Dirda on Books

Prize-winning columnist Michael Dirda takes 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. Heparticularly 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 themost 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.

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Michael Dirda: Welcome to Dirda on Books! It's a sunny, indeed blindingly sunny day here in DC, and I've placed sofa cushions and pillows into the window well behind this computer so that I can actually see the screen.

As it is, I've interrupted work on an introduction to Kierkegaard's "Diary of the Seducer" and am in something of a disgruntled mood. Two weeks ago, one of my posters emailed me privately that a copy of my much sought-after Volume 9 of the Collected Tales of Henry James had appeared for sale at a Santa Barbara bookstore. I called to reserve the book, gave my credit card number, and waited for it to appear on my doorstep, a little bundle of joy. Days went by, a week, 10 days. Yesterday I called and discovered that someone else had bought the book through the internet--remember I had called--and it had been dispatched to that lucky person. What's more, the paperwork for my order was apparently lost; clerical error or something, or should that be clerkly error? At all events, I'm still looking for volume 9 of the Henry James tales. Sigh. And it's my birthday on Sunday too.

Enough of this whining. Let's look at this week's questions.

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Richmond, Va: My son's high school English class is currently reading Dickens's Great Expectations. Alot of grumbling from his classmates (not him I hasten to add) in the computer/video game generation about reading such a "retro/19th Century/Victorian" etc., etc. tome elicited this response from his teacher: "If you surveyed the English Department of any major University this novel would be on EVERYONE's "top ten" novels in the English language". I agree with her - do you? Also, what would be a couple of others on your "top ten" list in the English language. Keep up the good work - your stuff is always insightful and well done.

Michael Dirda: Actually, I don't agree with your son's teacher. Great Expectations may be the most perfect of Dickens' novels, if only because it's relatively short, but Bleak House, for instance, is a greater book. My top top ten English novels would include Tristram Shandy, Vanity Fair, Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, The Good Soldier, among others. Nothing unusual there, I think. But if I had another 10, I'd probably include Ronald Firbank's Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli, Gissing's New Grub Street, and A Passage to India.

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Philadelphia, Pa.: The Chronicles of Narnia are among the favorite books of my youth and I understand a new movie version of the first book will be released. I recall some time ago hearing that the publisher of the books wanted to revise the texts to deemphasize Lewis's religious themes. Fortunately, I still have my old paperback editions to share with my children, but do you know if the publisher proceeded with that plan? Or was it just an unfounded rumor?

Michael Dirda: I suspect that the Narnia books will continue to be available as Lewis wrote them. However, publishers do sometimes ask contemporary novelists to write "the book of the movie" and so you might see available a version of Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe under someone else's name.

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Washington, DC: Good afternoon Michael,

Is it 'cheating' to listen to a book (tape, CD, MP3 player) as opposed to reading one? Do you feel that a reader gives up a portion of their ability to freely interpret the book when they allow someone else to string together the words using their own inflection and pace?

Reading fatigues me (not a vision issue as far as I can tell) and I'm considering investing in books on tape.

Thank you...

Michael Dirda: I suppose one might argue that listening to a tape restricts one's range of interpretations. But for most people this isn't the case; to the contrary, I've always felt that a good reader--and most of them are--adds to a book's power. Many people read by allowing their eyes to skim across the page; listening, you have to take in each word, savor every phrase, hear the author's style. I myself love audiobooks--though I only listen to them when driving long distances--but actually mouth the words of the sentences I read. And write. When I've finished writing a review, my mouth is dry.

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Self-published novels: Why do we never read reviews on self published novels? Do most critics get the books that they review straight from the big publishers? What about the little guy? What about the independent voices?

Michael Dirda: There are places where selfpublished books are reviewed, but the view of the major newspapers and magazines is this: If a book were good enough, it would be published by a recognized commercial publisher or university press. Since there are so many more books brought out each year than can be reviewed anyway, this is also a means to cut down the number to be considered for notice. Of course, good books will be overlooked-the history of publishing shows many classics brought out at their author's expense--but this is the way of the world right now.

