life more interesting and more richer by understanding the wit and wisdom from it. Big book doesn’t have to be big, no? There are also some tips and advice on how to encourage kids to read more, advice on marriage, love, life etc etc.. Nothing beats advice from an old timer!

Small, but truly a meaningful book!!

[Arun Divakar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every one of my thoughts around books on this website attains a concrete form as I spend time musing about the book. The form, content and structure of the review takes shape first in my mind and then on the screen. This book however refused to fall into that rhythm. I did find out the reason for it and it was that I am completely bowled over by Michael Dirda and his writing style. In the space of 170 pages, he gave me a huge bunch of books to be read and fascinated me with the length and breadth of his reading.

There is one reason I took an immediate liking to Dirda. He is a reader with an omnivore’s appetite for reading and does not dictate from high atop the ivory towers of literature. From what little I have read of books about books, people talk about Milton, Chaucer, Nabokov, Updike, Shakespeare and so on but not a word about a writer of popular fiction. They use their formidable skills of writing to dictate that the books us lesser mortals read are not even worthy of their exalted glances. Well screw all of you divine ladies and gents ! Some of us do find moments of happiness in the hands of authors who never even cross your minds. When Michael Dirda mentions that his work desk is cluttered with books and quotes from poets and authors and one wall is adorned with a poster of Conan the barbarian, I felt a strong bond with this man and his passion for books. He does talk about the classical canon but reserves words of mention of many a popular author. He divides the chapters of his book along the lines of learning, education, love/romance/sex (or more poetically – eros), joys of reading, how a child is built by reading and why you should not think that all of your life is about books alone. Dirda is quite qualified to talk on this topic, having been a reviewer for the Washington Post for a few decades now.

If you see a recurring line among most of the reviews about this book, it is that you should go back again and again to read this one. This is a true statement for the book deserves a re-read. The quotes that Dirda has collected here are practically gems of thought from some the finest minds to have graced the earth and coupled with that is a long list of to-read books.

Highly recommended and I close this review with a few of my favorites from the book.

The main interest in life and work is to become someone else who you were not in the beginning. If you knew when you began a book what you would say at the end, do you think that you would have the courage to write it ? What is true for writing and for a love relationship is true also for life. The game is worthwhile insofar as we don’t know what will be the end. – Michael Foucault

Throughout history the exemplary teacher has never been just an instructor in a subject; he is nearly always its living advertisement.

The point is : You generally can’t wait for inspiration, so just get on with the work. Disciplined, regular effort will elicit inspiration, no matter what your field.

Recognizing masterpieces is the job of the critic, not writing competent reviews of the unimportant.

Oliver Cromwell’s plaintive entreaty : “I beseech you in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.” (Why you should never think that you are always right).

On poetry : It is simply there, true to itself. Let me be fanciful : If you picture good prose as a smooth politician deftly reaching out to the crowd and welcoming everyone into the party then poetry is Clint Eastwood, serape flapping in the wind, standing quietly alone on a dusty street, pure coiled energy, he’s not glad-handing anybody.

I have been told that the late Sir Edward Marsh, composing his memoir of Rupert Brooke, wrote “Rupert left rugby in a blaze of glory,” the poet’s mother, a lady of firm character, changed “a blaze of glory” to “July.” – E.L. Lucas

The structure of the play is always the story of how the birds came home to roost . – Arthur Miller

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made. – Immanuel Kant

Perhaps we will die knowing all the things that are to know in the world, but from then on, we will only be a thing. We came and were seen by the world. Now, the world will continue to be seen, but we will have become invisible. – E.M. Cioran

A man’s soul is like a train schedule. A precise and detailed schedule of trains that will never run again. – Yehuda Amichai

When all is done, human life is, at the greatest, and the best, but like a froward child, that must be played with and humored a little to keep it quiet till it falls asleep, and then the care is over. – William Temple

[Akemi G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

All great criticism begins with love. After all, we read books not from obligation but for pleasure, for mental excitement, for what A.E. Housman called the tingle at the back of the neck.
This quote, which I cannot agree more, was on the back cover of The Story About the Story: Great Writers Explore Great Literature, and I got curious about the person who wrote it: Michael Dirda. So I checked out this book.

It's a fine book of book recommendations and quotes. Obviously, he is well-read. Although that doesn't mean he is free of bias. If bias sounds bad, let's see--how about personal conditioning? No one is free from a certain conditioning, based on the time and place of birth, educational level, etc. It's a problem only when you are unaware of your own conditioning, and assume you have none, rather than countering it.

