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

Each week Michael Dirda's name appears -- in attractively large type -- in The Post's Book World section, where he writes about new novels, neglected classics, fat biographies, European literature, fantasy, science fiction, thrillers, poetry, works of scholarship, the occasional children's book, almost anything under the rubric of "arts and letters." Although he earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Cornell, Dirda has somehow managed to retain, well into middle age, a myopic 12-year-old's exuberant passion for reading.

As he has for the past 40 years, Dirda says he still spends inordinate amounts of time mourning his lost youth, listening to music (classical, jazz, oldies, country and western), and daydreaming ("my only real hobby"). He claims that the happiest hours of his week are spent sitting in front of a computer, writing. His most recent books include "Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments" (Indiana hardcover, 2000; Norton paperback, 2003), his self-portrait of the reader as a young man, "An Open Book" (Norton, 2003) and a collection of his essays and reviews titled "Bound to Please" (Norton, 2005) Last year he brought out "Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life" (Henry Holt, 2006) and this fall Harcourt will publish "Classics for Pleasure."

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." Dirda is a member of several literary associations, including the Baker Street Irregulars and The Ghost Story Society. Despite a penchant for quiet and solitude, he enjoys giving talks, teaching, and traveling. People tell him that he can be pretty funny for a guy who usually has his nose in a book.

(He also thinks he can be pretty funny at times...)

An archive of his reviews is available here.

An archive of his discussions is available here.

Dirda was online Wednesday, Feb. 14, at 2 p.m.

A transcript follows.

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Michael Dirda: Welcome to Dirda on Books! Like much of the U.S., we here in D.C. are literally under the weather, ie. schools closed, roads difficult if not impassable. Still, my mother in Lorain, Ohio -- near Cleveland -- says that she is literally snowbound, with heavy winds building up drifts. A friend of mine was supposed to fly to her brother's wedding today, and I wonder if her flight went off or not. Fortunately, my son Chris, who spent the last 10 days driving across country, seems to have missed the snow wherever he was -- St. Louis, Boulder, Las Vegas -- and he is now in sunny San Diego. Another friend in Fort Lauderdale reports weather in the sixties, but she hopes to fly to New York this weekend for the opera and wonders if she'll have trouble.

I, myself, am contentedly ensconced here in Dirda Regis -- its motto not Sans Souci but Sans Espoir, well not really -- reading Casanova's memoirs. What else would one do on a snowy day?

Oh yes. One would look at the questions for this week. Wouldn't one?

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Fairfax, Va.: Good Afternoon Michael,

Thanks for your chats, reviews and your books, they've proved to be quite a wonderful guide for unrealized treasures. I just wanted to let you know that the same publisher that produced the Clark Ashton Smith anthology (Vol 1 of 5), (Nightshade), also published a five-volume anthology of Manly Wade Wellman's stories, as well as a four-volume set of William Hope Hodgson's works, a three-volume set of Lord Dunsany's Collected Jorkens stories and a volume of H.P. Lovecraft's poetical works. They've also collected Karl Edward Wagner's Kane stories in two volumes, one for his short stories and one for his novels. (Wagner has been a favorite of mine for years, though a tragic story of a talented life snuffed out prematurely). Another small press, (Wildside Press) has begun reprinting Robert E. Howard's "Weird Tales" stories in chronological order, I believe they're up to volume five. It's good to know that a few small press publishers are still trying to keep the pulp stories alive.

Thanks.

Michael Dirda: Many thanks. As it happens, I wrote the introduction to one of those Dunsany volumes. Night Shade does very fine work, though I've never quite figured out Wildside. Sometimes they do terrific books -- didn't they publish Avram Davidson? -- and sometimes their books like like print on demand titles, which I really don't care for. But, still, it's good to know that someone is making these stories and lost works available again.

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Oak Park, Ill.: Micheal,

Working on my MFA thesis and have run into a question I could use some help on: Do you know of any works of long fiction (with the exception of possibly "East of Eden") where that use the land as a character within the book?

Michael Dirda: Gee, there are any number of such books, even if we leave out Steinbeck's other books. How about Cather's novels, especially "Death Comes for the Archbishop," which is largely a love letter to the Southwest? Certainly Dartmoor is a brooding presence throughout "The Hound of the Baskervilles." And there are books like "Growth of the Soil" and Zola's "La Terre". . . .