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Lenexa, Kan.: Mr. Dirda: I'm approaching halfway on "Bound to Please"--pretty much reading an essay a day (M-F). I also use it to spark needed catch-up reading. I currently have "Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli" on order, and am also getting ready to read "At Swim-Two-Birds." QUESTIONS: With your three books, have you seen the sale numbers grow with each one? "Readings" was published by a university press. With that book, had you or your agent shopped mainstream publishers first? Is your forthcoming book also with Norton? Thanks much.

Michael Dirda: My agent said, then, that there wasn't any trade interest in a collection of essays, and so I went with Indiana, whose editor really wanted me to do a book with him. I was very pleased with the look of Readings. Norton really wanted my memoir An Open Book, and so I told them they could have it, if they brought out Readings in paperback and would later publish a fat collection of my more sustained book pieces. In fact, Readings and Bound to Please both went into second printings, while An Open Book didn't--but its inital press run was significantly bigger. All in all, I'd say the books have all sold roughly the same number of copies, probably around 10,000 each. This seems pretty good for essays, but not anywhere good enough for a memoir.

My next book will be from Henry Holt ("Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life" due out in March) and the one following that from Harcourt.

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Capitol Hill, Washington, DC: When Bill Maher was interviewing Tom Wolfe on Maher's talk show, he joked that "Wolfe will be regarded as a great man of letters for as long as people read, which will be about two more years." What are your thoughts on the rush to illiteracy, abetted by video games, trash TV, and the general obsession with celebrity that appears rampant in American culture? Real world results include polls that show some 50 percent of Americans believe that Iraq was responsible for 9-11...Stanford academic Sam Harris, in his recent polemic book ("The End of Faith?")on the political consequences of mindless religiosity, says "irrationality is on the ascendant in the US." He cites several examples of popular idiocy. Can we "read our way" out of this, or are folks like you merely holding a quivering candle in the face of a hurricane?

Michael Dirda: Well, these are questions that trouble me too. In fact, I need to prepare a talk for this coming Monday on Reading in the Age of the Internet and have been slowly getting my thoughts together. Most of your points, I should point out, are precisely those I address in "Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life," which deals with how and what books teach ua about living. The chapters are on the obvious themes: Education, work and leisure, love, the world, things of the spirit, etc.

Anyway, I don't think Tom Wolfe is a great man of letter; a great stylist and a fine writer in many fields, yes. Second, I wonder if the actual number of people reading serious books fluctuates all that much, when you really get down to the numbers. I think that the reading of poetry and literary fiction and intellectual history and philosophy has always been the province of a small part of our population. I don't call it an elite, but simply people who are interested in the kinds of issues great books make us think about. I do believe that the new media has reduced the focused attention span of young people, and that the internet tends to promote a culture of information and answers rather than learning and insight. But note that I said "tends." I suspect that books and the new media will run side by side for a long time.

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New York, NY: Thanks again for your time. Would you care to pipe in on the controversy over John Banville gaining the Booker? I don't know if you have already reviewed "The Sea", but please give a brief appraisal. And also, do you think that a common word always works better stylistically - having a more direct and honest feel to it - than a highfalutin' one, if the meanings are exactly the same?

Michael Dirda: I can't comment on the Banville because I haven't read it. I did review Zadie Smith, which I liked more than some reviewers, and will review the new Julian Barnes, partly because it deals with Arthur Conan Doyle, about whom I know a certain amount (being in the Baker Street Irregulars and all).

What matters is to use the right word. Sometimes you want a certain effect that can only be gained by an unexpected word. Certainly Shaker plainneess is a virtue, but after a while one can grow tired of clear broth and want something covered with whip cream.

As it is, a writer should be able to shift his or her tonal register when it seems appropriate to do so. Sometimes you may want to perform sexual interdigitation; other times you're happy to hold her hand.

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Alexandria, Va.: I just finished reading Charles Willeford's "Cockfighter", and then saw the 1974 movie (the author had a bit part), which fleshed out some locales (the Southern cockpits) that were fuzzy in my mind. Do you like to watch the movie after reading the book? Has a movie ever fleshed out something in a book for you?

Michael Dirda: No, I tend not to see movies of the books I read--with lots of exceptions. I likeed the Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice a lot; I enjoy many of the SHerlock HOlmes stories on TV and in film. But these always seem like different experiences. Mostly you gain the visual, obviously, and the pleasure of seeing actors bring characters to life. On the other hand, the subtleties of art and prose style tend to get left out, and replaced by their cinematic analogues, not always successfully.

