Dirda on Books

Michael Dirda (The Washington Post)

Prize-winning critic Michael Dirda took your questions and comments concerning literature, books and the joys of reading.

Each week Dirda's name appears -- in unmistakably big letters -- on page 15 of The Post's Book World section. If he's not reviewing a hefty literary biography or an ambitious new novel, he's likely to be turning out one of his idiosyncratic essays or rediscovering some minor Victorian classic. Although he earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Cornell, Dirda has somehow managed to retain a myopic 12-year-old's passion for reading. He particularly enjoys comic novels, intellectual history, locked-room mysteries, innovative fiction of all sorts.

These days, Dirda says he still spends inordinate amounts of time mourning his lost youth, listening to music (Glenn Gould, Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Krall, The Tallis Scholars), and daydreaming ("my only real hobby"). He claims that the happiest hours of his week are spent sitting in front of a computer, working. His most recent books include "Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments" (Indiana hardcover, 2000; Norton paperback, 2003) and his self-portrait of the reader as a young man, "An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland" (Norton, 2003). In the fall of 2004 Norton will bring out a new collection of his essays and reviews. He is currently working on several other book projects, all shrouded in the most complete secrecy.

Dirda joined The Post in 1978, having grown up in the working-class steel town of Lorain, Ohio, and graduated with highest honors in English from Oberlin College. His favorite writers are Stendhal, Chekhov, Jane Austen, Montaigne, Evelyn Waugh, T.S. Eliot, Nabokov, John Dickson Carr, Joseph Mitchell, P.G. Wodehouse and Jack Vance. He thinks the greatest novel of all time is either Murasaki Shikubu's "The Tale of Genji" or Proust's "A la recherche du temps perdu." In a just world he would own Watteau's painting "The Embarkation for Cythera." He is a member of the Baker Street Irregulars, The Ghost Story Society and The Wodehouse Society. He enjoys teaching and was once a visiting professor in the Honors College at the University of Central Florida, which he misses to this day.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

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Michael Dirda: Welcome to Dirda on Books! Today's show is actually coming to you from the Post, where I've come in to pick up mail, do this show, and then race to the airport. Tomorrow I'm giving some talks at Denison University--ah, the literary life--and zipping over to Ohio and back on Friday.
Spring has definitely arrived, and the temperature must be in the seventies. I certainly hope it's cooler in Granville, or I will be one warm little puppy. I thought this would be last hurrah for, if not winter, then at least not summer, clothes. Might have been wrong.
Anyway, let's look at this week's questions about books, publishing, reviewing, what have you.

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Lenexa, Kan.: Mr. Dirda: You referenced Bill Targ's "Indecent Pleasures" last week on the value of working in a bookstore. I read Bill Targ and several other publishing history books in a three-week period (20 years ago) after I had sent a novel to Knopf. Despite the long odds, I wanted to be conversant about Alfred, Blanche, et al., just in case.... I did receive a nice letter from Ashbel Green (which is more than most unsolicited submissions garner). Anyway, the books seemed filled with nuggets, and I made many notes. Here are several:

"Let it be known to the world that Saul Bellow owes me five dollars."--Targ, having fun with the Nobel laureate (sigh) over an installment payment dating back to early bookseller days in Chicago. (Bellow tried repeatedly to pay.)

"The three 'Alfreds'--Knopf, McIntyre, and Harcourt--were legendary for their commitment to books of quality and for their frequent 'lucky strikes.'"--Targ

"I've found that most good writers are mumblers, deficient as speakers, and seldom witty in person."--Targ

"Don't tell anyone, but Old Man Putnam drove Poe to drink."--Minton

"Old Man Houghton when asked why he still went to the office every day, "To say NO."--Madison

Michael Dirda: Many thanks. I met Targ once; he was doing those Targ editions, and I ended up with a couple--a signed Italo Calvino and a signed Marguerite Yourcenar, both people I never thought I'd ever meet. And, as it happens, I never did.

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Mount Desert Island: Dear Michael,

I was bound to be pleased to see that you had included your piece on Marguerite Yourcenar in your new book.