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Arlington, Va.: During last week's discussion, you recommended Thomas Mann's "Joseph and His Brothers" to the poster who was looking for retellings of Biblical stories. I wonder how many people are aware that a new translation of that work (by John Woods) was published last year by Everyman's Library? If my efforts to buy a copy are any indication, the answer must be, almost no one. One major retail chain couldn't get it for me. Another was able to find it, but only through a special order. I suppose Mann doesn't have quite the same cachet as some other premier writers, but here is a major work by a Nobel Prize winner (and the translator is acclaimed, to boot). I don't recall seeing any reviews or publicity of any kind anywhere. Any thoughts on why the absence of fanfare. . . or even of murmurings? Perhaps you'd be willing to take up the mantle. Thanks.

Michael Dirda: Apart from "Death in Venice" and one or two other short stories, Mann's work has fallen out of favor. His books are thought to be long, lugubrious, Teutonic in the worst way. I suppose this is a natural reaction to a guy who did tend to view himself as the representative of Weltliteratur in our time, virtually Goethe Redivivus. Yet "The Magic Mountain" is still wonderful, as is the early family novel "Buddenbrooks." Still, my favorite Mann is the very funny and sexy "Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man." A wonderful book --s tarted when Mann was a young, uh, Mann, and finished decades later as his very last book. And not really finished -- clearly Felix was meant to have more adventures.

As to why you had such trouble finding the Everyman edition -- that's strange. These sets, like Modern Library, tend to be well stocked in bookshops.

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Washington, D.C.: Mr. Dirda,

The last comment in last week's chat, about people forsaking books for their iPods, reminded me of an essay on "The Pleasure of Reading," by the British statesman, Edward Grey. In this essay, written in 1924, Grey enumerates various threats to reading, including: the automobile (unlike the train, one can't drive and read at the same time), the telephone, the wireless and -- my personal favorite -- the "cinematograph." And yet, no small number of books have been written since 1924, some of which have even been worthy of mention in this chat.

Michael Dirda: Yes, you're right, of course. And yet, books were certainly a different order of beast in the Victorian and Edwardian era, when people read aloud to each other in the evening, kept light books in their guest rooms for visitors, devoured the serials in magazines and talked about them afterwards. We still do all these things, of course, and yet the book no longer seems the central axis of our leisure time.

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Oak Park, Ill.: While speaking for small presses, could I put in a word for The Dalkey Archive which has been putting a lot of work into reviving good "Old" literature (obviously also a fan of Flann O'Brien and the Irish, but very far ranging).

Michael Dirda: Sure. Dalkey's focus, however, tends to be less on neglected classics than on neglected contemporary writers of a more or less innovative bent. This is all to the good, but they aren't likely to reprint a semi-forgotten Victorian classic. The closest they come are the works of Aldous Huxley. Note the brilliant introduction to their edition of "Crome Yellow."

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Oak Park, Ill.: I'm afraid my business education and banking background is again painfully obvious. Nothing like a new education after retirement -- thanks.

Michael Dirda: Please, no apologies. I wish I had a business education and a banking background myself -- especially now that I'm putting children through college.

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Beltsville, Md.:

I recently read "Gilgamesh", a self-described verse narrative by Herbert Mason. I found it an interesting and quick read.

Have I read the "Epic of Gilgamesh"? Or do you recommend another version?

Michael Dirda: Not sure. David Ferry brought a superb "version" of Gilgamesh some years back, and Mason's sounds like a variant on this. I've read a couple of editions of "G" over the years and do know that it is so fragmented in places that all a scholarly editor can do is guess at meanings and the order of some events. So I suppose a poet might well smooth over the difficulties to make a better, more readable poem.

I'll know more about this subject in a couple of weeks, since I'll be writing about a study of Gilgamesh. There are, as you probably know, a half dozen different translations out there.

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Alexandria, Va.: To Oak Park, most Wallace Stegner novels include the land as a protagonist. Iven Doig's fine "Bucking the Sun" is about a river as well as the land.

Michael Dirda: Thanks.

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Bethesda, Md.: Hi Mr. Dirda,

I am a student at Walt Whitman HS, and my AP English class is currently examining and discussing commonalities of Baldwin and Ellison's views and concerns on supporting a social agenda through art such as music, literature, etc. Do you have any thoughts on this or any ideas on how we can take our class discussions beyond examining only Baldwin and Ellison?

Thank you!

Michael Dirda: Hmmm. I'm not quite sure what you mean. I'm sure your class is superb, but as a rather plain-speaking journalist I'm always wary of being abstract. What do you mean by commonalities and social agendas and extending beyond?

