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Dirda on Books
Hosted by Michael Dirda
Washington Post Book World Senior Editor
Thursday, Nov. 1, 2001; 2 p.m. EST
This week's topic:
Childhood reading experiences
Washington Post Book World Senior Editor Michael Dirda takes your questions and comments concerning literature, books and the joys of reading.
Each week Michael 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 describing his travels to, say, a P.G. Wodehouse Convention. 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. He particularly enjoys comic novels, intellectual history, locked-room mysteries, innovative fiction of all sorts -- just the sort of range you'd expect from a Pulitzer Prize winner in criticism (1993).
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. In the fall of 2000 Indiana University Press published "Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments," a selection from Dirda's Book World columns. He hopes to bring out a companion volume soon.
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, Evelyn Waugh, T.S. Eliot, Nabokov, John Dickson Carr, Joseph Mitchell 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'd also like to spend six months in Florida writing a book that would become a runaway best seller, a critical success, and the hottest cinematic property of the year. A guy can daydream, right?
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! For the next hour we'll talk about reading, reviewing, writing, Book World, the inimitable work of your inimitable host, and anything else related to the world of books. Last week we agreed on one thread--first books, or favorite early reading--but there's no compelling necessity to focus strictly on that. For those of you who chart my ups and downs, I am strangely enough in a pretty good mood today, despite family troubles, emotional turmoil, Anthrax scares, the necessity of opening my Post mail in a sealed chamber while wearing gloves and a mask, and news that if the Newsroom is evacuated I'll need to relinquish my desk to the Metro section, presumably because a weekly like Book World is expendable. Not that I like that word expendable, at least in these days. I should also alert my fans--both of them, as they say--that I'll be doing a discussion tomorrow at 2 PM of The Hobbit, part of a month long series devoted to Tolkien's work: The following three sessions will take up the individual volumes in The Lord of the Rings. Do stop by if you have the chance. This weekend, I might add, Washington is hosting Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, and I hope to drop by for a bit of it, if I can. There's something else I should be telling you in this overture, but I can't quite remember it, so let's just move to the questions and discussion.
Arlington, Va.:
I am reading "Nicholas Nickleby," and have been curious about the way this and Dickens' other large novels got published. I know that they were published in installments, a few chapters at a time, but how was it decided how long each installment would be? Was it simply decided by the number of pages that would fit at a time? And did Dickens write with this in mind -- in other words, did he plan for cliff-hangers at the end of the requisite number of pages?
Michael Dirda: Yes, most Victorian fiction appeared in "parts" and many writers planned for each of these to end with a cliffhanger. Wilkie Collins did this with particular skill, though he would sometimes tone down the obviousness of that suspenseful rhythm when he revised his novels for volume publication. I suppose the length of each installment was worked out between author and editor--although in Dickens case he was often both, since he edited a couple of hte magazines--Household Words--in which he appeared. But I'm no expert on Victorian fiction--the scholars to read on this are Richard Altick--The ENglish Common REader and many subsequent books on 19th-century literature--and John Sutherland, author of THe Stanford Companion to Victorian Fictioin and a series of charming books, for Oxford, daling with such conundrums of Victorian fiction as "Was Heathcliff a murderer?"
Springfield, Va.:
Hi Mr. Dirda:
Love the new picture. I often mourn my lost youth as well -- just turned 40 and haven't written that great novel YET... but your subject today brings me back to a more youthful time. My favorite childhood reading experience is going to the school library once a week to hear the librarian read to us. This was such a treat to me -- "Where The Wild Things Are," "Harold and the Purple Crayon," Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel. Now THOSE are classics. As I got older I read all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, all the Beverly Cleary books, all the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books(ok, there's no accounting for taste). I remain an avid reader, though I am slightly picky about my reading material. That librarian from the 60's had no idea what she was starting in my young mind.
Michael Dirda: Lovely comment. I look back fondly on evening spent reading the books you mention to my own children, the youngest of whom is 11 and still avid to hear me read to him at night. Most recently I started The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. In low moments, I really would like to be Mike Mulligan, sitting down in the cellar, smoking his pipe and reading next to his steam engine transformed into a furnace. That's cozy. By the way, I read Cleary growing up--vividly do I recall Henry Huggins calling Ribsy while the dog's former owner called him Rex or something and wondering which master the dog would go to--and being thrilled when a decade ago Cleary sent me a signed copy of the first volume of her autobiography. Ah, childhood reading. At times like these one really wishes one could escape so completely into other worlds, through others' words.