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Periodicals: Mr. Dirda,

I find my stack of books to read quite large enough to occupy all of my free reading time, leaving my pile of periodicals to genrally increase expenonentially and be largely ignored. I am curious to know if there are any periodicals, particularly one's containig literary criticism, that you try not to miss?

Michael Dirda: I read the English Spectator, the Times Literary Supplement, the New Criterion with some regularity--interestingly, all or at least two are quite conservative in their politics, while I am not. I either enjoy the columnists (like Mark Steyn) or the choice of articles (the New Criterion) or the scholarly thoroughness of the TLS. I do look but not as regularly at the London Review of Books and the New York Review of Books, and at a half dozen quarterlies, chiefly the AMerican Scholar and the Paris Review. I do like specialized periodicals a lot--the classical journal Arion, for exampole, of All-Hallows: The Journal of the Ghost Story Society, the Baker Street Journal, Plum Lines (P.G. Wodehouse) etc etc. But I read all these very fast, reserving my real reading for books.

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Des Moines, Iowa: Have you noticed that there appears to be a biger and bigger debate between what are termed "word books" and more clear "plot-centered books"? I mean -- I see this debate crop up once again with some of the controversy over the recent Booker win of Banville. It seems to be an argument over style, and reading difficulty: like the William Gass's of the world versus say ... John Updike. What do you think?

Michael Dirda: Hmmm. William Gass and John Updike would appear to me in the same camp--the word guys. Both are astonishing stylists.

There's room for both. I think more sophisticated--jaded?--readers tend to prefer an interesting or original style, while the young mainly care about plot. For me it's the journey not the arrival that matters most of all. Of course, our best books combine both, to some degree. I do tend to be an esthete rather than a realist, one who values art as an intricate contraption rather than as a mirror to life.

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Washington, D.C.: Michael -- Where and when are you speaking about reading and the Internet on Monoday? Is it open to the public?

Michael Dirda: Richmond. It's for a convention of the Independent Schools of Virginia.

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Rockville, Md: Mr. Dirda,

Somehow I managed to escape the Montgomery Co. public school system with virtually no concerted instruction in poetry. I majored in the sciences at university and therefore have never had any formal courses on reading poetry. Perhaps because of this, poetry befuddles me. I am particularly concerned about missing all kinds of allusions to older poems. Any advice for how to put together a self-taught course on understanding poetry? I have a copy of the Norton Anthology of Poetry that I am planning on reading chronologically on and off for some very long period of time.

Michael Dirda: Well, the Norton is a good base, and you'll learn a lot if you read it through.

Most allusions in poetry are either to mythology, folk tale or earlier poems. So you might want to read up on the Greek myths (Robert Graves has a famous Penguin, or go back to the bible, Ovid's Metemorphoses). But in truth this is why one needs to read widely; there's no royal road to understanding.

That said, when you find a poet you like, go out and pick up his or her complete works. Most poetry should be enjoyable on at least an elementary level--ie beautiful language, lovely rhythms, unexpected insight. We read first for excitement and pleasure, and then, afterwards, we can go back and try to tease out exactly how the effects were produced and why they matter to us.

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beginning book reviewer: Do you write and publish book reviews from an advanced reading copy or from an uncorrected proof? or do you wait until you have seen the final product? I just reviewed a book from an uncorrected proof, and the book's publication date keeps getting delayed. Would you publish this review, or would you wait? thank you for your professional advice.

Michael Dirda: Most newspaper reviews are written from proofs or arcs. The editors won't run the pieces, though, until the books hit the bookstores and they are able to check the accuracy of quotes and arguments. Sometimes errors are corrected after the proofs and sometimes books are quite rewritten at points.

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Washington, DC: Recent reviews of the 2 volume James Agee collection have taken, I guess appropriately, divergent approaches. One (and I forget the source; I've never been a reader of by-lines) emphasized Agee's film reviews, while this month's Harper's focused more attention on his books. I've always enjoyed Death in the Family and Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, but have felt closest to his Agee's poetry. Which area do think best represents Agee's legacy?

Also, I saw where John Crowley recently published a new novel. I read Little, Big, which is without a doubt the most difficult "fantasy" book I've ever read. Is the new one more of the same?