A story: Back in the late 1960s, Oberlin College, my alma mater, hosted what was called Black Week. There were a number of events, including talks by Ralph Ellison and Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones. Ellison's talk was all about the need for all Americans, of whatever race, to recognize their "commonality"--to use your word -- as Americans before anything else. Baraka essentially called for revolution. Ellison was actually booed; Baraka was applauded. This wasn't unexpected -- Ellison was out of step with the times in his thought, even though "Invisible Man" itself ends with that apocalyptic last chapter in which Ras the Destroyer comes into his own.

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Books that use the land: "Cry the Beloved Country"

Almost anything by Cormac McCarthy

"Lord of the Rings"

"All Things Bright and Beautiful"

Michael Dirda: Yes.

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Texas: Michael,

I started reading "Quo Vadis" recently and find myself comparing it to "I, Claudius" and coming up woefully short. What's your opinion of "Q.V"? Also, what's the right way to pronounce it?

Thanks!

Michael Dirda: "Kwo Vadis" is what I've always said. But there some Latinists go with W sounds for the Vs.

I've never read the book, though it was much honored as a classic when I was a kid. I was later told about a new translation that came out a few years ago that was supposedly truer to the original Polish.

"I, Claudius" is, of course, quite wonderful.

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Silver Spring, Md.: Michael,

I have a literary etiquette question for Valentine's Day. Is it appropriate to give one's paramour the classic "Is Sex Necessary" by E.B. White/James Thurber? If so, and he doesn't find it drop-dead amusing, can this relationship be saved?

Michael Dirda: Anything on Valentine's Day is appropriate, I suppose, that expresses one's affection.

Humor, though, is one of the key elements to a good relationship. Casanova was so successful with women for various reasons, but chief among them was that he was amusing and made them laugh. Seduction articles in men's magazines always stress the importance of a sense of humor as near the top of what a woman is looking for in a guy.

So, if you find the book drop-dead funny, and your paramour doesn't, I would worry a little, yes. But not much. If never laughs at the same things you do, or vice versa, then you could be in trouble.

Of course, he may wonder if the title is some kind of message to him, which might doubtless be worrisome in this day and age. As everyone knows, sex isn't always necessary to great love affairs -- obstacles and barriers are.

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Houston: Remembering that you have spoken and written fondly of Crumley's "The Last Good Kiss" before, I wonder if you might elaborate a bit on why you esteem it so highly? Do you think it's themes are more "important" than those in detective novels? Is it better constructed? Or is it simply a matter of Crumley being a better stylist, sentence by sentence, than many best-selling crime novelists?

Michael Dirda: Well, you've said much of what I might say. But what I particularly like, at least in memory, is the sheer bittersweetness of the book, especially the ending, and the clever twists and revelations that Crumley delivers.

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Ashcroft, BC (BR): Many of Thomas Hardy's novels feature the Wessex landscape as an integral part of the novel. For someone more contemporary, try Ivan Doig (American) or Andrew Greig (Scottish), both of whose works rely heavily on their settings and landscapes.

On another note, I'm currently reading a book about polar exploration, specifically the search for John Franklin and his crew. It's quite good overall, but I've been annoyed to find a number of distracting typos, as well as - somewhat more seriously - at least two errors of fact (which makes me wonder how many errors I've missed). When you're reading non-fiction, how do you react when you come across factual errors? Do you toss the book aside, or carry on more or less carefully, mentally making a note not to trust the author?

Michael Dirda: Yes, Hardy's Wessex does have a brooding presence in much of his work.

As for mistakes in nonfiction -- typos are nothing to be concerned about; they happen. It's been hard to find really great copy editors since there are so few defrocked clergymen around nowadays (the traditional employ of these sad creatures, according to what I've read). Factual errors are more serious, but I am inclined to be forgiving if much else in a book seems right. You are, of course, talking to a guy who somehow has Pythagoras, rather than Archimedes, shouting "Eureka" in his most recent book.

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Houston: I just read "Confederacy of Dunces" for the first time. I know, I know. But better late than never, no? Anyway, it was delightfully absurd. Can you recommend any similar works?

Michael Dirda: I really should review my own list of 100 comic novels in "Readings," since I keep coming back to the same titles when asked for comic fiction.

But let's see: Besides Wodehouse and "Cold Comfort Farm," how about the novels of Charles Portis or Thomas Berger's "Little Big Man"?