I work at a bookstore on Mount Desert Island, not a quarter mile from the cemetery where she is buried. For the most part, Americans (North) do not know her work, but throughout the year - especially in the summer - pilgrims from Canada, France, other European countries, and South America come to pay homage at her grave. The grave is not very well marked, and so often I take these people to her stone, which is set in the ground. I've also made a step-by-step series of photographs from the bookstore to the grave, which we lend to folks when I don't have time to take them or when they want to go by themselves.

Just yesterday I walked up there (the snow has finally melted) and noticed that someone had left a sprig of ornaments on the grave of Grace Frick, which is next to that of Marguerite's. Frick was her companion and translator.

On Yourcenar's grave a phrase is etched, which I think is from her novel, The Abyss (L'Oeuvre au noir). I have enough French to know all the words, but I cannot make a good translation of the sentence. I once asked a Frenchman whom I had guided to the spot to translate, but he could not bring it into English either.

Could you take a crack at it? It reads: "Plaise a Celui qui Est peut-etre de dilater le coeur de l'homme a la mesure de toute la vie."

Thanks.

Michael Dirda: Amazing coincidence. I had no idea that a Yourcenar question was the queue. Really.
As for a translation, I need to look at it a while. That peut-etre seems oddly placed. Anyone out there want to take a crack while I answer your questions? Thanks to one, perhaps,who can open the heart of man throughout his life. But that's not quite right either.

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Boston, Ma.: Hi Michael, Like most of the other chatters, I was deeply upset to hear that Saul Bellow passed away last night. It's striking how many American writers have died recently. I would love to read someone's take on the different visions of America presented by Saul Bellow, Arthur Miller, and Hunter S. Thompson, for instance.

Michael Dirda: Are they that different?

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Richardson, Tex.: Michael, what are some of your favorite books about polar exploration?

Michael Dirda: This isn't a field I know well, but I've always been fond of Alfred Lansing's Endurance, the story of Shackleford's illfated South Pole expedition (but one in which he survived and saved all his men). I can remember looking through Frederick Cook's book Return from the Pole, and wondering whether it was true or not--his claims were attacked during his life, but there are still defenders. Roland Huntsford has written well about poloar exploration. The classic, of course, is Apsley Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World.

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Oklahoma City, Okla.: Last week you replied to a question about good regional fiction by citing James Michener's "Chesapeake." How would you rank Michener among his contemporary American authors? I recall many Christmases when the new Michener opus was the best thing under the tree, and while he's been satirized, a re-reading of his best work, like "The Source" and "Centennial" today reveals real depth, solid characters, historical accuracy and great storytelling -- all qualities that in my view rank him well.

Michael Dirda: I can't say that I ever followed Michener's work much beyond my own childhood. But I thought Tales from the South Pacific a wonderful, and touching, book, and remember being fascinated and slightly shocked by the sexual shenanigans in Hawaii. My sense is that Michener was a good guy, a crackerjack researcher, and a man who wrote too much, too fast, too often.

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Story Hill, Milwaukee: Michael, I know you have not had much time to devote to Saul Bellow, particularly as Yardley is so interested in the great American novel type of project. Nonetheless, this chat is the only world I have to properly express my own feeling of loss. Bellow's novels have been such great companions to me. I even brought my mother into his world, where she spent many blessed hours with Ravelstein and Augie March during her last months. From the time I was introduced to Bellow in college, I have never found another writer whose works consistently made me feel that I was entering into a conversation with the most interesting and learned people you could ever hope to have as friends, and that they found the life of the mind and observation of culture writ large and culture writ small in the individual to be an endlessly entertaining topic for a conversation that would never end. I have read all his works, some twice. I will soon lift another in his honor. As a community of readers, we have lost this week a major contributor to our lives. May he rest in peace.

Michael Dirda: A lovely tribute.

