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! Once more, I've torn myself away from a book review, having been trapped inside again on a beautiful autumn day, my fingers tapping on a keyboard. Tapping very slowly, I might add. Perhaps my pen has gleaned my once teeming brain?

At all events, we'll talk books for the next hour. So let's see what stumpers you've got for me this week.

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Belcamp, Md.: Hello Mr. Dirda,

I am curious to know what is your opinion of the relative value of a signed first edition with a signed bookplate vs. one signed on a flyleaf. In recent months, Daedalus Books has had signed first editions of current books in their catalogs in which the authors have signed a bookplate that is pasted to a flyleaf. For example, their current catalog has available the latest books by Doris Kearns Goodwin, John Berendt and others with such bookplates and at substantial savings off the list prices of the books.

How did they get their stocks of these new releases at reduced prices and signed? They usually deal in remaindered books. Does the fact that these are bookplates detract from the potential value? I enjoy these chats as a highlight of the week, even though I usually must read them later in the day. Thanks for your insights.

Michael Dirda: Signed bookplates are less desirable than signed books. Why? Because in the latter the author has actually held your copy of the book in his or her hands. The bookplates are cranked out by the hundreds. Indeed, presidential signatures on such plates were often mechanically reproduced; every one was exactly alike.

I suppose that Daedalus cut a deal with the publishers to buy enough books and bookplates, so that they received a substantial discount, which they've passed on to customers. But these books aren't ever likely to be of great value.

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Alexandria, Va.: Hi, Michael, thanks for all of your great reviews and comments. I hope you can help me. I've been reading Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series, and have been enthralled with Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin and their adventures. Any suggestions on something just as swashbuckling and literary to fill the void when I finish the series? Thanks!

Michael Dirda: Sure. You can go on to similar swashbuckling series, some being more plot driven, but all very readable:

George MacDonald Fraser, the Flashman novels, of which there are 12. See my review this coming Sunday of Flashman on the March.

Bernard Cornwell, the Sharpe series, about a rifleman in an infantry regiment during the Napoleonic wars.

Dorothy Dunning, The Lymond Chronicles. Swashbuckling adventures across knightly Europe; the first is A Game of Kings.

C.S. Forester, the Hornblower novels. Beat to Quarters is a good starting point.

The work of Rafael Sabatini, especially Captain Blood and Scaramouche.

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Alexandria, Va.: I've just enjoyed Susan Orlean's (old) book "Saturday Night", about what people do on saturday night. Have you read any of her newer collections, like "The Orchid Thief" or "My Kind of Place"?

I learned that rich never have parties on the weekend, that's when they escape from the soirees they attended during the week. Also that most people have a psychological trigger that signals the end of the fun weekend and the start of the dreary work week. Mine is the ticking of the 60 Minutes stopwatch. Do you have one?

Michael Dirda: Haven't read any of Orlean's books.

Hmm. Every Sunday night my wife starts to grow crabby because all the laundry hasn't been folded and put away. That's really the signal that any possible fun is dead for that evening. THis usually happens directly after the Simpsons ends.

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Washington, D.C.: I'm new to this chat, so forgive me if this has been asked many times before, but do you have any travel writing favorites? When vacations are too far off, there's nothing like some escapist reading to help make it through!

Michael Dirda: Lots. Here are five titles of favorite travel books, virtually all by sandy-haired young Brits:

A.W. Kinglake, Eothen (the Middle East in the 1830s)

Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana (Central Asia, where you can't drink from the wells, we learn, because syphilitics like to spit in them)

W.H. Auden and Louis Macneice, Letters from Iceland (amazingly winning blend of poetry--Auden's witty Letter to Lord Byron--and journal entries)

Eric Newby, A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (two misadventurers at large)

Bruce Chatwin, In Patagonia (short poetic chapters on facets of Patagonia life)

All these books are beautifully written, as much works of art as travel narratives.

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Riverdale Park, Md.: Any good suggestions on educational and well-written books on wine or jazz (as separate topics)? I'm looking for historical and/or introductory material to these topics.

And, somewhat off the wall, but for any who have ever had their homes infiltrated by ants, much solace and beauty to be found in Italo Calvino's short story, "The Argentine Ant" (available in English translation in The Watcher & Other Stories), which I just recently read.