Cambridge, Mass.:
Mr. Dirda,
I've just received a copy of THE CASSELL ATLAS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR edited by Brigadier Peter Young. I'm fascinated by historical atlases and I know there must be others who share my interest. Are you or your readers familiar with historical atlases? If so, which titles?
Michael Dirda: There are lots of these. Penguin does a series on the ancient, medieval worlds, which I like. How do those lines of Baudelaire go? Pour l'enfant amoureux de cartes et d'estampes, le monde est egal a la clarte des lampes--For the child in love with maps and prints, the world is equal to the illumination from lamps....
E-Guy:
I remember picking up “Harold and the Purple Crayon” in nursery school. In grade school, my favorite book was probably “A Wrinkle in Time.” I read it again recently for the first time in 30 years... it just didn’t have the same magic as I remember when I reread it multiple times as a child. I guess I’ve too thoroughly “matured” to appreciate such things anymore -- sigh --
Michael Dirda: Yes, I started rereading it a couple of months ago and was midlly disappointed. I still like the opening--stolen, from Bulver LYtton, I think--It was a dark and stormy night. And I like the gnomic sentence: "yes, there is a tesseract.' But I've always been miffed by the vague religiosity of the book, which becomes more apparent in L'engle's later work.
North Tonawanda, N.Y.:
I just read LOST CLASSICS: WRITERS ON BOOKS LOVED AND LOST, OVERLOOKED, UNDER-READ, UNAVAILABLE, STOLEN, EXTINCT, OR OTHERWISE OUT OF COMMISSION, (Penguin, 2001) edited by Michael Ondaatje. I usually love this kind of book because it leads me to new book hunts. But I was disappointed with the (mostly) self-serving essays by the writers. They seemed more interested in showing off than really convincing me to read the book they were recommending. Of the dozens of books recommended, Jane Smiley's THE GREENLANDERS and Ford Madox Ford's THE GOOD SOLDIER sounded interesting.
Michael Dirda: Yes, I've seen the book and I have to agree with you. Plus there was a lot about Canadian literature, which is neglected of course, as are all literatures, but the emphasis did seem a bit parochial. The Good Soldier is a great book and hardly neglected,merely not as much read as it should be. "This is the saddest story I have ever heard."
Post Bestsellers:
My question has to do with the definition of "independent" bookseller and how it relates to your paper's bestseller lists.
In the past, I understood you to say that the Post used data from the major chains to compile is bestseller list, while using data from independents for its "Washington is Also Reading" supplement.
But this past Sunday, the Bestseller list was tallied, in part, from data gathered from Olsson's book stores. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Olsson's is an independent bookseller, as evinced by its heavy promotion of the Booksense 76 promotional lists in all its stores. Olsson's has a few stores in this region, but that doesn't make it a "chain," a la Borders and Barnes and Noble, does it? So why is the Post using Olsson's data for its main bestseller lists?
Michael Dirda: All bookstores are tallied for the best seller list proper, but because the big chains pretty much call the tune there, we also include the Also REading section to represent more--how to say it--imaginative choices of books for Washington readers. It's simply a means of mentioning good books that people might enjoy, were they to give them a chance.
Springfield, Va.:
Well, I have been doing a lot of reading these days to keep my normally overly anxious mind off that which the media seems to think I love hearing about. However, I must admit that the choice to read "The Corrections" by Frantzen was quite the mistake. Read a great historical fiction novel, "Slammerkin" by Emma Donahue -- little racy but otherwise a good read. Thanks for responding.
Michael Dirda: Our reviewres loved both these books, though Franzen has obviously gained th emost attention. Did you know that Emma Donoghue was the daughter of the distinguished literary scholar Denis Donoghue?
