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Dirda on Books
Hosted by Michael Dirda
Washington Post Book World Senior Editor
Thursday, July 12, 2001; 2 p.m. EDT
Washington Post Book World Senior Editor Michael Dirda takes your questions and comments concerning literature, books and the joys of reading.
Dirda's name appears weekly in The Post's Book World section. If he's not reviewing a fat literary biography or an ambitious new novel, he's likely to be writing a lighthearted essay about the joys and burdens of living in a house filled with way too many books. Although he holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Cornell, Dirda is still smart enough to be an unabashed fan of "The Simpsons," noting that "the show's genius derives from its details." He also loves P.G. Wodehouse, intellectual history, children's books and locked-room mysteries just the sort of range you'd expect from a Pulitzer Prize winner for distinguished criticism.
These days, Dirda says he spends inordinate amounts of time mourning his lost youth and daydreaming ("my only real pastime"). Otherwise he just reads books and writes about them, with occasional visits to secondhand bookstores in search of treasures. He claims that the happiest hours of his week are spent sitting in front of a computer working on his reviews and Readings columns. "Do not imagine that I regard my taste for literary artifacts as anything but shameless and vulgar," Dirda says, "I have sunk so low as to covet Edward Gorey coffee mugs. I yearn for a bust of Dante to place on a bookcase."
The transcript follows.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control
over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
Michael Dirda: Welcome to Dirda on Books! It's summer time and the reading is easy--or is it? I've read a number of really terrific books lately--Ferdinand Mount's Fairness; a reissue of Darcy O'Brien's A Way of Life, Like Any Other; The Selected Prose of Fernando Pessoa--and they've taken my mind off the worries and indecisions that plague most of us in life. (Sigh, I do wish I were back in Florida, where I spent the happiest times of my recent life. Oh well: Who knows?)Anyway, you'll be seeing reviews of most of these books sooner or later. As for today, we'll be doing the usual: Answering your questions about books, reading, reviewing etc. So on with the show!
Cambridge, Mass.:
Mr. Dirda,
RE: Adventure Books for Kids
With the success of "Shrek" at the box office this summer, why not revisit the great works of the man who created the pre-Dreamworks green ogre: William Steig? For the very young, "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble" is wonderful (and you could use it to convince the kids to sit still and pretend they're a rock for hours!). For the slightly older, try Steig's "Dominic," a book I deem profoundly wise as well as a lot of fun (kids will love using Dominic's technique of putting on different hats to face varied obstacles). "Abel's Island" is great too! STEIG RULES!
Michael Dirda: I love Steig--and as children's reviewer/editor here at the Post I must have written about a half dozen of his books, at least, including Shrek. My favorite remains Brave Irene, though nearly any of them is worth reading. Steig must be in nineties--Joseph MItchell had a piece about him in My Ears are Bent which orignally came out in 1938.
South Riding, Va.:
Mr. Dirda,
I'm planning to read and study the classic works of literature (e.g., Homer, Milton, Shakespeare), to enjoy them, and learn from and about them (I missed far too many of them in school!). Two questions:
1. For hardcover editions of the classics, any opinion on the merits of the Great Books of the Western World set published by Britannica (many important works, not too expensive for what you get, but big encyclopedia-like volumes) versus series such as Everyman's Library (nice bindings and paper, easy-to-hold sizes, not-too-small type, not prohibitively expensive but will end up costing more than GBWW)?
2. What do you think about writing in the margins of classics? Although some abhor doing so (sullying great works of literature), I think it makes sense (a la the recently deceased Mortimer J. Adler): the writing helps you read more actively, and what books could better reward and justify that effort?
Thanks!
Michael Dirda: As a kid, I talked my parents into buying the Great Books of the WEstern World by promising to win an essay contest they sponsored that would more than pay for the books. My parents gulped, shelled out $375, and I duly won $500. So I shouldn't badmouth the Great Books. That said, I do think it's more fun to buy books individually and many of the classics can be had in fine editions from used bookstores. Books just look better when they're not uniform.