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Silver Spring Used Bookstore Lover: Hi Michael. I was driving through Wheaton a few nights ago and noticed that Bonifant Books seems to be closed--its windows were papered over. Do you know the scoop (apart from the obvious headline, "Yet another used bookstore driven out of business by megastores with names that start with 'B'")? Do you know who bought their stock? I only moved to Silver Spring recently, and only visited twice, but still I'll miss them. Thanks!

Michael Dirda: Hmmm. No, I don't think they're closed--I was there a week or two back, and Julie was complaining about business--which is what all bookdealers do--but otherwise the shop seemed to be its usual self.

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Raleigh, N.C.: I am trying to understand the foundations on which critics base their reviews of literature or music or art. I am unable to understand the basis for the conclusions in many reviews. Can you recommend some reading to help me?

Michael Dirda: They base their reviews on the obvious foundations--knowledge of the subject, personal taste, and comparison/contrast with other works.
Reviewers tend to come from many backgrounds, and so some are scholarly, some journalistic, some renegades from performance or practice. There are no absolute standards, beyond that of credibility and a pleasing style.

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Webster Groves, Mo.: Hello, Mr. Dirda,

A lovely spring day here, and I am reading A Hero of Our Time, by Lermontov, a book I discovered at our local used book store. Why haven't I heard of this book before, and what is your opinion of it? A tragedy that he died so young.

Michael Dirda: It's a great book, and Nabokov translated it for Anchor in a lovely paperback. He's certainly well known to students of 19th century Russian lit, but then there are many writers of that period who aren't widely known in this country--e.g. Saltykov-Schedrin (The Govlovlyov Family), Goncharov (Oblomov), Leskov (A Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk--somewhat known because of the opera).

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Chantilly Va.: Michael - having just been through an election cycle and the deluge of political books (both left and right, serious and silly) do you have an opinion on which of the myriad of these books will hold up as meaningful material in a historical sense?

Michael Dirda: No.

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Baltimore, Md.: I missed the discussion last week about favorite bookstores, but without a doubt it's Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi. On any given day, prestigious authors are just hanging out in the store. Booksignings for literary authors regularly draw 400 people. And Richard Howorth, the owner, went on to become president of the American Booksellers Association.

As author John Dufresene recently said on his blog, "I love Oxford, Mississippi. The number one reason is Square Books. Mississippi has two of the top, let's say, five bookstores in the country. The state gets a bad cultural rap, but it should not. If you're a writer and your publisher is considering a book tour, beg them to send you to Square Books." Others have taken Dufresne's advice. There was a recent British author who was doing a booktour and his stops were New York City, Washington, DC, Los Angeles. And tiny ole Oxford, MS. He said the stop at Square Books was his favorite!

Michael Dirda: I"ve been to Square Books--while visitng Oxford for a Faulkner conference--and have nothing but fond memories of the place. I bought an Album Pleiade there, devoted to Faulkner. I miss the company of that evening.

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Lexington: Michael, As a Baker Street Irregular ( I didn't realize until recently that there are over 400 Shelockian associations ), can you explain the continuing popularity and fascination with Holmes? Has any other literary character been treated as if he actually existed ( still? he'd be 151 years!;!; ). Three more Holmes novels: Michael Chabon's 'The Final Solution', Mitch Cullen's 'A Slight Trick of the Mind', and, Caleb Carr's 'The Italian Secretary'. It used to be believed it was because he represented the power of human reasoning in a postivist world; so are we hankering after a non-existent, nostaligic past, or, are there other more curent reasons?

Michael Dirda: What do you mean treated as if he actually existed? That would seem to indicate some degree of, dare I say it, doubt?
In truth, there's no police like Holmes (an old joke), but among mythic characters certainly Tarzan might come close. But I doubt that Lord Greystoke receives much mail, or his works such close analyses as the BSI lavishes on the Canon.

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Boston, Ma.: Do you have any favorite first lines? Sometimes a good first line, like the opening for Anna Karenina or I Captured the Castle, will pull me into the same book over and over again, no matter how I try to resist.