Nashville, Tenn.:
Hi Michael, I'm 70 years young and have always had a bad case of the wanderlust. Finally decided it was from reading Richard Halliburton when I was very young. Our teacher read us The Book of Wonders and held up the photos so we could all see them. Halliburton's purple prose appealed greatly to a young romantic of say 10. And I too love maps and atlases. Have to, I guess, to map out the next adventure. And thank goodness, last year we adventured to Samarkand in Uzbekistan.
Michael Dirda: Timing, as they say, is everything. THanks for writing.
Buffalo, N.Y.:
If you make it to Bouchercon, be sure to look up veteran mystery writer, Bill Crider (he ghosted the mystery novels of NBC weatherman Willard Scott). You'll find Crider hanging around the Dealers' Room or the bar. Unfortunately, I've heard a number of writers, editors, and fans have canceled since Sept. 11.
Michael Dirda: Sorry to hear that. I would naturally zero in on the dealer's room. At other conventions I might head for the bar first.
Springfield, Va.:
Almost forgot -- Cricket in Times Square and Stuart Little.
I promise, last posting.
Michael Dirda: Why must you stop posting? But good books, both.
Childhood reading:
Ahhh, the summer I carried The Secret Graden with me everywhere. By the time I finally finished, every page was soaked with chlorine or ketchup or sand. Transported me when I desperately needed to be transported.
Michael Dirda: Chlorine, ketchup or sand--you evoke an entire summer in just four words. Many children's literature professionals think The SEcret Garden the best children's novel of all time. And Burnett, of course, has a Washington connectionn--she wrote much of Little Lord Fauntleroy here, unless I"m hallucinating again.
Chicago, Ill.:
Dear Mr. Dirda,
Thank you so much for providing an opportunity to think about one of my favorite subjects: children's literature. Like the other contributors, I have so many wonderful memories of reading and being read to as a child. I was particularly devoted to the Little House books (I called my parents Ma and Pa for two years!), the All of a Kind Family books (which provided me with enduring knowledge of Judaism) and the Anne of Green Gables books. For younger readers, I think the Frances books are truly wonderful -- A Baby Sister for Frances provides a wonderful honest portrait of an older sibling's feelings upon realizing there's a new baby in your house -- and anything by Rosemary Wells ("Timothy Goes to School" was our favorite as that is my brother's name, plus "Stanley and Rhoda," another wonderful book about the frustrations and joys of being an older sibling). I can also remember my mother starting to read me "The Secret Garden" and "A Little Priness" but finishing them both myself when I got too impatient to wait until bedtime.
Can you believe I am so young (28) and so full of nostaglia? The only hope for me is that I will be able to read these books to my kids someday.
Michael Dirda: Hey, you're never too old for nostalgia. There are times I've thought I was born middle-aged. I've been regretting things and looking back on the past with wistfulness as long as I can remember. Russell HOban, as you may know, is one of my favorite writers--and I recommend you try The Mouse and HIs CHild, a novel that has just been reissued with new illustrations by David SMall. A masterpiece. As is his grown-up book Riddley Walker.
Springfield, Va.:
No, I did not know that about Emma. Now I am on a mission to find out more about her father. I am headed out to a high school cross country meet, though -- a mother's work is never done. But this mother, for one, disappears into the fantasy world of books to escape the chaos. Love your column.
Michael Dirda: Thanks. Ferrying kids is a way of life for me too,usually to soccer matches or swimming meets. Sometimes I enjoy it, other times I simply soldier on. Good luck at the track meet.
Reston, Va.:
There have been several posts that mention Harold and the Purple Crayon. One of my earliest memories involving reading was getting punished for scribbling on a wall with a crayon. I am almost positive I would never have done such a thing (I was very well behaved, as a rule) had it not been for Harold and the Purple Crayon. I learned from an Internet search that its author is Crockett Johnson, and it was first published in 1955. I have only vague memories of this book. It must have affected me, but probably not in the way the author intended. Have you heard of it, and do you (or others) remember any more about it?
Michael Dirda: Yes, it's a very simple picture book about a boy who draws things with a purple crayon. I read it a long time ago and can't remember any more detail than that. Perhaps others care to elaborate?
Washington, D.C.:
I had two absolute favorite books growing up: "Harriet the Spy," which caused my love of tomato sandwiches that perplexes my husband, and "From the Mixed-Up Files of Basil E. Frankweiler," which I recently reread and it was just as good as an adult. I think children's books with quirky characters who take chances are the best things for kids to read.