I also think you should mark up your books as much as you can. An intellectual is someone who can't read a book without a pencil in his or her hand. Have you read Adler's wondeful old essay on how to mark a book? The only drawback to doing this is that you will destroy the book's resale value by making it so utterly your own. But unless you're dealing with a rare first that shouldn't be a consideration.
Good luck on your reading. As I once wrote about my own discovery of such classics, Here Begins the Great Game! Quoting Kipling's Kim, of course.
Fairfax, Va.:
I am a big fan of John Irving, and can't wait to get my hands on his newest book, The Fourth Hand. I've been disappointed, however, at some of the reviews for his other books, specifically A Prayer for Owen Meany, where reviewers often refer to the story as "simple" or "superficial." I felt this book was hugely important, but now feel that perhaps I read too much into it. What is your opinion?
Michael Dirda: I haven't kept up with IRving since Garp, so I can't say. I do know that it was said that one of his books borrowed heavily from Robertson Davies's Fifth Business. But Irving acknowledged Davies influence and his own admiration for him as a writer.
Plano, Tex.:
Is it common practice for major bookstore chains not to carry best selling books?
I tried to find the either of the books
"The Betrayal of America..." by V. Bubliosi
which is #1 on New York Times paper back non-fiction list at local bookstores and they don't have it.
The same was true of "Supreme Injustice.."
by Dershowitz which is rising rapidly on
the New York Times hardcover list.
I found both at an online store.
The presence of these books on the New York Times list proves that they are selling well, and there was certainly no shortage of conservative books at the national chain in question despite the fact none of them are in the top 100 best sellers.
Is this suppression of a best selling book common among national chains?
Michael Dirda: Most bookstores are happy to sell any book that will make money. I don't the Bubliosi book--could it be self- published or an e-book or something anomalous like that? Bookstores don't usually stock that sort of thing. I'm sure you'll be able to find Dershowitz at most malls.
Gaithersburg:
Michael,
Taking your suggestion of about a year ago, I've become a terrific fan of Lawrence Block. I particularly enjoy his frequent observations about living in New York City, being myself a frequent visitor to that city. I wonder, is there anyone similar who writes novels set among the permanent population of D.C. (not the temporarily resident politicians).
Michael Dirda: George Pelecanos--but his Washington is the gritty Washington that many bureaucratic types never see. Try King Suckerman or his latest Right as Rain. Other local authors who write about DC: Edward P. Jones, Marita Golden, E. Ethelbert Miller.
Arlington, Va.:
Have been reading a book which purports to contain the complete stories of Sherlock Holmes as they originally appeared in the Strand magazine. It contains the Hound of the Baskervilles but not the Sign of Four. What is special about the latter? Should it not have been included?
Michael Dirda: I believe The Sign of Four appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual. That would explain its nonappearance in a Strand based reissue. ONce, many years ago in London, I happen to buy for a pound apiece two bound volumes of The Strand containing the first six Adventures. Truth it, I could do with a binge of Holmes--nothing more restful unless it be Wodehouse, John Dickson Carr or Rex Stout.
Fairfax, Va.:
Hi there.
I'm currently reading "A Short History of Byzantium" by John Julius Norwich. Great read. This is a scaled-down version of an original 1200pg, 3 volume work.
Not sure if you're familiar with this work. If you are, once I am finished with the "short" version, is it worthwhile taking on the much larger 3 volume work?
Michael Dirda: Norwich is an agreeable writer and well worth reading, but Byzantinists have felt that his history is overly anecdotal and sensational. Of course, that makes it all the more engaging for the common reader. There's a good book on Constantinople by a guy named Mansel. And I can't quite remember the history published by Toronto that is good. Did you know that NOrwich is the son of Duff and Diana Cooper, a famous diplomat and an even more famous beauty?