Nice review of the Feynman collection last weekend.

Michael Dirda: Thanks. Yes, the Calvino is a wonderful story. Consolation might also be found in the old classic, "Leiningen vs. the Ants," later made into a movie with Charlton Heston.

Wine--You migth start with Dionysus, a collection of essays and stories about wine, compiled by Clifton Fadiman. Wine books are as ubiquitous as Merlot. Andre Simon is a good primer, though out of date for vintages of the last 20 or 30 years.

Jazz--there are good books by LeRoi Jones, Leonard Feather, H. Royall Stokes, and Whitney Balliett. Your best bet, though, for a starter kit is the Smithsonian Guide to Jazz or whatever it's titled. There's also the Ken Burns series, with accompanying discs on individual artists.

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Washington, DC: How is Banville's The Sea? Odd that this year's Booker also had a fictional-kinda-true-story-about-an-author novel in contention that didn't win. I'm thinking, of course, of the pairing of Arthur and George with The Master. Both runners up are superb, I think. I liked the Line of Beauty also, and so am considering going for The Sea.

Michael Dirda: I haven't read The Sea. I think The Master and The Line of Beauty were up for the Booker last year (and Beauty won). I did review both of these and they were superb novels. I'm going to write about Arthur and George in January when it comes out here.

Banville's a good writer, and I doubt you'll go wrong in giving The Sea a try.

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Brainwashington, DC: For the seeker of travel writing, you might like The Villa Ariadne by Dilys Powell, which can be had, I hasten to add, cheaply from the commonreader.com.

Michael Dirda: Oh, many thanks. I remember Dilys Powell as a rather ditzy panelist on My Word.

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Ashcroft, British Columbia: Hello, Michael:

Re:Bookplates.

Susanna Clarke was at the World Fantasy Convention in Madison over the weekend, and was, of course, signing books. Now JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR NORREL is something that I'd never have considered packing all the way from Vancouver to Madison, on weight and space considerations alone, so I was happy enough to get a signed bookplate (specially designed, incidentally, with a JS & MN logo): I reckon she owed me at least that for the time and pain I went through in reading it.

Michael Dirda: Of course, it's meaningful because you were there when she signed the plate, or at least had the thing handed to you by the author herself. But in the marketplace this won't mean much.

By the way, posters, I happen to know that Ashcroft is either Barbara or Christopher Roden, who run the Ash-Tree Press, which specializes in classic ghost stories and supernatural fiction. They won the World Fantasy Award and the Horror writers award for their most recent anthology. Check out the Ash-Tree Press site for more details.

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Swim-Two-Birds: Michael -

A week or two back, a reader wrote in who was diving into poetry for the first time and was looking for suggestions on how to enrich his/her experience. While your advice of simple immersion in poetry itself was good, I wanted to pass along the names of two books that helped me in similar straits. One is John Ciardi's "How Does a Poem Mean?" and the other is Paul Fussell's "Poetic Meter and Poetic Form." Both helped me to unpack what poets are doing and figure out what makes a poem tick, but without being over-analytical and spoiling the fun.

Michael Dirda: Thank you for the good suggestions. There have been recent introductory guides to poetry by British poet James Fenton and American poet Edward Hirsch. You might look for these too.

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Ithaca, NY: Mr. Dirda,

I just received the first volume of poetry in the mail from the Library of America's American Poets Project's "Neglected Masters" series. A slim volume by Samuel Menashe. My wife of course is belittling my waste of money on a sbuscription of books by poets she's never heard of. Unfortunately, I too have never heard of Mr. Menashe. Do you have any kind words on this neglected master or know of any reviews of his poetry that I can casually leave where my wife might find them? Many thanks.

Michael Dirda: I have read about Menashe somewhere, and have read a few of his poems. I think our current chairman of the NEA, Dana Gioia, is an admirer of Menashe and probably has an essay about him, probably the one I can't quite place in my memory.

Wish I could help more. But this sounds like a worthy project. WHy not read the Menashe and share some favorite lines or poems with your wife?

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Alexandria, Va.: Any thoughts on John Fowles' recent passing? I adored The Magus; the first time I read it, I entered a trembling spell and couldn't put it down. Of course, the movie -- which I bought as a DVD -- is a shambles....

