By Nancy Pearl,
who is a librarian in Seattle and the author of "Book Lust"
Wednesday, May 17, 2006

BOOK BY BOOK

Notes on Reading and Life

By Michael Dirda

Henry Holt. 170 pp. $17

Afew years ago a questionnaire went out over the Internet, arriving in the in-boxes of bookworms everywhere. (More than a dozen people, from three continents, sent it to me, each sure I had never seen it before.) Reminiscent of those self-tests that women's magazines are so fond of ("Does your spouse really love you? If seven or more of the following statements apply to you, contact a divorce lawyer immediately"), it addressed a pressing problem of which many were unaware.

Called the "Self-Test for Literature Abusers" and devised by Michael McGrorty, it includes statements such as "I sometimes read early in the morning, or before work," "I become nervous, disoriented or fearful when I must spend more than 15 minutes without reading matter," and "I have wept, become angry or irrational because of something I read." Answering yes to 15 or more of the 26 questions indicates that the test-taker has all the hallmarks of a chronic readaholic, with the behavioral and interpersonal issues that go along with such a diagnosis.

I suspect that if Michael Dirda, a columnist for Book World for over a quarter-century, were to take this test, his diagnosis would be worrisome. From his memoir "An Open Book" to his collection "Bound to Please," it's clear that Dirda not only loves to read but also spends a lot of time thinking (and writing) about those books that he's most enjoyed.

Now, in his slim but jampacked "Book by Book," Dirda builds a convincing case (a kind of it-goes-without-saying premise to anyone suffering from readaholism) that reading is not just a pleasurable way to pass the time or a means of escape, but can indeed help us to live a fuller and more engaged life. There are chapters devoted to love, work, education, art and death, among other topics. These are then subdivided under interesting headings, such as "To Work Is to Pray," which is filled with a discussion of the writing habits of Trollope, Balzac and Stendhal; "A Streetcar Named Desire," which offers provocative quotations on love and sex; and "Taking Things Lightly," in which Dirda shows himself to be the only writer I know of who can link the attitudes of George Santayana, Kenneth Tynan and William James in an essay on how we can live an upbeat life, notwithstanding the state of the world.

Dirda describes the book as "a florilegium: a 'bouquet' of insightful or provocative quotations from favorite authors, surrounded by some of my own observations, several lists, the occasional anecdote . . . There's even, occasionally, a bit of out-and-out advice." (While reading through the book, I was most appreciative that Dirda immediately translated the foreign words and phrases he used. Not only does it save time -- I didn't have to look them up myself -- but it's also a nice acknowledgment that not everyone is keeping up so assiduously with her French, German and Latin.) One section is, as they say, particularly worth the price of admission: "The Guest-Room Library." Dirda recommends some general categories of books for the ideal guest bedroom -- in addition to a Bible, the collected works of Shakespeare, a novel or two by Jane Austen and a recent edition of Leonard Maltin's guide to movies -- including mysteries, humor, biography, poetry, children's classics, philosophy, reference and journals and diaries. And the suggestions he makes for each category are delectable, ranging from "Pages From the Goncourt Journals," to H.W. Fowler's "Modern English Usage," to Andrew Lang's "Blue Fairy Book," to Flann O'Brien's "The Best of Myles."

A few wishes, which are not to be confused with quibbles. (1) That Dirda had included the thinking behind all his choices. I would dearly love to know, for example, what it was about James Hynes's "The Lecturer's Tale" and Richard Russo's "Straight Man" -- two of my own favorite books that appear in Dirda's list of "contemporary classics about teachers and students" -- that drew him to them. (2) That the quotations, which are identified by their authors, also mentioned which works they were taken from. And (3) that there was an author and title index. Short of paging through the book to find where Disraeli was quoted on grief, there's no easy way to access it.

Finally, one true quibble. I wish that Dirda had given us even more books and much less general advice on living well -- for which we can go to Dr. Phil. In particular, the section called "Taking Care of Business" seems both platitudinous and awkward, as though it had been written for another book altogether and just wandered in by mistake.

But for any readaholic, the true tests of a book like this are three, and Dirda passes them all with flying colors. They are, that some of your favorite books and authors are included (wow! Howard Moss, Karen Joy Fowler and Georgette Heyer are all here); that when the last page is turned you find that you've compiled a huge list of books that you must read immediately because the author has made them sound so interesting (my list is long); and that you'd like to continue the conversation about books with the author.

In the case of "Book by Book," there's a fourth -- that you'd give almost anything to spend a night or two or three in the guest room in the Dirda home. Which I would.