Michael Dirda: Yes, to your whole message and to the last sentence in particular. For me quirky characters means Daniel Pinkwater, my hero and the creator of Alan Mendelsohn, the boy from Mars and The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death, as well as many, many other masterpieces. How can anyone resist a book titled Yobgorgle, Mystery Monster of Lake ONtario?
Washington, D.C.:
I didn't read John Keegan or Dom David Knowles as a child of course, so this question is off the subject?
Who else writes historical prose as well as they do?
At work.
Michael Dirda: David Knowles--I haven't thought about him in some years. I read my copy of The Evolution of Medieval Thought to pieces and somewhere own a paperback, drawn from his study of English monasticism, with profiles of leading medieval scholars and monks. There's an interesting, not to say scandalous, account of Knowles in Inventing the Middle Ages, by Norman Cantor. As to who today writes history as well as Knowles and Keegan? You might try Jonathan Spence on China, John Hale on the European Renaissance, Peter Brown on late antiquity, Anthony Grafton on early modern humanists, Hugh Trevor-Roper on the 17th century, A.J.P. Taylor in general, and Peter Gay on the 19th century.
Sarasota:
A fond childhood-reading memory: I'll never forget the time I was poking around in the attic and found a box of my dad's old college books. To this day I still love the smell of old, dusty books. The first book I pulled out of the box was Camus's The Stranger; when I read the first line ("Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can't be sure."), it made me see my dad in a new light and wonder about his reading and perceptions about books. It's amazing how books can forge connections between people.
Michael Dirda: Yes, indeed. But a lot of people read The Stranger at one point. In fact, it was the first novel in French I ever read on my own, largely because the prose is so clear and straightforward.
SciFiGirl:
Michael -- I love reminicing about favorite books when young. Among mine were The Borrowers, The Phantom Tollbooth, and Watership Down. I loved dreaming that were hidden worlds within our own that one could see if one just looked hard enough.
Michael Dirda: I think this hidden worlds idea lies behind the popularity of what I call the antiquarian romance--books like Foucault's Pendulum, Lempriere's Dictionary, An Instance of the Fingerpost, Possession, Aegypt. That is, in these books someone explores the known past and discovers rifts and fissures and labyrinths within it. In many, in fact, the modern scholar discovoers that there is a secret history of the world--and usually finds his life in danger as a result.
wiredog:
Historical porose: Tuchman is pretty readable. Distant Mirror is an excellent read, especially these days.
Michael Dirda: Yes, thanks.
Somewhere, USA:
Hi Michael:
I'm a big reader, but feel that I'm missing out on some important writers.
I've never read any Normal Mailer, Henry Miller, John Updike, or Iris Murdoch. Can you please suggest some good first time reads for these novelists. I'm eager to read them, but don't know where to start. Thanks!
Michael Dirda: Mailer: The Armies of the Night; Miller, Tropic of Cancer; Updike, Rabbit, Run or a collection of stories; Iris Murdoch, The Black Prince.
Washington, D.C.:
Hello Michael -- One of my favorite childhood reading experiences was going each Saturday to our little town library and spending a couple of hours or so choosing which books to take home that week. I can vividly recall the "book" smell of the library and the thrill of choosing my own reading.
On a somewhat related note: one thing that worries me about children's reading today is that -- along with everything else -- kids seem to be pushed into reading books that might be too old for them. An example: a friend recently told me proudly that his three-year-old's nursery class is reading "Charlotte's Web." When that book came out, of course, there was a lot of concern about the death of Charlotte and how that might affect child readers. Now three-year-olds are reading it!
Another example: I recently talked with a five-year-old who was reading the "Harry Potter" books with his parents, and now is bored with picture books. The Potter books are lots of fun, but think of the whole world of reading that five-year-old will never experience if he thinks he's now too mature for it! To me it seems a shame to rush kids. My 8-year-old is a fluent reader and can easily read novels. But he loves picture books, too, because he loves looking at the pictures. I say, why not?
Michael Dirda: Very good points. But I do think that most kids read widely up and down the scale of appropriate age: I still enjoyed comics all through high school, even while reading Tolstoy and Shakespeare. The passion for reading embraces everything.