Michael Dirda: Sure. Let's see. "It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking 13." (1984); "They threw me off the hay truck around noon." (The Postman Always Rings Twice); "Stately, plump Buck Mulligan. . . ." (Ulysses). One morning, Gregor Samsa awoke from uneasy dreams to find that he had been transformed into a gigantic insect." (That's not quite right, but obviously The Metamorphoses."
"I shall not say why I became, at age 15, the mistress of the Earl of Craven." (courtesan Harriet Wilson's memoirs. Lots of others.

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Chapel Hill, NC: Dear Michael,

Thanks for doing these chats. I know you're thanked often for this, but I really look forward to them, especially since I'm almost finished reading _An Open Book_. I've really enjoyed being in your world for a little while, and I'm sad to be approaching the end of it. I really like your principle of "sweet excess"!;

My question is, you describe in the book programs by Dr. Bergen Evans, and I was wondering what your thoughts were about TV/Radio programmng devoted to literary topics today. Are there any worth knowing about?

I've also recently been reading the poems of Hopkins. To my ear, and I'm less experienced as a reader of poetry than of prose, it sounds unique in its attention to sound. Your description of it as 'ululations' is apt!; I'm wondering if there's anyone like him you'd suggest?

Many thanks, and best wishes!;

Michael Dirda: Hopkins is close to unique. YOu might try Dylan Thomas, though.
I don't watch TV or listen to much radio these days, and so can't advise much about literary programming. I've been on various BookTV shows, but have never been able to bring mhyself to look at myself on them.

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McLean, Va.: Mr. Dirda,
Thank you for taking the time to answer questions. I am reading Apalachee Red by Raymond Andrews. This is of course not a new book and Andrews died over ten years ago, but I am interested in how you think of him as an author and whether you could compare him to any authors that are writing today.

Michael Dirda: I remember him, remember that he was supposed to be good, but never read any of his books. Sigh.

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Grimestained Cottage: Splendid good afternoon, teach!; Yardley writes today re: Bellow that "... Chicago's lierature is richer than any other American city's, LA possibly excepted." I am, like, besides some noir and Chinatown, and excluding Carolyn See, I know me nothing of LA novels. But that's where you come in... Also, do you recommend any of Bellow's novellas? We read a story of his in post secondary ed, but I can't recall which one? thanks

Michael Dirda: Here are a couple of LA novels to start with: Nathanael West's The Day of the Locusts; Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe books; and Scott Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon.
Bellow novellas--you should probably start with the early Seize the Day.

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Greatest Books: I see in your intro that you consider "a la recherche du temps perdu" and Tales of the Genji" as the two greatest novels ever.

I have attempted and failed to read the Proust and have a desire to attempt "Tales of the Genji". Will it prove as impenetrable as Proust did ?

Michael Dirda: No. But it is a leisurely narrative. Take your time. Savor the atmosphere. I recommend the Arthur Waley translation--not as scholarly as the two later ones but the most beautiful.

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Arlington, Va.: In your opinion, what are the best books to read to learn more about the life and accompishments of Pope John Paul II? Thanks, really enjoy these chats!

Michael Dirda: I don't know. The Pope wrote a number of books himself, and you might start with one of them. I'd recommend going to a Catholic INformatino Center or bookstore and asking there.

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Takoma Park, Md.: That's Cherry Apsley-Garrard on The Worst Journey in the World.

"I may be some time..." is possibly the most elegant exit line ever.

Michael Dirda: Fingers too quick; mind too slow.
Yes, indeed.

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Minnetonka, Minn.: Michael,
I know that it is a week late but my favorite bookstore for atmosphere is Bookman's Alley in Evanston, IL and for bargains the clearance shelves at any Half-Price Books and Second Story warehouse in Rockville, MD.
I just finished The Dream of Scipio by Iain Pears. It was a sort of bibliomystery with love poems, lost manuscripts and dying popes but in the end quite sad. My question is do you have recommendations for books about the Pope and the Vatican Library?

Michael Dirda: You might look at Rome Reborn, by Anthony Grafton, which looks at the Vatican Library among other subjects. Good texts, many illustrations.