My favorite comic novel of all is incredibly absurd, but very British- -a n exposure of religious hypocrisy called "Augustus Carp, Esq, by Himself." The author was a judge named Bashford, who never wrote any other fiction.

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Arlington, Va.: Michael -- As a fellow Obie, I have taken to heart over the years a lot of your recommendations, but my question today is a pedantic one: How come no one (and this goes for a recent New Yorker article, as well as you today) can mention Amiri Baraka without stating his earlier name? This is something that does not happen on the sports page with such stalwart athletes as Kareem Abdul-Jabar and Muhammad Ali.

Michael Dirda: Sorry, I lost my connection there for a while.

I hesitated over giving both names, but in the late 1960s this was pretty much how Baraka was always identified and so I went with the period practice. He used to review for me at Book World and there he was simply Amiri Baraka and nothing else.

Also, I tend to think his best work was done when he was LeRoi Jones.

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Lex Park: Speaking of "Quo Vadis", my Polish grandmother thought it was better than "Ben-Hur. She did say that "Ben Hur" was much better in its Polish translation!

Michael Dirda: Another book I've not read. But I did see the movie -- or at least the chariot race.

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Lenexa, Kan.: Re Gilgamesh: J.M. Roberts in his 10-volume "Illustrated History of the World" had this to say: "Gilgamesh was a real person, ruling at Uruk. He became also the first individual and hero in world literature, appearing in other poems, too. He is the first person whose name must appear in this book."

I thought it an interesting perspective. I also found the Ferry translation very good.

Michael Dirda: I liked and admire the Ferry version too.

I was sorry to leave out "Gilgamesh" from "Classics for Pleasure," since the last edition of "The Lifetime Reading Plan," revised by John Major, included it. I had long thought to start with it. But, as it turns out, my editors thought a thematic rather than chronological approach would be best and so the book now opens with either Sappho or Heraclitus. Can't remember which category I decided to lead off with.

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Adams Morgan, D.C.: Great humorous books? George and Weedon Grossmith's "Diary of a Nobody." Hilarious!

Michael Dirda: Yes. There are a good many such books, and a lot depends on one's taste. Mr. Pooter is well known in Britain, but pretty much unknown in America.

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River City, Va.: I always considered "Handling Sin," by Michael Malone as having that absurd quality similar to "Confederacy of Dunces."

Michael Dirda: Oh yes. Excellent suggestion. I happened to meet Malone at a conference in New Orleans -- appropriately enough -- and he is a very nice guy. I love the fact that a superb novelist spent 10 years overseeing a daytime drama, i.e. soap opera, and is married to the chair of the Duke English department.

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Alexandria, VA: Hello Mr. Dirda,

Perhaps you've already answered this question, but I wonder how you feel about books on CD. My kids have been listening to books on tape/CD since they were toddlers (especially on long car trips) and they love it. I have resisted letting them listen to some of my favorite children's literature because I worry that if they listen first, they won't want to read it. I finally relented and let them listen to "Island of the Blue Dolphins," but now I wonder if they will ever pick up the book...Does it matter?

Many thanks

Michael Dirda: I do like audiobooks and my kids also listened to them, not only on car trips but also at bedtime, each with his own tape player. I will say that Naxos does a great line of classic myths and folk tales, especially the Northern ones, and my kids know more about Ragnarok than Odin does.

I think listening to unabridged tapes counts as reading. Kids aren't studying the books, so they don't need to make notes in the margins. They want to hear the magic of the sentences and this often comes through most vividly when read aloud, or listened to.

So I'd say let them have the audiobooks, but I'd still leave copies of the print versions lying around their room.

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Author's vocabulary: Shakespeare used approximately 25,000 unique words in his writings, the next largest vocabulary was around 12,000 (Milton, I think). Do you think today's authors have much, much smaller vocabularies? I just don't feel as though I'm learning any new words when I read contemporary works, regardless of how good they are.

Michael Dirda: Unless you're a lexicographer, why are you so concerned with learning new words? Yes, it's good to possess an extensive vocabulary, but it's a two-edged sword -- for everyone who thinks you're as smart as William Buckley, there will be others who think you're as supercilious as William Buckley.

There are, however, modern authors who will keep you reaching for your OED --Alexander Theroux, for instance, or the late Anthony Burgess.

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Ashcroft, B.C. (BR):"As everyone knows, sex isn't always necessary to great love affairs--obstacles and barriers are."

