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Each week Dirda's name appears -- in unmistakably big letters -- on page 15 of The Post's Book World section. If he's not reviewing a hefty literary biography or an ambitious new novel, he's likely to be turning out one of his idiosyncratic essays or 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 Boks! Yes, today we'll be discussing the work of Derek and Sissela Bok--no, no, that'a joke. I meant to type Books. Anyway, you've reached the Liveonline chat where reading is a totally, happening thing--wait, take a deeep breath, Dirda, and slow dawn, uh down. Anyway, on with today's questions about books, reading and literature.

Columbia, Md.: Hi. Couple of comments. First, can you recommend a well-written, shortish history of the Roman republic/empire? Also, are there any biographies of Roman leaders(again, not too long) you'd recommend?

Second, I'd like to resurrect the great Iliad/Odyssey debate. (It's true that a preference for one or the other might be just a simple matter of personality, but hey... what are we here for? To give our opinions on books!) I'm putting in a plug for the Iliad. It has a lot of grandeur and pathos, and you really feel something at the end. I recommend the Fagles translation, which has a great introduction by Bernard Knox. I read the intro after finishing the book, and it was a very rewarding experience---I felt like Knox really expressed my feelings about the reading experience, especially the sense of irrevocable waste at the end. At the end of the Odyssey, I was mostly just disgusted by the bloodshed.

Michael Dirda: Shortish history? There are abridgements of Gibbon, in Penguin paperback, for instance, and there is J.B. Bury's classic history as well--that's not too long. You might, for fun, read instead Suetonius's Lives of the 12 Caesars--very sprightly, especially in Robert Graves' translation.
Any other thoughts for Columbia from you classicists out there?
As for Homer: Bernard Knox is a friend of mine and that introduction is the summary of his lifelong experience of the Iliad. I KNOW that the Iliad is the greater work of art and the most brilliant study of war and might ever written, but I am a romantic soul at heart, with an admiration for any good flim-flam man, which Odysseus often is, and so my affections remain with The Odyssey.

Takoma Park, Md.: Just wanted to recommend a reading list resource to everyone: the Guardian newspaper of the UK has a whole pile of top ten lists in various interesting categories. Lots of stuff I hadn't known about that seems worth knowing about and reading.

books.guardian.co.uk/top10s

Happy choosing, everyone.

Michael Dirda: Yes, I checked it out recently. Some nice recommendations for sf and weird tale fans from China Mieville and Michael Moorcock--or were they on a Waterstone's list? Too much surfing last week.

Arlington, Va.: It's fairly common to think that a person can be a good writer, or a good editor, but not usually both.

What about critics? Do their skills overlap with any useful trade, or are they a breed unto self?

Michael Dirda: Well, all professional book critics are known to be gourmets, lucky at cards, connoisseurs of the arts, world-class lovers, and charismatically attractive, in general. Do these count as corresponding skills? If not, then, yes, we are a breed unto ourselves--loners, paladins, knights without armor in a savage land.

Takoma park, Md.: So, you want to discuss Boks?

I can suggest Christian Bok, a Canadian poet whose extremely clever Eunoia won some kind of Canadian poetry prize. Available online and as a bok/book. The online bits are fascinating.

Michael Dirda: Well, one can never have too many Boks.

Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.: Last week you mentioned the bindings of books and the use of signatures. When I was in college, we had to read The Age of Innocence. I was almost at the end of the book when I turned the page and was met with one blank page and one printed page. This went on until the end of the book. Luckily I was up here, so I could easily find another copy of the book to finish reading it.

I showed the defective copy to my English professor and he told me about signatures and how books were put together. Obviously one side of the paper that forms the signature (is the term for that a quarto?) was not printed so I had eight pages of text and eight blank pages. It was a good first-hand lesson in book construction.

Michael Dirda: Yes, I think all readers eventually find books like that.

Washington, D.C.: I'm wondering how the book writing is going for you? You haven't mentioned it in awhile...
I've been working on some creative pieces of my own and recently participated in a short fiction workshop. Some feedback got me thinking, is it true that editors are prejudiced against stories about writers and the writing process? Personally, that's my favorite type of literary fiction and it seems likes there is a ton of it out there.
Just curious. Thanks.

Michael Dirda: The writing is going. . . but hardly at the pace I'd hoped. I seem to be cleaning up a lot of smaller writing projects and reading lots of books for fun. I'd forgotten how much I just liked to read. I'm now halfway through rereading Anna Karenina. And, of course, I think daily, hourly, about how I should change my life further.

Takoma Park, Md.: Wow! Iliad for Apollonians and Odyssey for Dionysians. Interesting distinction and sorta Classical Greek Civ anyway.

There's no such thing as a short history of Rome, but abridged Gibbon and maybe even the Roman parts of Plutarch's Lives would be a good though not very short start.

Michael Dirda: Yes, Plutarch is always fun. I"ve always regretted that Guy Davenport never wrote his projected study of Plutarch.

Somewhere, USA -- Mostly Harmless Planet: I know you enjoy Pratchett's books, but what do you think of Adams' Hitchhiker series? I had started a few times reading, but had never been able to get into them. Then I listened recently to the first (read by the author, the best author reader I've heard except for LeCarre) and found it a lot of fun. I understand the radio plays came first, so maybe they're better heard than read.