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Alexandria, Va.: In reference to a chat you did, I think last year some time, where you discussed the use of the f-word in literature, what do you think about it's use in more academic tomes? Specifically, I'm currently reading Thomas Cahill's _Sailing the Wine-Dark Seas_ for a Greek history class I'm taking and he sprinkles the word around when writing about the Greek lifestyle. I feel like it is just used gratuitously for shock value (and I'm not that enthralled by his book in general) but I was wondering if you could think of a good reason to do this?

Thank you!

Michael Dirda: No. I suspect he's doing it for shock value. Some of the ancient Greek poems might call for that as a translation but I don't think there's any good reason for scholarship to be that vulgar. Literature is another matter.

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Crystal City, Va: Michael, just what is it with Harlan Ellison? Do you know of any other American writer, living or dead, who is regarded by so many with so much venom? I understand he's so disliked by his peers in the SFWA, they won't award him Grand Master status.

Michael Dirda: He's a very prickly guy. I know: He once nearly started throwing punches at me at a Readercon.
Harlan wrote wonderful stories when young, but like Ray Bradbury somehow ran out of inspiration. But he's got a lot of personality and he uses it to good effect.

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Pope Books: Forget the books. Go to the John Paul center near the National Shrine in Brookland, and see the Pope's Very Own Skis!; plus a lot of silly fun interactive stuff.

Michael Dirda: Okay.

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Silver Spring, Md.: Did you see the article saying that Scottish neuroscientists have demonstrated that reading poetry is better for the brain than reading prose?
http://news.scotsman.com/arts.cfm?id=352752005
Thoughts?

Michael Dirda: That's reading Scottish poetry is better than reading Scottish prose--and who wulla airgue with that, laddie?

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Chicago may be rich but..: New York literature is probably just as rich if not richer. Yardley's just being his grumpy old opinionated and distinctive self.

For LA, don't forget all those movie industry books like "I'm losing you" by Bruce Warner (or some similar name)

Michael Dirda: Bruce Wagner, I think.
Yes, New York is pretty rich too. There's actually no need to set a competition over this.

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Silver Spring, Md.: In your opinion, how well will Bellow stand up to the ages?
My feeling: I've never felt his books are as good as his
sentences. One by one, the sentences are brilliant--
compacted, allusive, colloquial, coiled and sprung, brass-
tacked, Keatsian in the novelty and rightness of their
descriptive power (and those similes--Afros like the
shrubbery of Versaille!)--yet the books all seem to peeter
out, not add up, build to no deeper revelations or self-
understanding; they're sequences of brilliant set-pieces
that signify, what exactly? Or am I missing something?

Michael Dirda: I've heard this view before, and so there must be some truth to it. But I really don't think guessing the judgment of posterity is very useful--better just to enjoy the books now, rather than think about the future.

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Providencia, Chile:

Bookstores : very interesting issue. The
bookstores are the soul of the book´s world. The
place where the readers go on to pilgrimage.

The chilean writer Antonio Skarmeta ( " Il
Postino ") ´ve said that its dreamed bookstore is
where the readers got a balloon and a cornete for
to buy a book !;!;!;

I remember the movie with Tom Hanks
and Meg Ryan about the argument between a
little and kindly bookshop and a bookmall.

I think that the best bookstore is where
one can read the books, drink a coffee and to sit
in a big armchair to enjoy reading.

Thanks Mr. Dirda for your answer,

Marcos Solís

Michael Dirda: Yes, those are the best bookshops--the cozier, the better. So long as the stock is varied, unexpected, and always changing.

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Swim-Two-Birds: Favorite bookstore was Poppa's in Leitchfield, KY. It was a flower blooming in the desert, only there for a few years (a bookstore there was not exactly a great business model), but got me through an otherwise dicy year between college and law school. The proprietor introduced me to A Fan's Notes and we shared an abiding appreciation for Hunter Thompson, with whom the proprietor's brother had gone to high school. He also special ordered for me Joseph McElroy's Lookout Cartridge, a nearly forgotten great novel.