Michael Dirda: The new Crowley is about Lord Byron is easier than Little, Big. Give it a whirl.

I reviewed the Agee and I spent about half the review on Famous Men, and most of the rest on the film pieces, with just a mention of Death in the Family. I didn't talk about the poetry at all--and in fact don't believe it's reprinted in the LoA volumes; I'd have to check. I do like the poetry in Permit Me Voyage, though, and the poem "To Walker Evans" with which FAmous Men opens contains some of my lodestone lines: "Against time and the damages of the brain/Sharpen and calibrate."

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Shaker Heights, Ohio: I have not been able to participate in your online discussions for over a year now, and I have missed them terribly! Please forgive me if I am asking something you have already covered in previous discussions: have you read the new Jonathan Safran Foer book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close? If so, what did you think of it? How do you think it compared to his first book? And, finally, have you read The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss?Thanks!

Michael Dirda: Alas, you'll now go away for another year: I've read neither of these books. I don't doubt that Foer is a talented writer, but I suspect I'm too old or something; I find myself vaguely resentful of young hotshots, and it takes me quite an effort to get over that and actually open one of their books. I am often surprised at how good they are--witness Zadie Smith, whom I put off reading for a long time.

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Book lovers at Christmas time: Dear Michael,

I've begun my Christmas shopping, and this year I'm bringing books as gifts wherever I go. I have particular titles in mind for nearly everyone on my list. Happily, most of the people in my life are easy to please. But my lover, well, that's another story altogether. This is a person who has read just about everything, and seems to own most of the volumes I might potentially buy. It's just so annoying. I may have to stoop to buying something silk or cashmere instead. So, help me out, will you? What would be on your Christmas list if you loved true crime, for instance? I've recently read about the Library of Larceny Series. Do you know these books? As you are bookish yourself, what sort of presents do you like best to unwrap?

Michael Dirda: Bookish--I don't think of myself as bookish. I think of myself as Humphrey Bogart or Steve McQueen (but taller in his case), but with a liking for books and reading in the way that other guys like women, gambling, drinking and travel (all of which I also like).

Has your lover really read everything? Do you have a copy of Bound to Please--don't let that title give you any ideas--my collection of essays about all kinds of great and unusual books?

That said, true crime: I'll bet he's never read the founding fathers of the true crime genre--William Roughead, Edmund Pearson and William Bolitho. These are writers from early in the century who composed essay/stories around famous criminals like Burke and Hare (the resurrection men) and Madeleine Smith, the poisoner, who got off largely because of her beauty. New York Review Books has a paperback called Classic Crimes, a selection of Roughead and you might start with that.

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Wilds of Georgia: You seem to have had or will have a different publisher for every book you have written. Is that standard for authors whose books are not best sellers? I ask because I have a friend in Washington State who has had more than a dozen novels and collections of short stories published, changing publishers with almost every one. That seems to me to make a career more difficult for the writer and less profitable for publisher, as the publisher cannot benefit from the goodwill of persons who bought and liked the previous book. Your situation is somewhat different as essays and memoirs are two different genres. I don't want to pry into your reasons for changing publishers, but I would like a general comment on this situation.

Michael Dirda: Well, I do have three books, and all three are available from Norton. I wouldn't have changed publishers except that Holt asked me to do the book I"ve just finished and Harcourt suggested the one following. I was very happy at Norton, and only wish I had made them more money.

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D, Washington, DC: Frustrated ex-lit student here...

I've tried and tried again to enjoy (or at least appreciate) contemporary fiction writing, but the majority of it leaves me cold. Stylistically and thematically, it seems as though it has all been done before. Most of what I've been exposed to by friends is a chaotic mash of post-modern angst and sorry pop-culture references, (which they ALL seem to love) with little depth to show and few truly original voices. I find myself either retreating to classics (Steinbeck, Kerouac, and so on...) or dipping into non-fiction.

Am I a victim of the times? are there any truly genius writers i'm missing out on?

Help?

Michael Dirda: Well, people do often tend to suggest fashionable books, and these can sometimes have a disturbing sameness beneath the title changes.