Michael Dirda: Any writer's death diminishes us, for we lose a vision of the world that only he or she could share with us. Fowles was certainly a wonderful writer, espeically when young (The Collector, The Magus, The French Lieutenant's Woman), but started to grow more problematic with his later books. I also gather he was a rather unlikeable man. But none of that matters now. Litera scripta manet.

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Poetry Recommendation: Was the poetry book that was dissected in "Dead Poet's Society" a real work?

Michael Dirda: I"ve never seen Dead Poet's Society.

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Re: Swashbuckling: Thank you so much for the recommendations; now I can finish the Master and Commander series with many evenings of adventure to look forward to!

Michael Dirda: You're welcome.

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Wheaton, Md.: You often talk about books that you love in your discussions. Are there books that for whatever reason you despise?

Michael Dirda: Despise? Well, I think there are meretricious books, books only written to make a buck. This usually includes about half the best seller list. I think most nonfiction best sellers are utterly ephemeral--I mean, really, in a couple of years Bill Clinton's memoirs will be read as often as RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon. THen there's diet books. Self-help books. Jumped-up magazine articles from the New Yorker. THe novels of Judith Krantz. Anything regarded as snarky, edgy, on the cutting edge, hip.

Oh, these have their place, I suppose. But I prefer seriously experimental fiction, heartfelt Harlequin romances, books where real scholars present the work of half a lifetime.

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Alexandria, Va: What's the best fantasy book you've read since Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susannah Clarke?

Michael Dirda: I didn't like the Clarke very much, if you remember my review. I liked its footnotes and pastiches of period prose, but thought the book overlong, earnest and unsexy.

That said, most of the fantasy I've read recently tends to be that by old masters--Sheridan Le Fanu, H.P. Lovecraft, Lord Dunsany, M.R. James. Each is different from the other; all are masters.

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Derwood, Md.: Michael, I look forward to your discussions every Wednesday which, by the way, I print out and read on the Metro. I do not remember any recent mention of my favorite author, Paul Theroux. Do you consider him to be among the top current literary authors? How do you think his travel writing has influenced his fiction reputation? And did he burn a lot of bridges with "Sir Vidia's Shadow"?

Michael Dirda: Paul Theroux continues to write, and even to write well at times, but his career--a very well tended career for many years--seems to have gone off course. He remarried, moved to Hawaii, and seems to have lost the wide excitement his new books used to generate. The Great Railway Bazaar was a charming book, but not that charming in my view. And later travel books grew somewhat sour.

That said, the man in person has amazing charisma. You can understand why so many women seemed to have fallen into bed with him.

I don't think Sir Vidia's Shadow did its author any good; it made both men sound all too petty, self-centered and mean spirited.

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Minnetonka, Minn.: Michael, Will you comment about book illustrations. Words alone or words plus pictures. Many great authors are linked with their first illustrators. Do you have any favorites?

Michael Dirda: Some illustrators are obviously linked with certain books: Tenniel with Carroll, most famously. In some instances, this is almost too bad, as later artists can never compete: I mean, Mervyn Peake's Alice pictures or Peter Newell's are just as good, in their differing ways.

As a boy, I enjoyed looking at the Wyeth pictures in adventure classics--my youngest son's room has two posters from those books: Robin Hood and Treasure Island. But sometimes I worry that an artist's images will subtly diminish the author's prose. I recall seeing pictures for an edition of Jane Austen--Heritage Press maybe--in which I felt the wispy, overly feminine pictures undercut the razor wit of Jane Austen, those sentences that slice a character in two without leaving a mark. I wanted a sharper, darker artist.

Oh but there are so many variatoins. It makes sense to read VAnity Fair in an edition with THackeray's pictures. And Sherlock Holmes needs Paget and even better, Frederic Dorr Steele.

I guess the only real answer is: Illustrated books need to be illustrated by artists comparable in quality to the books' authors.

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Bulgakov: Mr. Dirda - what do you think of Bulgakov? I married a Russian man and he is getting me interested - I've read the Master and Margarita, The Fatal Eggs, and A Dog's Heart, and I have loved them all. Just wondering what your opinion on him is, and also, can you recommend any similar writers? Thanks and love the chats!!