Michael Dirda: I'm a great fan of A Fan's Notes too. Exley possessed a wonderful comic voice. Joseph McElroy still writes--in fact he just had a recent novel and occasionally reviews.

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Arlington, Va.: A comment and a question: I recently read Mrs. Chippy's Last Adventure by Caroline Alexander, a novelization in the form of the ship's carpenter's cat's (!!) journal of the voyage of the Endurance. I highly recommend it to for the poster who was looking for polar literature.

As for the question, I have just finished The Queen of the South by Arturo Perez-Reverte and was not impressed. I found it slow and plodding. Are his thrillers more entertaining? More quickly paced? Or does he spend a lot of time examining the motives of everyone in each story? Thanks for your answer!

Michael Dirda: His books are uneven. I didn't think much of The Fencing Master, but liked The Club Dumas quite a bit. I even liked the movie of it--The Ninth Gate, with Johnny Depp.

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Arlington, Va.: Someone wrote: "Has any other literary character -besides Holmes] been treated as if he actually existed?"

There's that Kringle character in the Clement Moore poem, whom many believe is not only real but a yearly visitor.

Michael Dirda: Ah, yes. When I was little I was once asked who or what I'd like to be when I grew up and I answered: Santa Claus. You work one day a year, everyone loves you, and you have all the toys in the world.

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Detroit, Mich.: Michael-
I have a current events similie: Much like those of us who feel intimidated into silence by the clear accomplishments and mighty reputation of John Paul II, and yet would like to point out that he really leaves a mixed and troublesome legacy...
I have a couple of hasty and disrespectful thoughts about Bellow. I took a graduate course in him many years ago and ended up with VERY mixed feelings. First, like everyone I was impressed by his ambition, intellect and exuberance. And I very much liked The Victim and Seize the Day (though I think his symbolist instincts ran away with him there). So Bellow and I got off to a good start. But after that, he lost me. I found the big novels, as Mailer says, unconvincing. Most seriously, the characters never quite rose up off the page. Moreover, I thought his much praised style rhythmically repetitive, predictable and finally snooze-inducing. In the end, I came to think of him, for all his Whitmanesque life-embracing zest, as a curiously distant, chilly and uninvolving writer. I think there are many of us out there who secretly feel like that, but are way too intimidated to say it out loud.

Michael Dirda: Well, you're the second to say so today. Thanks for writing in.

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Iowa: Reading your on-line chats, it is clear that many of us treasure all manner of literary works. But not a lot of us seem to recall non-fiction (other than the occasional stellar biography) with nearly as much affection. (Particularly now with the glut of self-help, ego-driven stuff available.) I am currently reading Jared Diamond's Collapse about how societies succeed or fail, a very well-written book, but still I feel like I am being dosed with castor oil. Imagination trumps reality for reading pleasure?

Michael Dirda: Works of art last longer than works of information.

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Fair Oaks, Va.: Do you like the books of Marguerite Duras? I read "Moderato Cantabile" and enjoyed it, but would like to take a look at an English translation to see if I really "got" it.

right now I am reading the trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz, about a family's life in 1920s Cairo. It's a nice bit of escapism if anyone is looking for something exotic. It's like an Egyptian "Forsyte Saga". I hope that's not insulting. I liked "Forsyte Saga".

Book stores: I used to frequent the Savile Book Shop on P Street in Georgetown. I bought someone's Gallimard library there. Lots of Rabelais and Flaubert. I think the bookstore is long gone, isn't it?

Michael Dirda: It is indeed long gone. Jim Tenney, who ran it, worked for many years at Olsson's in Georgetown. But it was a lovely, quiet, dark and restful place.

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San Diego, Calif.: For all parents who are encouraging their children to love reading I would like to thank my mother, Emily Norman, who died March 15 at 90. I found a book from my childhood in which I had prrecociously written "given me by my mother" and incorporated this into my eulogy to her. Bad eyes and poor concentration toward the end made reading less practical for her and she missed it a great deal.