Woodbridge, Va.:
Michael--Re last week's topic of literature and food: I am a fan of mystery novels and enjoy identifying with the detective, living vicariously a more adventurous life for a few hours (there's a Michael Dirda quote about this that I have been trying to remember but can't -- something that somehow contrasts the linear progression of our lives with the grid of possibilities presented in literature -- do you remember what I am talking about?)
Anyway, for a foodaholic like me, the smell and flavor of food is easily recalled and imagined, and descriptions of the heroine eating or drinking vividly create for me the details of her daily life. Mystery authors seem to like to sit their detectives down at a table somewhere and have her think about or discuss the case while eating or drinking. Authors seem obsessed with coffee; the majority of detective according to my mystery books spend quite a bit of time drinking coffee. Sometimes this creates atmosphere, though: Tony Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn meeting someone for a breakfast of coffee and eggs in an isolated roadside restaurant in high desert rugged country -- can't you imagine yourself there? Or Grafton's Kinsey Milhone sharing homemade cinnamon rolls with her elderly landlord, or eating Hungarian food in her favorite local restaurant. Or how about Cornwall's Dr. Kay Scarpetta coming home from her job at the morgue examining corpses and cooking a gourmet Italian dinner for herself and her niece -- this cozy domestic safe-seeming scene heightening the tension for readers like me who know what danger lurks for her outside her fragrant kitchen.
Have you noticed that those "hard-boiled" heroes, Sam Spade and Philip Marlow, always seem to be eating coffee and eggs when not gulping down shots of whiskey? Here it is the contrast between the 30s and today that is so interesting -- such a limited menu is described.
But then, I like reading about the weather, too. Same reason -- has to do with that quote of yours that I can't remember -- through novels I can experience more thunderstorms, rainbows, snow than I will ever see in real life.
Michael Dirda: "The really great tragedy in life is that we are linear beings in a hypertext world, and we only get to play the game once. Robert Frost observed that "two roads divergedin a yellow wood," and he was sorry that he couldn't travel both. In fact, life is chockablock with intersections, and there are myriad roads we'd like to go down and can't. . . . Life is made of choices. Yet people, alas, are made of yearnings. Most of them unfulfilled.
"Yet through books we can augment our inherently limited selves, explore that achy solitude we all carry around within us. . . ."
From "Millennial Readings"--the last essay in my book Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments (Indiana UP).
Lenexa, Kans.:
My understanding is that Vincent Bugliosi's book isn't out yet but it is available in seminal form as an article in The Nation. I believe he's a former dep. dist attorney of LA. I loved the excerpt I saw of his article.
To the Irving enthusiast, I certainly share your high opinion of A Prayer for Owen Meany and of the film Simon Birch. Both are genuine tearjerkers of the first magnitude.
Michael Dirda: Ah, Bugliosi--him I know. I'm sure the book will be in the shops. Thanks, Lenexa.
Washington, D.C.:
Have you read Delillo's "The Body Artist?" It seems to be getting good reviews, but I don't know why. I had a hard time getting through it. I'm not a Delillo fanatic so it didn't really bother me that he abandoned his normal prose style, but I'm not sure what he accomplished in doing so. The main character is incredibly uninteresting. I suppose he does a good job of representing fragmented conversation and thought on paper, but for how long is that engaging?
Michael Dirda: Didn't read it. Do love Underworld, however. Read that.
Re: Novels set in D.C.:
There's a new one out, "Dupont Circle," by Paul Kafka-Gibbons.
Michael Dirda: thanks
New York City:
Good afternoon, Mr. Dirda.
Have you ever read any of the "Soldier" books by Gene Wolfe? I just finished reading "Soldier Of Arete" for the second time and love it more and more. What an evocation of ancient Greece! Not as good as the "Sun" books, perhaps, but VERY close. Any thoughts?
Michael Dirda: I'm ashamed to say, as a Wolfe fan, that I haven't read the two Soldier books--should have. But then there are a lot of things I should have done. I"m pleased to have confirmed their excellence. Certainly the New Sun is a masterpiece.