Michael Dirda: I love Mikhail B too. You might enjoy my essay on his work in Bound to Please. You're in luck too, since much of his work has been translated and there are a couple of good biographical books about him.

As for similar writers: You might go back to one of his masters, Gogol (try Dead Souls), or his contemporary, Eugene Zamyatin, author of We (a model for Brave New World and 1984). There's also a relatively common book of Soviet satirical stories; I can't quite remember the editor.

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Wine stuff: Michael, I wholeheartedly endorse anything written by Jancis Robinson or the husband-and-wife team from the Wall Street Journal, Brechner and Gaiter. Cogent and clear while also enthusiastic, and not at all snobby writing.

Michael Dirda: Many thanks.

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Washington, DC: Hi Michael,

Rome seems to be on my mind a lot these days, a result i suppose of the series on television and the memories of a year ago when I visited the city. We explored the coliseum and overheard some of the tour guide commentary on the games and bloody events which were staged within those walls.

Several weeks ago on this forum Greek and Roman chroniclers were mentioned but I would like to ask if you or readers can recommend something specific to the history of the coliseum and its performances.

Thanks

Michael Dirda: There is a history of the Colisuem titled Arena--I don't knwo the author.

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Loughborough, UK: After she released Carnivore Diet I picked up Julia Slavin's 'The Woman who cut off her leg at the Maidstone Club' and found that while the stories were as imaginative as advertised they seemed to be extreme just for the sake of being so; there was nothing that grounded them. It seems to me that anyone could think up a crazy incident but very few can then tie it to a reality. Did you feel the same about her stories? and could you reccomend someone with as volatile an imagination but who is perhaps a better storyteller.

Michael Dirda: Don't know this work at all. Should I? She sounds intriguing.

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Ashcroft, B.C.: Attended an interesting literary event over the last weekend, and wanted to share three comments, overheard about books and reading and writing, with you and your readers:

On being asked what the distinction is between reviewing and criticism, a reviewer replied: 'Criticism never has spoiler warnings.'

On praise from readers, Peter Straub commented: 'When someone tells you "You're one of my favourite writers", never ask who the others are. It's always John Norman, never Henry James.'

On being asked who, precisely, is a writer of fantasy (and, by extension, what works fall under the heading fantasy), Neil Gaiman has said 'Anyone who makes stuff up.' (Which is a nice rebuttal for all those people who insist on pigeonholing fiction, and then get rather snobbish, based on their pigeonholing, about what is and isn't 'literature'.)

The participants in a panel on reviews and criticism were asked if they had ever changed their mind about a book they had reviewed, bearing in mind that they were writing to a deadline and did not have a chance to read the book more than once before they had to review it. Have you ever felt inclined to go back and re-evaluate a book once you've had a chance to read it again?

Michael Dirda: Lovely comments. With regard to the Straub comment, Robert Musil made one very similar; see Elias Canetti's early memoirs.

For the most part, I've never changed my mind about a book, if only because I reread so few. But I suspect that most of my judgments would go slightly down rather than up, if only because there are so few books of our time that I really even think about rereading in my sunset years. The classics are classics for a reason. We want to reread them.

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Ocala, Fla: I just finished re-reading O'Brien's Aubry/Maturin series from start to finish followed by C.S. Forester's Hornblower. Whew!

I love them both and think there's probably a good essay that could be written comparing the two: Has it been written? Do you have a favorite?

Michael Dirda: I'm sure people have commented, probaby at length, on the two naval heros and their adventures, but I can't tell you where or whom.

I prefer Patrick O'Brian.

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Chapel Hill, NC: Hope you had a happy birthday, Michael! Today I'd like to

recommend a book to the poster from Barrington, RI. It is

The man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan

by Robert Kanigel. I have a weakness for scientific biography

and was utterly captivated from page one.

Michael Dirda: Yes, I"ve read that book too, and it is quite wonderful. You might read the delightful companion, of sorts, to this: G.H. Hardy's A Mathematician's Apology. He was, as you know, the man who welcomed Ramanujan to Britain.