For instance, in Chapter 2, in which he discusses fundamental reading required for world literature, he means Europe(-America) by the word "world." Sorry, I come from an area that his consciousness doesn't cover. (Not Mars.)

Because I am sincerely interested in finding great books to read--"for pleasure, for mental excitement, for what A.E. Housman called the tingle at the back of the neck"--and because it seems increasingly hard to find such books (many, many books out there, but not very many that fills my craving), I had a high expectation for this book. Slightly disappointed that the recommended book titles are buried in his essays; list of books at the end of each chapter or the whole book would have been nice. (Sometimes, he makes lists, but not always. The essays here take the royal path of essays, which is rambling.)

[C. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read the first few pages of this. Was struck by how pointless it seemed; how dull; how his essays on potentially interesting topics such as the value of education seemed to meander in circles around nothing in particular, before finishing by not coming to a conclusion; how pages and pages were just lists of admittedly-interesting quotes by people who are presumably more intelligent than the author; how lists of quotes are always boring, no matter how interesting they are; how didactic the tone was; how grand were the proportions of the author's ego; how this book should never had been let into print.

[Yoana · Rating 4 out of 5]

"No surprise that such a demiurge died at fifty-two, from drinking—it was said—fifty thousand cups of coffee, though overwork, lack of exercise, and an impressive girth doubtless played their parts too."
I never thought I could relate to Balzac's lifestyle but there we go

[Sasha]

Michael Dirda writes in Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life—“The rapport between a reader and his or her book is almost like that between lovers. The relationship grows, envelops a life, lays out new prospects and ways of seeing oneself and the future, is filled with moments of joy and sorrow; when it’s over, even its memory enriches as few experiences can. But just as we cannot physically afford to fall in love too many times, suffer its gantlet of emotions too often and still remain whole, so the novel-reader cannot read too many books of high purpose and harrowing dimension or do so too often. Burnout, a failure to respond with the intensity literature demands, is the result. As with a love affair, the battered heart needs time to recover from a good work of fiction.

This is why rereading is so important. Once we know the plot and its surprises we can appreciate a book’s artistry without the usual confusion and sap flow of emotion, content to follow the action with readiness and interest, all passion spent. Rather than surrender to the story or the characters—as a good first reader ought—we can now look at how the book works, and instead of swooning over it like a besotted lover begin to appreciate its intricacy and craftsmanship.”

Of course, as a consequence of this rather extended [and, frankly, a little wonky] metaphor’s effect on my romantic/slutty little bookworm of a heart (what?), I am now surveying my bookshelves, wondering which book I can plunge into a torrid love affair with—or which book demands my prodigal return, despite the fever of first passions having been spent. Now, more than ever, I’ve needed a push to assuage the great thirst in my inner life. And at this point, I’d seize any excuse. [Thanks, Michael Dirda—although, yes, as I am wont to do, I picked up a book-about-books to give myself a jolt to reclaim my reading life.]

- – -

Dirda, to me, seems like a less cranky Harold Bloom, if a less verbose James Wood. He’s this mild-mannered professor all the way, providing you with recommended reading lists—however, his tastes, for me, run too conventionally; that’s apparent, too, from the witticisms and the excerpts he’s chosen to include in this slim volume. It’s his reflections [like the one above] that draw a reaction, that stir. Nonetheless, I expect myself to pay attention whenever he chooses to blather on about a book, critic that he is. I’ve already hunted down his love of Sherlock Holmes—something I’m more than willing to further cultivate. [Reading begets reading, as that other book-about-books writer Nick Hornby has said: I’ve unearthed The Hound of the Baskervilles from the current chaos of my displaced books, and I’ve dipped into it. Oh, books—Have we but world enough, and time.]

[http://silverfysh.wordpress.com/2012/...]

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I am not reading books, I am reading book reviews and book lists. I discovered this small, yet powerful book while browsing through my public library. Michael Dirda shares the many ways that books inform our lives and transform us through all of life's stages. There is so much wonderful information here that rather than write down all of the authors and books that he mentions, I need to buy my own copy of this. For any bibliophile, there are so many affirming moments. In The Children's Hour, he offers guidelines for introducing children to the joys of books. As he quotes Joan Aiken, "If you're not prepared to read to your children an hour a day, you shouldn't have any." As a parent, former teacher and book-lover, I could not agree more.

Highly recommended and beautifully written.

[Ebenmaessiger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dirda's always admirably catholic in his tastes, although spreading the earnestness a bit thin in his appreciations.