Lenexa, Kans.:
Mr. Dirda,
Enjoyed recent McCullough "Writing Life." Always look forward to them. Favorite was a photo of a shirt-less 12-year-old E.O. Wilson hunting down bugs in his backyard. Also, the good-humored niche-writer (B. Mertz) telling Arana, "Honey, I wouldn't have the audacity to write about angst."
QUESTION: Can't remember. Did Marie Arana instigate The Writing Life? Have they all been by invitation or have some volunteers been honored? Thanks.
Michael Dirda: The Writing Life is Marie's baby, though I'm not sure she had the original idea for the series. It looks as though there will be a book collecting the best of them. IN the past we have run various essays like Writing Lives, some of which may have come to us over the transom. Some years back I oversaw a series called A Child's Reading in BLANK--the blank being various countries. So Alberto Manguel wrote about reading in Argentina, Shashi Tharoor about India, Cathy Young about Russia, etc. etc.
North Tonawanda, N.Y.:
Along with Doyle, Carr, Wodehouse, and stout I'd add Wilkie Collins. More and more of his work is appearing in paperback--some from Dover, the rest from Penguin. Most readers only know "The Woman in White" and "The Moonstone" but Collins wrote some dandy mysteries that deserve to be rediscovered.
Michael Dirda: Yes, indeed. No Name in particular. Some of the Dover reprints are hard to read because they photocopy old editoins.
Alexandria, Va.:
Hi, love the chats. I am going on vacation in a week or two, and along with the new mysteries I've been saving from Elizabeth George and Janet Evanovich, I'm looking for a not too deep non-fiction option. In past summers I've read Into Thin Air, Isaac's Storm, Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea, etc. I was considering the book about the racehorse - Seabiscuit. Any recommendations out there? Thank you in advance.
Michael Dirda: Seabiscuit has done real well. Did you see the piece I wrote about summer nonfiction a few weeks back? Probably not. Have you read Joseph Mitchell? Try McSorley's Wonderful Saloon. Or Alfred Lansing's great book about Shackleton, Endurance? Or the recent best seller The Professor and the Madman, by SImon Winchester, about the Oxford English Dicitonary?
Milwaukee, Wis.:
This summer my wife is refurnishing
our home; we're always in furniture
stores, and I'm becoming obsessed with
the books that are on display in the
'showrooms.' Apparently, the books are
chosen for their appearance.
Yesterday I saw the following on
a bookshelf in a display window
at Kunzelmann-Esser's in Milwaukee:
Out of Africa (Modern Library) Isak Dinesen
The History of the Bee (three volumes)
The Bride: Wedding Dress Fabrics.
I'm now unable to resist checking
every title. Has anyone else noticed
quirky displays of books?
Michael Dirda: I once wrote briefly about this. My wife used to drag me to furnitute stores and I always check out the display books. In fact, I frequently either swipe or pay a nominal sum for something that catches my eye, such as a first edition of The Last Picture Show. Remember the book collector's motto: Anything can be anywhere.
New York, N.Y.:
You have often mentioned PG Wodehouse in these chats -- could you recommend your top two or three titles?
Michael Dirda: Leave it to Psmith and The Mating Game and The Code of the Woosters for novels. ANy good collection of stories.
Bethesda, Md.:
Mr. Dirda, Did you read the essay "A Reader's Manifesto" by B.R. Myers in this month's Atlantic magazine? For those who haven't read it, Myers charges that today's widely-admired literary styles are too fussy and repetitive, chock-full of flashy effects and mixed metaphors. His thesis is that as the average reader becomes less literate, he is more impressed by visual pyrotechnics than by the spare style of earlier greats (scorned today as "workmanlike" prose). I'm not sure I agree with all Myers' criticisms, but they are intriguing. What did you think?
Michael Dirda: Didn't read it, probably won't. I don't agree with the premise at all. The world is filled with all kinds of writers and all kinds of books. I strongly believe in experimental writing, writing that fails, writing that isn't popular, even writing that is hard to read. But there has to be a payoff and I think Proulx, McCarthy et al. deliver that. Not that clear engaging prose and fast-moving easy stories aren't to be commended--witness my enthusiasm for Wodehouse, Carr and other popular writers. THis is a large subject, htough, and I would have written about it, had my colleague Jon Yardley not already done so--even though he is of precisely the opposite opinion from mine.