Which doubtless explains why so many great books end at the altar: the fun has been watching the lovers overcome the obstacles Fate has strewn in their way. Once it's church bells and (presumably) rumpled bedclothes, we have a sinking feeling that the interesting part is over. Besides, it's often more fun to watch two interesting people demonstrate chemistry and spark off each other verbally than to follow them into the bedroom.

Michael Dirda: Yes. Romance is only possible if the lovers can't immediately hook up, to use the current phrase. See Denis de Rougemont's "Love in the Western World" for the classic exposition of this notion.

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It's been hard to find really great copy editors since there are so few defrocked clergymen around nowadays : Ha!

But the truth is, publishers just don't hire copy editors any more; they've decided they can skip that stage of the process and save a lot of money. This is seen in the newspaper industry as well.

Michael Dirda: Not so. The Post still has copy editors, and I can vouch for Norton, Holt and Harcourt having copy editors. Of course, one might question whether they are of the quality of the unknown giants of days gone by. I suspect that when students stopped taking Latin or learning how to diagram sentences the foundations of good copy-editing skills were lost.

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Lexington: Michael, Have you looked at your colleague's ( Patrick Anderson's ) recent book extolling the literary merit of thrillers and mysteries over more reviewed books? A book of a few years ago, "100 Favorites Mysteries of the Century" also provides some great recommendations.

Michael Dirda: I look forward to reading Patrick's book. I'm a great fan of his weekly thriller/mystery column -- indeed, I was his editor for a couple of years when he first started it.

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D.C. area: Have you reviewed Keith Olbermann's new book (based on his show, Countdown on MSNBC), "The Worst Person in the World"? No, I am not in PR at MSNBC. I was wondering what you make of television personalities writing books.

Michael Dirda: Not that I'm aware of, but I'm not a Book World editor these days, just a columnist, so I'm not up on its deliberations. In general, I don't see any purpose in reviewing most celebrity books -- unless they have genuine merit of some kind. It's a yucky genre.

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Washington, D.C.: Today's weather and day off are causing me to consider finally reading "Winter's Tale" by Mark Helprin (the large book has been sitting on my bookshelf for several years). I was wondering whether you have read the book and, if so, what you thought of it. Once I start a book, I will force myself finish it even if it becomes a chore and takes months to do so.

Michael Dirda: I haven't read it, but have read other Helprin works and he's a very fine writer. From what I've heard, "Winters Tale" is somewhat reminiscent of a book I often extol here, John Crowley's "Little, Big."

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Freising, Germany: Have you ever read "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" or "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" by Douglas Adams? "Kubla Khan" and "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" figure prominently in the plot of "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency".

In order to save the human race, Dirk Gently must travel back in time and have Coleridge change a few of his stanzas in the "Ancient Mariner." He does this by irritating the heck out of him just has he was about to write the verses that would have doomed planet Earth to destruction.

Isn't it amazing how influential poetry can be?

Michael Dirda: I read the original "Hitchhiker's Guide" trilogy, and actually introduced Adams to a huge audience at the University of Maryland. This was very early in the success of the first or second book. Everyone in the audience had come with a towel. For years I kept a Don't Panic button he gave me that night, but then gave it to my youngest kid for some reason and haven't ever seen it since.

But I heard the "Dirk Gently" books weren't very good, so never read them.

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Minneapolis: Hello Michael and all,

Last week Amazon.com sent an e-mail suggesting that I might want to buy "A Sport and a Pastime" by James Salter. I usually hit delete when I receive their solicitations, but having read Salter's story collection, "Last Night," I decided to give it a go. It arrived yesterday and I can barely set it down long enough to tell you how much I am enjoying it. His rhythms are at times like Morse Code, a grocery list, creating a certain starkness. I love his descriptions -- particularly of the weather, the sky and the raw the sex between Anne-Marie and Dean. Perfect Valentine's Day reading, though I fear things will not turn out well for the object of desire in this wonderful novel.

This book has been one of many to interrupt my reading of Proust, and in response to Toronto who wondered should "In Search of Lost Time" be devoured in one gulp, I would say no. But this one by Salter defies being consumed in any other way.