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NYC book reader: Hi Michael,

I belong to a "gay" book reading group. Our next selection consists of two smaller books by Christopher Isherwood: "A Single Man" and "Prater Violet." While I've read his "Berlin Stories," I'm not all that familiar with his later works.Are you familiar with Isherwood? Is he still regarded as a major writer?

Thanks.

Michael Dirda: I don't think Isherwood's fiction--aside from the Berlin Stories--is widely read any more. Much of his fiction, e.g. A Single Man, touches rather obliquely for modern tastes on his homosexuality. This isn't the case for his memoirs, starting with Christopher and His Kind, and these books will, I think, live, if only as a form of the higher gossip.

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Arlington, Va.: I've always had a fascination with Sherlock Holmes mysteries. As a result, I've listened to many stories while driving on long trips. Do you have any specific audio brands/collections to recommend? Also, what would you recommend to someone looking to actually read some Holmes for the first time? Thanks...

Michael Dirda: Well, it's easy to find any number of Sherlock Holmes collections. I'd suggest reading a good plain-text version first, ie. pick up a paperback "best of" or the old Christopher Morley complete SH, or, most handsome of all, the three volumes in the Heritage Press edition containing the complete works. Once you've enjoyed the stories on their own, you should go on to the several annoted versions: I like The Oxford Sherlock Holmes because it deals with historical and biographical facts, but Leslie Klinger's recent three volume New ANnotated SH is a lot of fun because of all the illustrations and the fanciful "scholarship" characteristic of the Baker Street Irregulars in which critics pretend that SH really lived.

I don't have any favorite audios, though there are classic radio versions with Rathbone and contemporary unabridged readings through audio lines like Naxos.

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Laurel Park, NC: Dear Michael:

Back in 1959 I acquired the Scott Moncrieff translation of "Rememberance of Things Past". never had the time to get into it. Now that I've retired I'm ready to crack it. Trouble is that there have been revisions,viz. Kilmartin, Enright, and now Lydia Davis. So,which do I go with? Is the original Moncrieff still of value? Also, how does one approach this daunting work to achieve a good reading of it?

Michael Dirda: The Moncrieff is still good, though the Kilmartin/ENright is slightly better. There's no consensus on the Davis and other translators of the new version, not available in its entirety in this country.

I'd just plunge in and read. Or you might check out my essay on Proust in Bound to Please, where I recommend the Naxos audiobook as a good way into the text.

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Market Blandings: Mr Dirda,

With advance apologies, a flurry of questions: (1) Have you read any of James Lees-Milne's diaries? If so, what do you think. If not, do; they are delicious. (2) What did you think of Julian Barnes's Arthur & George? I know it's only out in the British and Canadian versions so far, but for reasons to do with the design, the British is the one most worth reading. That's an exception which leads me to (3) Why are British books so often poorly made? The paper quality and binding generally unable to sustain the wear from even a gentle reading. Finally, (4) Do you know where one can get hold of books published in England but not in the US? I know of Amazon.co.uk, etc. but the cost is often prohibitive. What if one wanted, as I do, a copy of Philip Larkin's early poems and juvenalia (recently released by Faber but by no one in the US) but not badly enough to pay through the nose to have it sent from the UK? I look forward to your responses. And thanks for the discussions!

Michael Dirda: WHew! THis will have to be our last question for the day, people, as I see the hour is advanced and I need to go pick up No. 3 son from school.

Yes, I've read James Lee Milne's diaries (and autobiographies too) and they are delicious, reminiscent of the even more wonderful--in my view--Lyttelton/Hart Davis Letters.

I asked a friend to buy me the British edition of the Barnes, and so will probably read that rather than the American proofs.

Some English books are better made than American books--e.g. the old Faber editions of Pound, Auden, Eliot are all exceptionally handsome and durable. But then others really fall down. I don't know why.

I don't know of any way to order British books except through amazon.uk, through friends visiting the country, or directly from the publishers. Clearly, American publishers don't want this process to be too easy.

Perhaps you might ask this question of your local bookseller. I'd be interested to learn if there is a good and inexpensive way to manage to acquire British books.

Okay, folks. That's all for today. Till next Wednesday at 2, keep reading! Oh yes, sorry I didn't get to all the questions.

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