Somewhere, USA:
the book from childhood that stays with me is "Farewell to Shady Glade." I don't know the author but the images on the page of the displaced forest animals still nearly bring tears.
Michael Dirda: I've never heard of this. Has anyone else?
Silver Spring:
I recently reread one of my childhood favorites, Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain. I've never forgotten the wrenching sense of loss at the end of the last book, when the narrator pulls back and admits that so much time has passed that people now doubt that the characters -- who had been so vividly alive to me throughout the five books -- were anything more than myth. But I had forgotten how grim parts of the books were, and how closely they hewed to Welsh mythology. Taran was a wonderful hero, but I still wonder what a gurgi really is. Any hints from scholars of the Welsh language?
Michael Dirda: Little help?
RE: Kiddie Lit:
I remember one of the things I was always fascinated by reading all these Victorian and early 20th century novels growing up was all the strange diseases people had. The little boy in The Borrowers had rheumatic fever, Mary in Little House went blind from scarlet fever, who knows what Beth died from in Little Women (being too good was the real disease). Whooping cough, diptheria, mumps, measles -- my literary childhood was filled with these diseases which were otherwise totally foreign to a late 20th century child.
Michael Dirda: Yes. And girls suffered from the vapors too. There is a book by Daniel Pool about Victorian fiction that explains just what diseases these were and how much the money was worth and the different kinds of servant etc.
Childhood Favorites:
Dandelion Wine
Watership Down
Enders Game
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Mad Magazine
Michael Dirda: Mad magazine is, of course, the real classic here. Don Martin was my favorite cartoonist. I loved the sequence about the hardest head in the world--you can find it in th epaperback Don Martin Steps OUt.
Swim-two-birds:
More on Harold: He not only draws on the wall with his crayon, he then enters the world he has drawn, and continues to draw more things in that world. Sometimes this is unintended, as when, recoiling from a fierce monster he has drawn, he trembles, and the crayon in his shaking hand behind him draws the cup-shaped wavelets of a lake into which he then falls. Soon he gets lost and begins searching for home. Finally, seeing the moon he has drawn in the sky, he remembers where the moon is: outside his bedroom window. So he draws the window around the moon and finds himself safe in his own room again. "Harold drew up the covers and fell asleep." This is the greatest bedtime story ever, in my view.
Michael Dirda: Thanks for reminding us of the details. Does anyone else know--and admire as I do--Johnson's Barnaby stories? Surreal stories about a kid and a rather grizzled fairy godfather?
Fairfax, Va.:
Oh, loved the Snarkout Boys & the Avacado of Death. When I got into my teens I figured I must have hallucinated such a title, but I recently found Pinkwater's stuff republished & was pleased to see I'm not insane.
Also, three cheers for Harriet the Spy and the younger children's book Mr. Pine's Purple House, just republished by an old fan.
Michael Dirda: thanks
Georgetown, Washington, D.C.:
Can't remember most of my grade school teachers, but I remember Miss Evans in second grade who read us Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and my mother who read me Mary Poppins, Arabian Nights and Don Quixote.
Michael Dirda: REturn with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear...
Cambridge, Mass.:
One of the books I've read consistently throughout my life is Kenneth Gramhe's THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS. "There is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." Lovely stuff.
Michael Dirda: Indeed. I love the chapter about the coziness of the underground burrow. Great for wintry reading.
Grayson, Ga.:
Daniel Pinkwater is THE BEST. Our family has been listening to "The Blue Moose Tales" & "The Snark-Out Boys & The Avacado of Death" on long car trips for YEARS. Dove Audio productions. Any story with a character named "Flipping Hades Truwilliger" will hold teens.
Michael Dirda: Terwilliger, he noted pedantically. I love the fact that all realtors are actually aliens. And the SHerlock Holmes and Maltese Falcon parodies.
Baltimore, Md.:
Ooooh, please share your thoughts about An Instance of the Fingerpost. Just picked it up. Love mysteries. Sounds like a great read?
Michael Dirda: It's a wonderful, very long and complicated book. I reviewed it--maybe it can be found in our archives. Someone told me they were going to makeit into a movie.