North:
Y'all might hate this idea; feel free to ignore it.
With the All Star Game having given us all such a thrill, I was wondering if everyone might like to offer up som of their favorite baseball books. My personal choices would be:
Robert Creamer, Babe (Ruth biography - wonderful detailed and accurate, written through a skeptic's eye but carried by Ruth's genuine magnificence)
Roger Kahn, The Boys of Summer
David Halberstam, Summer of '49
Rob Neyer & Eddie Epstein, Baseball Dynasties
Jim Bouton, Ball Four
Just a few off the top of my head... that's probably too pedestrian for this discussion, but I'll submit anyway.
Michael Dirda: Baseball books--you left off the greatest: Sisler on Baseball. Taught me all I know about the game.
Chevy Chase:
Hi...
After seeing your recommendations over the past couple of months for Jack Vance, I picked up a 4 in 1 volume of the Dying Earth books. I'm a huge sf and fantasy fan, and was looking forward to reading someone I hadn't encountered before.
I'm having a really hard time with his writing. The phrase "turgid prose" comes to mind. Can you tell me what it is about these books that I'm missing? I just finished The Dying Earth, and am 30 pages or so into The Eyes of the Overworld. Does it get better?
Michael Dirda: No, it doesn't. You simply don't like Vance's way of telling a story. He writes a formal, ironic diction and there are plentyh of people who don't like it. ON the other hand, there are those--like me--who find it wonderfullyh delicious and witty. De gustibus. I'm glad you gave him a chance though. Eyes, by the way, is funny--Earth wasn't particularly.
Milwaukee, Wis.:
re: Sherlock Holmes questions
Beeton's Christmas issue 1887
published first Holmes novel, A Study
in Scarlet; Sign of Four was
published as a book, not in Strand
or Beeton's. The Strand began
publishing ACD's short stories
with the 12 in The Adventures
and the 12 in The Memoirs.
Michael Dirda: Of course, you're right. Memory failed me. Thanks for the correction.
Brooklyn, N.Y.:
I know I'm late, but by favorite aphorism and one I can really relate to is:
"Misfortunes one can endure, they are accidents, they came from the outside. But to suffer from one's own failings -- That is the sting of life."
Michael Dirda: I like that. Who said it?
Hartford, Conn.:
What is your opinion of Miller's "Canticle for Leibowitz?" A friend said it was good but that it seemed dated since the nuclear holocaust described in the novel is supposed to take place in the 1960's. What happens to "old" Sci-fi when it clearly becomes outdated?
Michael Dirda: Ignore the dates. Nobody stopped reading 1984 in 1985. Canticle is one of the great novels of sf, and a great novel period. Did you know that Walker Percy was a great admirer of the book?
Lenexa, Kans.:
Never forgot a business trip to Chicago when I first encountered Bernice's Ford in Housekeeping at the Studebaker movie theatre -- rushed home to read a copy of the Marilynne Robinson novel. Glad to see it's a favorite of yours. I wonder if she'll be like Harper Lee -- the "one novel" writer of a single great favorite of mine? Thanks much.
Michael Dirda: thanks. It sure seems like that might be the case. Darcy O'BRien, whose book A Way of Life, LIke Any other I mentioned at the beginning of the chat, turned out to be a one novel guy (though he wrote other books).
RE: Furniture book displays:
SWIPE?!? Wow! Who'd a thunk it with those glasses and that bookworm brain of yours?
Michael Dirda: Yes, but isn't that the way of master criminals? No one would suspect mild-mannered me. In fact, I have more sins and crimes on my soul than you would believe.
Aphorisms:
"Poetry is not a good thing, unless it's about sports or unless you can somehow use it to get yourself laid."