[superawesomekt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been vaguely aware of Michael Dirda for years; though if you had asked me his occupation I might have been hard-pressed. Librarian? Editor? Literary Critic? (It's the Pulitzer prize wining latter) At some point I found this book on a books-about-books list (of which I collected what I could find), but I hadn't gotten around to it yet. However, this year I am attacking my physical TBR, and since this is under 200 pages, it was on my shortlist of books to read in the near future.

Incidentally, I had checked out an anthology of Dirda's book reviews (Bound to Please ) from the library in January. Just reading the introduction to that volume persuaded me to move Book by Book to the top of my to-read pile. Dirda gets me.

However, this book is very different from that one. It is a collection of bits and bobs: quotations, lists (not always of books, though naturally there are plenty of those!), musings, advice: what history and the initiated refer to as a "commonplace book." I imagine many readers will either be bored or perplexed as to why. And while I don't share all of the values or tastes of the author, there is so much in his reading philosophy that resonates with me (not to mention he consistently stokes my boundless desire for book recommendations) that I simply LOVED this book. I will be keeping this on my shelves. And I am shameless enough to admit that my own personal copy of Bound to Please is en route so that I can savor it over the months to come (long after library deadlines have past).

So, if you are a deliberate, discerning, but only slightly snobbish consumer of books, consider looking up Bound to Please or some of Dirda's reviews. If you like his style, try this book. I don't think I would recommend coming directly to this without reading something else of his first.

[Glen Engel-Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a long-time amateur book reviewer (i.e., unpaid), I admire those who can do this for a living, not so much because I want that job—I fear that it would remove the pleasure of reading if it were to become my employment—but simply because those who take it up as a profession seem so much better read than I will ever be. This is supremely true of Michael Dirda, long-time reviewer for the Washington Post Book World and other newspapers, a man whom has such a wide-range of interests and knowledge, it’s almost hard to believe.

This comes through in Book by Book, which is a paean to the joys of reading, taken from his commonplace book—a notebook in which he inscribed quotes or thoughts he had during his reading. There is so much in this book for a reader that it would be useful to revisit it in a few years time, to discover other new authors or sources for enlightenment. As it was, I took notes on a few dozen authors and books that I should investigate, had I but world enough and time.

In subjects, this ranges from education to love, to philosophy and death. And, all the while, Dirda makes it clear that there are those who have gone before us who can give us some guidance, while also noting that it is in our own power to make our own way.

If you are at a loss as to what to read next, this is an excellent book to review. I find it hard to believe that even the most jaded reader won’t find something provocative here that will lead her or him to a new discovery.

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is difficult to rate or review this book. As indicated on page one, "Much of Book by Book has been gleaned from a small notebook into which I have copied striking quotations and passages from my reading. ... What follows are a number of general axions about life..." This is an apt description of the book. It is a difficult book to pick up and read from start to finish (even though it is only 170 pages). It is a book that you pick up, read a few quotes, or skim a few pages, and then set it down; or like a magazine, where you read an article, and then set it down.

I found some quotes and thoughts interesting, and a few book recommendations to follow up on, but for the most part, I believe I would prefer to spend time creating my own "commonplace book" to reading the gleanings of someone else's.

[Nasar · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Men and women who read and study and learn may go temporarily astray, but they can never be completely lost. Knowledge isn’t only its own reward; it gives us maps through the wilderness, instruments to guide our progress, and the confidence that no matter where we are we will always be, fundamentally, at home."

Quite an ideal book for a reader who intends to swim lifelong in the deep and enchanted sea of literature, always on the verge of drowning.

[Rebekah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite good. Some great quotes and multiple new authors to check out (sigh).

[James Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some writers, blogs serve as contemporary versions of commonplace books. The classic is Auden's A Certain World which was the first commonplace book that I discovered almost forty years ago. It was a very personal anthology that included adages, short excerpts, poems, and more. Auden organized it alphabetically by categories with his own comments included in some, always brief, as a record of his own thoughts.
My favorite commonplace book is Michael Dirda's own contribution, Book By Book. It is a book-lover's delight and has led me down many trails that I visit and revisit. He shares his personal thoughts about books in a topical way with chapters on "Work and Leisure", "The Book of Love", "Matters of the Spirit", and "Last Things". My favorite sections include "The Interior Library" where he recommends an eclectic mix of reading aimed at getting you away from the bestseller list (never a problem for me) and into a wide variety of books including fantasy fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, and intellectual history (the last is a favorite of mine). I also enjoyed "The Pleasures of Learning" where he discusses a foundation of great books (Homer, et. al.) and both books and methods of education. He even includes a chapter, "Sight s and Sounds", that focuses on art and music. It is likely his personal music recommendations include a few of your favorites. Through all his recommendations he includes valuable pithy sayings on which you may choose to meditate.
While Dirda recommends Auden, of course and Cyril Connolly's An Unquiet Grave; I have taken up the challenge of one of my favorite authors, D. J. Enright. So it is with delight that I am exploring, slowly savoring, his own " kind of a commonplace book", Interplay. It is here that I will be able to meditate on the pleasures of reading, mulling both thoughts and words - perhaps cogitating some new ones of my own.