Herndon, Va.:
The person who got in trouble for scribbling on the walls reminded me of the time I got in trouble for "Hopping on Pop" while he was napping on the sofa.
My first literary crush was Becky Thatcher.
Michael Dirda: Wasn't she everyone's?
Sarasota:
SciFiGirl is so right when she mentioned how wonderful Watership Down is! She and the other posters may know this, but a sequel of sorts came out in 1996, Tales from Watership Down, which includes many of the stories told by the rabbits and peripherally continues their story after Watership Down. Excellent stuff.
Michael Dirda: thanks
Woodley, Washington, D.C.:
Has Joan Aiken been forgotten? I loved
her books as a child, especially the
Wolves of Willoughby Chase. Haven't
tried to read them again, though.
Michael Dirda: Joan Aiken is somewhat neglected, but I love her writing--it's evocative, funny, and enthralling. Dido Twite is one of the great heroines. Wolves and Black Hearts in Battersea and some of the others are usually in print. I'm pleased to say that Aiken has occasionally sent me a letter--originally because I wrote something about her father, the distinguished poet and man of letters, Conrad Aiken, a good friend of T.S. Eliot's, whose letters are a delight.
Washington, D.C.:
You know, I have trouble remembering the names of books I read last week let alone 20 years ago. I will say that I loved all the L'Engle books, Books by Eleanor Moffett(can't remember the names -- see I told you) and Island of the Dolphins by Scott O'Dell, If I am not mistaken, among many, many others. The thing about books as a child is that you may not remember all the specific ones you read, but what I remember very well is the feeling of enjoyment from reading, and that feeling has stayed with me and made me enjoy reading so much as an adult.
Michael Dirda: Yes.
Re: Crockett Johnson:
Johnson also drew a very funny comic strip called "Barnaby." It was a favorite of such diverse people as Dorothy Parker and Duke Ellington. Great stuff!
Michael Dirda: See my earlier note
Northern Virginia:
Perhaps as a reaction to becoming an "adult" -- or a rejection of it -- I've been rereading some of my childhood favorites:
The Egypt Game
Anne of Green Gables series
Nancy Drew mysteries
Homecoming and it's sequels
And then there's my all-time favorite -- The Pokey Little Puppy.
Michael Dirda: The Pokey Little Puppy--I can remember learning to read with that book when I was 4.
Wrinkle In Time:
Greetings!
I loved that book when I was a kid. Later, in college, I read it again after I found out L'Engle was a Christian (I am one myself). I still enjoyed it, and only one scene seemed to have religious overtones -- the one where she is flying on a beast up in the clouds, and hears voices singing, I think it was "holy, holy holy is the Lord God Almighty." Other than that, it seemed like a perfectly normal children's fantasy novel. I don't know if L'Engle had an agenda when she wrote it, but I dont think it should matter. I read plenty of books that have a not so subtle agenda, and shrug it off if it is a good story.
Michael Dirda: The Christian subtext grows heavier in her subsequent books.
Morgantown, W.V.:
Mr. Dirda,
Thanks for the posting of Henry Huggins and Ribsy (and Ramona Quimby, of course); one of my middle school social studies teachers used to read about HH's adventures on a weekly basis!
I would also throw in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. It's a great escapist read, with enough adventure to keep one's mind occupied!
Michael Dirda: Oxen and wain ropes couldn't get me back to that accursed island and the worst dreams that ever I have I start up right in bed with captain flint's voice ringing in my ear, Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!--they don't write em like that any more.
Washington, D.C.:
Michael,
Are you going to be doing any more book signings for "Readings"? Also, is the book still in-print? Can a first edition still be obtained? Thinking of it for a gift. Thanks.
Michael Dirda: Yes, it's in print, though it is in a second printing. But I'm sure you can order it through a bookstore and you're still likely to get a first. I do give talks in DC and elsewhere and sign books when I do--sometimes the hosts will order a bunch. Of course,you can just come to the Post and buy one directly from the author.
Boston, Mass.:
Hello Michael,
As a fellow Obie who also thinks "Tale of
Genji" is tops (though Kawabata is better
for light reading...), I thought I'd add my
favorite children's lit suggestion:
"Rootabega Stories" by Carl Sandburg.