Michael Dirda: I"m sure many of us can point to our mothers as the people who got us started reading. My reader's memoir, An Open Book, starts with me learning to read in my mother's lap.

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Fair Oaks, Va.: Good papal biographies are by George Weigel and Carl Bernstein.

John Paul II wrote poetry and plays as well as his other writings. I have a book of his poetry (translated into English). He has several beautiful books published by Jonathan Cape. He answers questions (philosophical in nature) posed to him by an Italian journalist. I think one is called "The Threshold of HOpe".

Michael Dirda: Many thanks.

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1st lines: My father was an inspector for the Austrian Tourist Bureau. (interior lead for a story in The World According to Garp)

In a hole in the ground lived a hobbit.

Michael Dirda: Ah yes. Good openings, like good titles, are essential to books. I spent a lot of time thinking about the first line of An Open Book. "Daydreaming is my only hobby."

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Lexington: Michael, I should have added re Holmes that when I received the new volumes edited by Leslie Klinger as a Christmas present ( my best one ), a few family members said how can you reread those stories after you know the mystery ( heresy!; ). And, this from someone who rereads Lord of the Rings every year. I should have asked him if the ending ever differed, with Frodo taking the ring and running!;

Michael Dirda: Actually, Sam ended up with the Ring, a bit of legerdemain and Frodo was so tired out he was easy to trick. Tolkien was going to use this as the theme of the sequel he never quite got round to writing. (Nota bene: I am making this up.)

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St. Louis, Home of the Final Four: Just discovered your column, and as a book addict, I look forward to it. What do you think of the Folio Society?

Michael Dirda: Pretty books, sometimes very pretty books. I own a couple of dozen. But they are, essentially, reprints, and not rare books or fine press items.

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Wilmington, Del.: When you read do you try to picture the events, dress and locale of the characters to the degree the writer describes them? Or do you go for a general 'feel' for the characters without too much detail?

Michael Dirda: Depends. If the author lavishes a lot of time to description, I figure it must be important and so pay attention. But most of the time I do just come away with a general impression--"rumpled guy in a raincoat" means Philip Marlowe. What more do you need?

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Alexandria, Va.: My two cents on Bellow's passing - I've always admired his novels, but have never loved any of them. To me, Augie Marsh was a teenage crush, and as Saul aged his books became more and more statuesque. Beauties, wonderful to look at, but never inducing that hormonal rush of, say, a new Phillip Roth.

Michael Dirda: Well, Roth does know how to work those hormones. For evidence, check out The Dying Animal.

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Re: Beloved Nonfiction: I agree with you in general about works of art vs. works of information, but twenty years after high school history, I still remain fondly devoted to Palmer and Colton's magisterial yet deeply engaging "History of the Western World."

Michael Dirda: Ah, but this is sentiment, not judgment. Of course, sentiment has its place, as I should know.

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Riverdale Park, Md.: To last week's favorite bookstore discussion, I might add Normals Books (Baltimore)

Might I ask what your and fellow readers' favorite short stories are? Some of my all time favorites: "The Babysitter" (Robert Coover), "Eleven" (Sandra Cisneros), "The Beast in the Jungle" (Henry James, though this might fall into the novella category), "Little Expressionless Animals" (David Foster Wallace), "Aqua Boulevard" (Maile Meloy), and The Best of Roald Dahl (the entire collection).

Michael Dirda: My favorite short story is probably Chekhov's The Lady with the Dog. But, once more, there's no real reason to choose. The world of short stories is a fresh field, waiting.

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Durham, N.C.: Good afternoon, Mr. Dirda!

I'm interested in reading about Hungary: books about Hungary, and books by Hungarian authors. Are there a few suggestions you feel strongly about to help me get started!

Thanks a bunch!

Michael Dirda: Sigh. I'm sure I must know some appropriate Hungarian books, but none comes to mind right now. But then, maybe I"m tired. (He said, grasping at straws.) Let's try again next week and I'll see what I can come up with.
Okay, folks: That's going to be it for this week. I've got a plane to catch. So until next Wednesday at 2, keep reading!

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