Maybe you should just spend more time reading classics--especially those in the 19th century realist tradition. I suspect that Balzac, Dickens, Trollope, Zola, Twain, Cather might very much appeal to you. These books and authors are famous because they continue to have a lot to offer readers while most of the books on our best seller lists will be largely forgotten in a couple of years.

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Washington, DC: Why isn't Christina Stead's "The Man Who Loved Children" considered the Great Washington Novel?

Michael Dirda: Isn't it? Despite Randall Jarrell's enthusiasm for the book, it doesn't seem to be as widely read as it should be.

Henry Adams' Democracy might be the great Washington book.

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Belcamp, Md.: Hello Mr. Dirda,

Have you been following the uproar over John Banville's novel, "The Sea," winning the Man Booker Prize? There is a short summation of it in today's NY Times (sorry, I read several papers in addition to the Post). Apparently, Mr. Banville had a number of less than gracious remarks about the rest of the field when he received his prize. His work, however, was roundly criticized earlier for being pretentious, overly high-brow, and lacking in plot and few other characteristics of most novels. He has also feuded with more than a few critics while savaging some other well-regarded books in reviews of his own, e.g., Ian McEwan's "Saturday." (Although he did say later that Mr. McEwan is a good writer who must have had a bad day.)

Have you read "The Sea" or any other of Mr. Banville's works? What is your opinion of him and his novels? I'll trust your judgement as to whether I should invest the time in "The Sea."

Michael Dirda: Banville appears to be behaving ungraciously. You might try an earlier book first, say The Book of Evidence. He is a good writer, but obviously an ungenerous one. I reviewed Saturday, enjoyed it, and gave it a mixed notice. But I am a notorious soft touch.

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Durham, NC: Dear Mr. Dirda,

At the risk of incurring a further backlash of censorship by even the mere mention of the name of P.G. Wodehouse, I thought I'd advocate on behalf of a more contemporary follower I enjoy. While I know there has been some negative reaction to Lynne Truss's "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves" (from those who don't seem to realize her main purpose is to be entertaining about basic rules of English) might I come to her defense briefly?

While in England I found one of her novels, "Tennyson's Gift", which turned to be a really funny vignette of Tennyson and Julia Margaret Cameron, the Victorian photographer. In the novel Tennyson comes across as a bit of a dreadful boil like Roderick Spode or Sir Watkyn Bassett. Truss's previous novels were sort of attempted Wodehouse, but I think she finally struck the right, light note with "Tennyson's Gift" which makes it worth an afternoon of entertaining escapist literature.

(And it is a LOT more fun than actually reading Tennyson himself.) I am steeling myself now for indignant Tennyson defenders...

Michael Dirda: I didn't even know that Truss wrote novels. So thank you. I'll keep an eye out for Tennyson's Gift.

On the other hand, Tennyson is wonderful to read. LIke John Banville, he might be a bit of an ass at times, but that doesn't make him a bad writer. I daresay you could make a good argument for "Ulysses" being the greatest Victorian poem.

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College Park, Md.: How did you make the jump from academia (and academic writing) to journalism? Did you have a background in journalism? Even though both academics and journalists write about literature, they obviously do it in very different ways.

And, in a related question, do you ever read what academics are writing about literature? I know one of your colleagues in Book World frequently criticizes academics and doesn't (apparently) read them.

Michael Dirda: I real lots of scholarship, but not very much criticism. I've often reviewed the work of intellectual historians, for instance, largely because I like to learn new things that are real.

The Washington Post is the only newspaper I've ever worked on.

Even as a graduate student I always tried to make my papers clear and fun to read. I can't stand rebarbative language or prolixity or useless jargon and won't have anything to do with it, if I can help it. But I did once study the structuralists and post-structuralists (when I lived in France).

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Charlottesville, Va.: Recently (last week possibly) I think you mentioned that you liked Joan Didion's recent essays. I am a big fan of her earlier work, particularly all of Slouching Towards Bethlehem and the great essay "Goodbye to All That", but had thought I had heard that her more recent work wasn't quite up to the same standard. Comments?

Also, can you recommend any other interesting authors in the same vein whose work I might venture into next?

Thanks for all your great work.

Michael Dirda: No, I said I liked the early books most of all, but that the later essays were also first-rate. I've never been interested in the fiction.