[Shallowreader VaVeros · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were many enjoyable aspects to this book about the joys of books. Highlighting the need for idleness "the pleasure of doing nothing", daydreaming to bring creativity, the beauty of rereading to enjoy the artistry of the writing and the role of teachers bringing to the classroom a love of literature all are highlights in this book. However, I found the book heavily skewed towards male writers and rather conservative in the ideas and readings it suggested..

The Chapter "The Books of Love" left me uninspired. Certainly the books Dirda lists are books of love (not romance novels) but I was uninspired due to his dismissal of ending up with a "shopgirl romance or a marital aid". This broad statement indicated to me that he had little understanding of the readers of these books or the books themselves thus leaving me searching for other hidden undertones in the rest of his examination of books and music.

On children's fiction Dirda is delightful. His observation that "the young are all what college English professors would label "bad readers" and that city libraries at the time that he was young "refused to stock many popular juvenile potboilers that meant that "one could always unearth yet one more new adventure of these and other similarly resilient heroes in the cluttered basements of neighbours and relatives" to discussing how adults now relish in the joy of reading 'kiddie' books not only to their offspring but for themselves.

An enjoyable book to dip in and out of.

[Gayle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can recommend this book as something to be nibbled at from time to time, not blasted through as I was compelled to do; it's much too rich for that.

Michael Dirda, a long-time book reviewer and Pulitzer Prize-winner for criticism, has built a small book filled with big ideas. Each chapter addresses a topic, such as "Learning," or "Work and Leisure," featuring some discussion by Dirda himself, who frequently cites the Great Minds as reference points. The chapter may also include a selection of quotations, or a recommended reading list, or both.

And at the end of the book, "A Selective and Idiosyncratic Who's Who," to identify all those clever people he referenced along the way. This list can also be used as a roster of authors whose works one might choose to read.

So by all means, read Book by Book. But it would be better bought than borrowed from a library. It's more a truffle than a Twinkie.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This slim volume by Washington Post book critic Michael Dirda is a wonderful mixture of great quotes -- I put a slew of them on Facebook -- along with some philosophical observations about life and reading, and some great lists of classics and lesser known works.

Dirda is an advocate of that broadly liberal education which says that the purpose of reading, besides its own enjoyment, is to help us lead a richer, more meaningful life, and that can encompass almost any kind of fiction or non-fiction, but the best of each may be those books that get us to stretch beyond our usual comfort zones.

Not condescending or priggishly intellectual, Book by Book is simply a celebration of the joy of great literature.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

"We like that a sentence should read as if its author, had he held a plough instead of a pen, could have drawn a furrow deep and straight to the end." Thoreau pg 132

An enjoyable read for bibliophiles who are looking for, like the dust jackets says, meditations for those who seek wisdom where life intersects with books. Of course with Mr. Dirda you get that and many lists of books to read as well. Quick read but time well spent.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had gems of wisdom, but was not easy to wade through for me. I did like the section on a guest room library and the children's book section.

[Fiza Pathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best books I've read this year. Will be my reference for adding more quality books to my TBR shelf.

[Annabelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every Michael Dirda book I've devoured so far--and this is still my third--reads like a selection from his commonplace book collection, but Book by Book feels an index of sorts, and his most personal by far. It highlights his favorite quotes and aphorisms--some contradictory, he cautions us--on Life. Like a sommelier with a suggested wine pairing list, Dirda shares his recommended reading, the books which best complement and contemplate Life's sub-folders of work, leisure, desire, love, and Art. The pages are filled with exquisite axioms I wish I could remember and recite by heart, a sentiment clearly felt by the previous reader/owner of my secondhand copy, who has highlighted sentences and entire paragraphs in yellow marker such gems from the freethinking St Augustine who, in the flush of YOLO fever, entreated to "Make me chaste...but not just yet," Samuel Beckett's intriguing paradox "Try again. Fail again. Fail better," and Dirda's controverting takes on work "As with exercise and lovemaking, what matters in proper work is intensity. Generate enough intensity long enough, and you pass 'into the zone,' 'the sweet spot,' 'the flow,'" and leisure "We need what Italians call il dolce far niente, the pleasure of doing nothing." Add to that mine humble own--highlights, that is: "Character is fate," said Heraclitus, italics mine; Henry James's sage counsel "Remember that every life is a special problem, which is not ours but another's; and content yourself with the terrible algebra of your own," and Rainer Maria Rilke's "Who speaks of victory? To endure is everything." Surely a proclamation best tempered with Benjamin Disraeli's words of über-sangfroid, "Grief is the agony of an instant: the indulgence of grief is the blunder of a life."

Dirda is as an expansively-read intellectual with an omnivorous taste in books, a subject he has mined ad infinitum--to perfection. He enjoys the analytical, philosophical writings of Nietzsche and Foucault as much as he is thrilled by the perils packed in an anthology of retro science fiction, as I am. P.G. Wodehouse and G.K. Chesterton are his gods, Count Edmond Dantes of Monte Cristo his hero. And mine. "In digressions lie lessons," writes Dirda, as he proceeds to go off-topic with a most accurate quote from Nietzsche: "Without music life would be a mistake." Please meander on, Professor D...

* My hardbound Henry Holt edition is compact and lightweight, with a larger than usual, very agreeable font size. Hands down, this has been one of the most comfortably-engineered books I've had the pleasure to read.

[Carlton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A vastly enjoyable read for book lovers.
I have added so many books to my TBR pile, agreed with many of his assessments and disagreed with a few.

Dirda's objective, which I thought that he achieves:
We turn to books in the hope of better understanding our selves and better engaging with the meaning of our experiences. Let me say, right off, that I believe a work of art is primarily concerned with the creation of beauty, whether through words, colors, shapes, sounds, or movement. But it is impossible to read serious novels, poetry, essays, and biographies without also growing convinced that they gradually enlarge our minds, refine our spirits, make us more sensitive and understanding.

Full of great quotes of which possibly my favourite is:
The development of the faculty of attention forms the real object and almost the sole interest of studies.. . . Attention consists of suspending our thought, leaving it detached, empty, and ready to be penetrated by the object; it means holding in our mind, within reach of this thought, but on a lower level and not in contact with it, the diverse knowledge we have acquired, which we are forced to make use of.—Simone Weil

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pleasure, makes me want to read more by this author. Picked this one up on the shelf of books about books at Acorn Bookshop here in Columbus, that place is such a treasure!

This funny little book is part "commonplace book" -- that is, quotes the author liked and recorded for his future contemplation -- and part musings about various topics, books, authors. Lots of fun, and of course lots of potential further readings. Very brief but a lot packed into a few pages.

The author was a book reviewer for the Washington Post for many years, and he dedicated the book to Oberlin College (presumably his alma mater), so that should probably give you some idea of whether you'd like this or not. Highly recommended for those of us who love books obsessively.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

did not particularly like this book. dirda does not enjoy novels the way that i enjoy novels, and given that this is largely a book of collected tastes, i found his particularly dated - not to be like “where’s the diversity?” but his recommendations lean european and american in the way i find dull. as a book that illustrates what literature can offer, I found this too moralistic. it did not give me joy. still, it’s not like it’s awful, even if it is a bit cripplingly christian at times. For those who loved, hated, or want an alternative, I found Amina Cain’s “A Horse at Night” more subtle and moving

my reading advice? Booker prize lists lol

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mix of the author's favorite quotations from books he's read along with short essays

I'm not a fan of reading quotations that others have found that spoke to them. Have a quote hit that spot where you go "Yes- that" is such a personal experience that it doesn't cross over well for me. Regardless, I enjoyed the author's thoughts on reading and life. I liked his "Browsings" better, but I do have two more of his books on my TBR list. Intelligent and humorous writing about reading is something I treasure.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have found my new favorite section in the library: the one about the love of books, of reading books, of books about books, of recommended books. It's 028.9, and I'm going to exhaust every single book I find in that section. This quickie is just as wonderful as its mates in this section, and is largely constructed around cleverly curated quotes. The author seems like he took his top 23,873 favorite books, and sorted them nicely into categories and chapters and reflections. I loved it, and I can't get enough.