"Life is funny, unless you get hit by a truck. It can still be funny, unless the truck stops and backs up to see what it hit and runs over you again. I suppose it can still be funny at that point, unless the truck driver realizes what he hit, panics, and leaves you to die on the street. That's really not funny and I know because this happened to me in 1980 and it just about ruined me. Although, looking back, there is something amusing about that sequence
"
-Scribbly Tate
Michael Dirda: Nice. Are there any particular poems you recommend? I must have memorized the wrong ones.
Cambridge, Mass.:
RE: Baseball books
Some of the best:
"Sandlot Seasons" by Rob Ruck
"A. G. Spalding and the Rise of Baseball" by Peter Levine
"To Every Thing a Season" by Bruce Kuklick
"Baseball's Great Experiment : Jackie Robinson and His Legacy" by Jules Tygiel
"Baseball : A History of America's Game" by Benjamin G. Rader
Michael Dirda: Yes, especially the Tygiel. Greetings, Jules! Wherever you are. Also, the essays of Richard Crepeau. Hi, Dick! Wish I were in ORlando! This chat may be growing overly personal.
Chevy Chase, Md.:
For exciting non-fiction, I highly recommend Rising Tide by John Barry. It was written within the past three years or so. Story of why the Mississippi River floods each year. Details like these abound: Black families threatened by the 1927 flood volunteered to help tend the levees but whites with shot-guns told them, "You damn right you gonna help us!" These sharecroppers were used ON TOP of the levees to stop the overflow!
Also check out travelogues like Graham Greene's travels in Mexico as he observes cockfights "Today, death is a rooster ..."
Michael Dirda: Yes, good book. Death definitely is a rooster. No doubt about it.
Spring Valley, Calif.:
Michael, in an interview on C-SPAN with Laura Bush on the subject of books and reading, she confessed that she reads Book World and often tears out a page to remind herself to obtain a particular book. An author she mentioned, Southwest's Dagoberto Gilb (Woodcuts of Women), I must confess surprised me a bit.
Michael Dirda: We reviewed that as a daily. Carolyn SEe. Pretty hot stuff for Laura. You know, I've been writing for 23 years, am pretty popular here in DC, and presidents have come and gone, all of them professing some reverence for books. But have I ever been invited to hte White House? Not once. WHich is why I've returned to my anarchist roots. I am of Russian/Slovak ancestry, you know, and Michael Bakunin is one of my old heroes. Though I confess to being more like Alxeander Herzen.
The Valley of Olives, Malta:
Mr Dirda;
(if you will forgive a flurry of scatterbrained questions)
I must ask quickly and without art -- do you feel that Penelope Fitzgerald receives enough respect for her output? A Booker prize, and various nominations... but when she is compared to, say, A.S Byatt or Iris Murdoch she doesn't often emerge unscathed.
Speaking of Ms Murdoch -- I finished reading The Black Prince about a month ago and I thought it was fantastic. Would it be worthwhile to read anything else she's written? I haven't yet explored further from a fear of being disappointed.
Thank you for your patience.
Michael Dirda: You won't be disappointed with Murdoch. Try A Word Child or The Sacred and Profane Love Machine or the short but wondreful A SEvered Head.
Fitzgerald has been acclaimed the best british novelist of the past 20 years--can hardly beat that.
Flyover Country:
Great baseball book about the barnstorming days of the negro league: Some Are Called Clowns by William Heward. Anyone read it?
Michael Dirda: Not I. htanks
Toano, Va.:
Re: Books in Showrooms, Nicholson Baker has an fine essay on this topic in his collection The Size of Thoughts. The essay is titled "Books as furniture."
Michael Dirda: OH yes, I remember that now. thanks
Washington, D.C.:
What did you think of the article by a local high-schooler chastizing English teachers for their summer reading assignment selections in today's Style section? washingtonpost.com:
Keep Reading Lists Fun (Post, July 12, 2001)
Michael Dirda: Haven't read it yet. I think summer reading should be largely fun reading though. But that during the school year the books should be nothing but established classics, the kind of books kids would never read on their own.