At the risk of falling into "P.G. Wodehouse disease," let me recomment Joseph Mitchell's Up in the Old Hotel, the best example of such personal journalism I know.

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Oklahoma City, Okla.: Last week a poster noted his/her negative reaction when encountering people reading junk literature. I confess to a similar stance, especially when I visit a home where the enormous TV and entertainment center sits where the bookshelves ought to be. I used to feel a bit ashamed of this attitude, but then I read "In Defense of Elitism" by the late Time magazine critic William A. Henry. I recommend it to all book snobs as a well-written and reasoned justification for being quite comfortable with having a brain and using it.

Michael Dirda: Thanks. But I'm not a book snob. I just don't think that TV and the internet has as much to offer as do books and libraries and museums and concert halls. It's not so much my gain, as other people's loss that they don't appreciate these things enough.

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Bozeman, Mont.: What is your opinion of Joan Didion's newest book, The Year of Magical Thinking?

Michael Dirda: Haven't read it. I suspect it's very good, but I bristle at books dealing with personal tragedy, no matter how fine. I used to receive self-published chapbooks of poetry or collections of prayers, written by mothers about their dead children, and they would be utterly heartbreaking, not for the poor quality of the writing but for the pain that was clear in every word. But they weren't art, they were therapy.

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Downtown Washington D.C.: What do you think about Anne Rice finding Jesus? Weird, right? Since when do writers of erotica become interested in biblical scholarship? I can't really comment on her vampire books, but I really enjoyed the "servant of the bones", about ancient messopotamia. Could she possibly be playing the "i've dedicated myself to the lord" card as a stunt so she can stop writing a series she's become bored with?

Michael Dirda: She's written all kinds of books. Has she made any comment on her A.N. Roquelaure pornography, eg. The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty?

Perhaps age and death of loved ones has led her to God.

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Maitland, Fla: Anne Carson has a new book out that looks "challenging." Any comment?

Michael Dirda: All Anne Carson's books are challenging and all are worth the effort. I'm particularly fond of Eros, the Bittersweet.

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Seattle, Wash.: Your review of the new translation of Borges' "The Book of Imaginary Beings" reminded me of a problem I frequently face: how to pronounce names. I have read quite a lot of Borges, but don't recall ever hearing his name spoken aloud. My inclination is to pronounce his first name as if it were Spanish, and his last name as if it were French. This may be backwards. On the other hand, I can see no reason why his last name shouldn't rhyme with his first name - providing two more options. Questions: (1) How do you pronounce Jorges Luis Borges? (2) Do you know of a reliable guide to the pronunciation of literary names?

Michael Dirda: Roughly, Whore-hay Loo Eees Bore-hays. But French is my language, not Spanish.

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Boston, Mass.: Michael,

A few weeks ago someone asked what you thought

of Will Durant's Story of Civilization books and you

referred him to your Open Book. Michael Korda

wrote in Another Life about his experiences with the

Durants when he worked for their publisher. Will

was mostly interested in ideas and the fine arts; he

had to be almost forced to write about wars and

battles. And Ariel, whom I always imagined as a

meek and doting wife, nagged Will for years before

he finally agreed to list her as a co-author. Another

Life has a number of interesting stories about

Korda's writer clients.

I have just finished reading Open Book and

particularly enjoyed reading about the books you

read during your Oberlin years. Wanted to rush out

and buy all those books that I haven't read myself,

but I'm too old now (sigh). As you wrote. "As we

grow older, out tastes turn back to the spare, the

classical, and the merely delightful." But I did have

to get on the internet and order Robert Phelps

Literary Life. And I need to find a bilingual version of

Horace's "Diffigure nives", hoping to recall enough

latin grammar to understand why A. E. Housman

regarded it as the most beautiful poem of antiquity.

And then, of course, there's

Michael Dirda: Sorry the rest of your message was cut off.

Yes, the Korda book is full of good stories. Hope you enjoy Robert's book. it should be easy to find Horace--there's a bilignual editoin by DAvid Ferry.

By the way, I know it's not absolutely celar but it's "An Open Book" not just "Open Book"--I was thinking of the phrase "My life is an open book."

And that my friends is enough for today. I have other things to write. But I'm sorry I didn't get to all the questions--so try again next Wednesday at 2. till then keep reading!

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