Why this isn't a classic I have no idea, but
his strange stories of the Potato-faced
Blind Man, Axe Me Know Questions, zig
zag railroads, buildings that have
children, etc. are exceptional.
I really don't know much about why he
wrote this (can you fill me in?), but it
remains one of my favorites to read to
kids and adults.
Michael Dirda: This was resisued a few years back with new illustrations by Michael Hague. I rememer liking the stories when I was a kid, but they seemed a bit cutesy when I looked at them as an adult. EVer a danger with kids books--though happily not with all of them.
Boonies, Va.:
Books I read over and over as a child:
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Michael Dirda: thanks.
Washignton, D.C.:
Well, I had a question, but I'll bring up childhood books as a lead-in. When I was about 11, I started reading Agatha Christie books and couldn't stop. I spent hours trying to figure out what marrows were. My current question is somewhat related. My mother was in my new apartment the other night and saw my stash of Dorothy Sayers mysteries. She said that if I liked those, I should try Margery Allingham. I don't know anything about her. Is she comparable?
Michael Dirda: Yes, vaguely comparable. Sometimes darker--The Tiger in the SMoke--or wittier--Death of a Peer. She belongs to the golden age of mystery writing, along with Christie, Stout, John Dickson Carr, ANthony bErkeley.
Old Town Alexandria, Va.:
I have a nephew who is totally into the Harry Potter series and I'd like to capitalize on this newfound love of reading by introducing him to some similar books -- Lord of the Rings, CS Lewis I know, but would you have any more suggestions?
Thank you.
Michael Dirda: Try some of the books mentoined during this chat. AIken, Pinkwater, etc. Also, Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising. Alan Garner's Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath. Or go back to classics like Journey to the center of the Earth, The Lost World, King Solomon's Mines, THe Hound of the baskervilles.
Somewhere, USA:
I answer my own query:
Bill Peet wrote "Farewell to Shady Glade."
How about Charlotte's Web? Encyclopedia Brown?
Michael Dirda: thanks
Rockville, Md.:
My first memories of reading were bedtimes with all of us kids draped over my mother. She would read us Harold and the Purple Crayon, Winnie the Pooh, The Cat in the Hat, Geraldine Belinda Maribell Scott, Ferdinand, Maryann the steamshovel, all of Beatrix Potter (Two bad mice- Hunca Munca and Tom Thumb very naughty), Cats for Kansas.
Then it was trips to the library with my father. He would sit in the adult reading room looking over the new acquisitions. I would take myself to the children's area and try to tell by staring at all the spines which of the books would have the magic. I learned not to be seduced by gilded letters and bright colors, that you cannot judge a book by its cover.
Michael Dirda: thanks for the loveliy memoir.
Ballston, Va.:
How do I get my girlfriend to read the Harry Potter series? Everyone in my family has read them or is presently doing so. We all want to see the movie next month. I'd like for her to have read it before seeing the movie.
In fact, she will probably give me some heat since she is reading this and knows who she is!
Michael Dirda: Just tell her that M. Dirda told her to go read the book and I"m sure she'll listen to me at least as well as my kids do. In truth, the Potter books are great fun, quite gripping and worth reading--even if they're not masterpieces of children's literature.
Washignton, D.C. Metro area:
I heard that Diana Gabeldon is coming to town. Do you know anything about it?
Michael Dirda: I know she has a new book out, part of her sequence, but that's all.
Winston-Salem, N.C.:
I hate to admit it but my favorite childhood reading experiences were comic books. We'd spend two weeks at the beach each summer and there were places where you could trade old comics two for one and I happily devoured Superman, Flash, Batman, Green Lantern and the new Marvel superheroes, the Fantastic Four, X-men and Spiderman. Surprisingly with my children, the least academic, but best reader -- Defoe, Salinger, Swift -- was weaned on comic books, while the more academic has only lately come to reading, perhaps put off by only trying the classics.
Michael Dirda: The greatest reading experience of my childhood involved comic books. REmind me some week and I'll tell you all about it, because time, alas, is up for this week and there are dozens of unanswered questions. I'm sorry I couldn't get to more of them. I can only type so fast. But save them for next Wednesday and we'll try again. Till then, keep reading! And remember tgomorrow's chat about The Hobbit at 2.
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