Niagara Falls, N.Y.:
I thought I was the only one who bought books in furniture stores! But I can top that: one time I took my wife to a restaurant called THE LIBRARY. You guessed it: the place was lined with bookshelves full of old books. I compulsively checked the shelves and found a first edition of Isaac Asimov's I, ROBOT. I offered to pay for it, but the waitress said I could have it for free! We left her a great tip!
Michael Dirda: Good deal. I always wanted to start a cafe, in honor of myh revolutionary youth, to be called Chez Guevara. I suspect it's been used by now.
Washington, D.C.:
I'm looking for a really stupid book to read; what's the stupidest book you ever liked?
Michael Dirda: Great question, albeit filled with all kinds of problems. What is stupid? James Marshall's The Stupids is a great kids book (though some parents were upset by it). ANd if i liked it was it that stupid after all? Probably Irene Iddlesleigh--a kind of VIctorian novelette that is incredibly bad. It had a kind of mock success among literati back in the 1920s and is so bad it's fun. Sort of.
Washington, D.C.:
Quick, Michael:
I leave in two hours for a weeklong trip home to the Oregon coast. I have just enough time to run to Borders. Can you give me two suggestions for great reading for plane and beach? (I have already packed a selection of poems based on your recommendation in previous chats).
Michael Dirda: Hmmm. Agatha Christie, The ABC Murders or John Dickson Carr, The Three Coffins. P.G. Wodehouse, Leave it to Psmith. There's no end of possiblities.
Re: Great Books:
The Great Books translations also aren't the best, and that can make an enormous difference. In a lot of cases, even though the top-notch translations cost significantly more, it's an investment with a good return. A good translation help reveal more layers of a book, will be more enjoyable to read, and there's a good chance you'll spend more time with it.
Do you ever get annoyed at "How to Read a Book" type essays? I think that the best way to learn how to read a book is to read one, and pay attention. Now, such essays tend to recognize that, but if you're wasting mental activity remembering how to read a book like Mortimer Adler told you to when you're reading Homer, I think you're doing Homer quite a disservice.
Michael Dirda: THe original set of GBWW did have old translations; the newer edition updated the versions used, i.e the Homer is now Richmond Lattimore's (or was it Robert Fitzgerald's--anyhow someone good). But your main point is well taken.
Alexandria, Va.:
In an earlier online talk, you wondered if "Quartered Safe Out Here" by Fraser was available in the U.S. -- it is. The Common Reader (www.commonreader.com) recently listed it (as well as "Fu Manchu Omnibus, Vol. 5" by Sax Rohmer). Thought you'd like to know.
Michael Dirda: thanks. But the Fu Manchu omnibus--amazing. A brow like Shakespeare's and a face like Satan's. . .
Buffalo, N.Y.:
I've been waiting impatiently for Jack Vance's sequel to Ports of Call. Have you heard when it will appear? I'm about to reread The Planet of Adventure omnibus to get my Jack Vance fix until the sequel is published.
Michael Dirda: havne't heard.
Washington, D.C.:
Mr. Dirda,
I am new to Chekov, and having recently finished a collection of his short stories (Oxford UP). Is all of Chekov so saturnine? Also, I enjoyed the stories, and while they were a bit gloomy there seemed to be the possibility of reading each one as both depressing and illuminating (like life?). Am I off track here or is this Chekov's style?
Also, what's your favorite Chekov story and play?
Thanks for your help.
Michael Dirda: Yes, Chekhov is pretty saturnine (good word--don't see it much these days). But I love that, being of a similarly Russian gloominess. My favorite stories are the "THe Lady with the Dog," "The Bishop" and "In the Ravine." Play? Probably THe Sea Gull.
Re: Chez Guevara:
Please do open it up! I would go in a heartbeat, just because of the name.
Michael Dirda: THanks. Any venture capitalists out there?
Well, we're out of time again! Let's talk some more next week. Hope eeryone has a good summer! Till next THursday at 2, keep reading!
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