Michael Dirda: Well, as you know from the blurb by me on "Last Night," I'm a great admirer of Salter's work. "A Sport and a Pastime" was the first of his novels I read, and its final paragraph is as heartbreakingly beautiful as any written our time. Of course, you need to come to it after having read the book. It was viewed as virtually pornographic when it first appeared, but as you say Salter's style, his ear for language really, is so perfect that one feels as if every word was carefully chosen and placed in each sentence. He may be the last major writer to be clearly influenced by Hemingway.

This week sounds like "Dirda bragging about people he's known" but Salter and I became friends because of our mutual devotion to a wonderful writer, editor and critic named Robert Phelps. If you know either Salter's memoir "Burning the Days" or my own "An Open Book," you know how we feel about Robert.

I do think, however, that "Light Years" -- Salter's novel about the break up of a marriage -- is a kind of "Tender is the Night" for our time.

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Alexandria, Va.: Love stories -- not only is it snowy here today but many people got to stay home and be with their sweethearts on Valentine's Day. Your writing is always a gift waiting for me in Book World, thanks for years of pleasure. I just finished a fine novel, "The Translation of Dr. Apelles: A Love Story," by David Truer, and I'm writing in to recommend it to you and your readers. In lieu of having a beau myself today, the novel has been a loving companion!

Michael Dirda: Many thanks. Beaux and belles come and go, but books are forever.

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Alexandria, Va.: In the spirit of this week's anti-Valentine Book World, here's a card from Samuel Hoffenstein:

"If you love me, as I love you,

We'll both be friendly and untrue."

Michael Dirda: Cute, sad but cute.

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Descano, Calif.: Lately, I've had the uneasy feeling that not only do you read all the books that you say you do, but that you probably have read many of the ones that you say you haven't. This is not good! Well have I got a book for you. The latest hot seller in Paris by Professor Pierre Bayard, "How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read." This is a masterful tome, full of that delightful French jeu d'esprit, replete with striking bon mots, not to mention that irrepressible Gallic je ne sais quoi. I haven't read it of course, but felt I had to pass it along as a must read for you and fellow Dirda enthusiasts.

Michael Dirda: This does sound like fun, though I fear that American publishing practice may be invading French culture: This sounds like one of those instant books that come out every so often. But I'm sure the Gallic version is probably more than that.

I do tend to be honest about what I've read and what I haven't. Here's a hint: In some reviews I will mention other titles by an author, but if I don't say anything more than their titles, I haven't read them. If I insert a judgmental adjective or a descriptive phrase, then I have.

Reading a lot of books isn't important. Thinking about what you've read is.

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Cleveland: What's a good starting point to acquaint myself with Penelope Fitzgerald? I read a little ways into "The Blue Flower" and it didn't grab me. Should I stick with it? I've been determined to read it since you referenced Fitzgerald in your review of "Gilead."

Michael Dirda: "The Blue Flower" is often regarded as her masterpiece, so if you don't like it, you may not care for Fitzgerald. Still, why not try The Gate of Angels--a wonderful love story, set in Cambridge early in the century, with an M.R. Jamesian ghost story in it? Otherwise, you might search out Fitzgerald's essay collection The Afterlife, for a sense of her as a woman and author.

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Lenexa, Kan.: Having finished Proust two years ago (both read and watched all Naxos CDs) and having read Karen Joy Fowler and all the Austen novels last year as well as "The Tale of Genji," I have set a goal this year to read all of Anita Brookner's novels. The two I've read "Visitors" and "Hotel du Lac" had a grayness, a loneliness or unfulfillment, an enduring, an entropic winding-down that I loved. QUESTION: You often suggest Brookner to readers. How much have you read, and have you dealt with her professionally? Thank you.

Michael Dirda: I've only read a few of her books, and never had occasion to talk to her on the phone or write to her. Your description of her books is pretty spot on.

Maybe you could add Jean Rhys to your year's reading for some comic relief --that's a joke. (Rhys is even grimmer than Brookner.)

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Washington, D.C.: Hello Mr. Dirda:

It seems to me that fiction has become increasingly split into fiction for women and fiction for men. Have you noticed this phenomenon and, if so, who does the best job of bridging the divide? Also, is it my imagination that the word "bones" appears in many titles of poems and books?

Michael Dirda: Hmm. Maybe somewhat. Publishers do like to slot their books as much as possible: Chick-lit. Techno-thriller. That sort of thing. But most serious writers would hope to be read by both sexes.

And I see it's way past my hour, so I'd better stop typing for this week's session of D on B. I'm sorry I didn't get to all the questions. Try again next week. And until then, keep reading! (Note to self: Come up with new sign off.)

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