Michael Dirda: I"ve heard bits of the radio plays, and I introduced Adams when he came to the U of Maryland 20 or more years ago--so I know how well he reads. I do like the first book quite a bit, and it fades into the second and third for me as a single work. But I haven't looked at the trilogy in a long wihle (wihle--a pan-Galactic term for many years).

Washington, D.C.: Hi Michael. I must say, Book Week isn't the same without your contributions. Come back soon. After seeing the movie Iris, I have become interested in reading some books by Iris Murdoch. However, she has written quite a number of books, and while they might all be worth reading, do you have any suggestions on where to start?

Michael Dirda: Yes, in fact, Book Week has never been the same since it was part of the New York Herald Tribune. But Book World--well, that might be another matter. Just teasing.
As for Murdoch, if you want something short, go for A Severed Head; if you want her more typical best, try The Black Prince, A Word Child or The Sea, the Sea. ENjoy. As someone once said, they're harlequin romances for intellectuals.

Washington, D.C.: Hi Michael,
I'm reading The Horned Man -- a psych thriller(?) you reviewed a recommended not too long ago and am totally sucked in (like you said you were). It reminds a teensy bit of Blue Angel by Francine Prose. I'm curious... is the Straight Man by Richard Russo anything like either of these books?
thanks!

Michael Dirda: I also reviewed Blue Angel, and see some similarities. I keep meaning to read Straight Man, but haven't gotten to it yet--I suspect it's not much like that comic novel. Instead of these, you might think Kafka, John Fowles' The Collector, Albert Camus' The Fall.

Lenexa, Kans.: Mr. Dirda,

How high do you rank Vonnegut in American literature? He's never shown with the prospective Lit-Nobels (Roth, Updike, Pynchon, DeLillo, Oates, et al.). Is there a case? Thanks.

P.S. On the subject of Nobels, forgive a political aside: I'm very disappointed that Clinton wasn't given the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in Ireland, Korea, Middle East, and Eastern Europe, etc.

Michael Dirda: I enjoy early Vonnegut quite a bit, but he's been very uneven in the later books--sometimes pretty shrewd and innovative, sometimes a pallid self-imitation. I can't imagine that they'd ever give a Nobel to a mainly comic novelist.
I"m not a Clinton fan.

Arlington, Tex.: You've mentioned various audio versions of classic novels, such as Lolita, that you recommend. Do you know of any good recordings of classic French books (in French)?

Michael Dirda: Alas, no, but perhaps a foreign language bookstore--or that section of a bigger shop--might be able to offer guidance.

Arlington, Va.: Just wondered if you or other chatters have this happen -- I've been reading books that I wouldn't, or haven't, normally, and this is a good thing. But I'm reading things that teenage boys seem to read a lot -- Lord of the Rings, Dune, etc. I could not figure out the draw to these books -- and then I realized they were the exact opposite of what I was doing in my real life (besides working) planning a wedding. I was just wondering, besides the usual escapism in books, do you find yourself drawn to certain types of books in that way? I hit myself in the forehead when I realized it.

Michael Dirda: I'm not sure how what you describe differs from any kind of escapism. My own take is that most books that appeal to young people do so as some sort of wish-fulfillment. More often than not, the hero or heroine is a misfit, looked down upon by his or her society, yet eventually turns out to be the heir to the kingdom or the greatest warrior in the galaxy etc. etc. Most adult fiction also fits this mold, albeit with a heavy sexual component.

Columbia, Md.: Me again. Can I praise Bernard Knox just a little more? His intros to the Iliad and the Odyssey are the perfect response to anyone who thinks critics are of no use. I'd also recommend his Norton Book of Classical Literature as a guide to studying classical literature. His introduction is spectacular, and the table of contents is a good guide to reading choices, even if, like me, you prefer to read the entire work rather than just a selection from the anthology.

Michael Dirda: Yes, indeed. No knocks for Knox--only praise, as long as I can wield this broadsword anyway.

New York, N.Y.: Can you recommend a biography of Raymond Chandler?

Thanks.

Michael Dirda: Frank MacShane's. But a good alternative is the Selected Letters (edited by MacShane) or the recent Raymond Chandler Reader, which combines letters with Chander journalism.

Washington, D.C.: Hello Michael, how are you on this rainy day? Just wanted to know if you've ever read any of the works by Larry Koenig namely his book "Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane."

Michael Dirda: Nope. Is it raining? It was hot this morning. But then I live in a Dilbert-like cubicle, far from any window, where I am manacled to a desk covered with books. I dream of escape. Somewhere the sun is shining. . .

Straight Man: It's very very funny, but more of an academic novel than a thriller. Don't skip it, but don't expect anything faintly like a thriller.

Michael Dirda: Yes, that was my impression. Damn, just got a piece of tomato on my tie. See, this is kind of like Reality Book TV.

Albuquerque, N.M.: Michael, Have you ever read Ian Rankin's Rebus mysteries? Your opinion of them?
Many Thanks.

Michael Dirda: No, but I am told they are flatout terrific. I have one here, someplace, but I don't think my chain reaches far enough for me to find it.

Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.: Hi, Mr. Dirda,

For the past two years, I have off-and-on been reading Proust in French (which is in part why I am taking so long -- in addition to reading other books in between). Even during the weeks when I am not reading Proust, the books resonate so much for me. I am about to finish the first part of Guermantes, will start the second part tomorrow after work. I know I have a long way to go, but can you share with me your favourite moments in this work? One of mine so far is the scene at the theatre at the beginning of Le Cote de Guermantes when the Duchesse de Guermantes momentarily acknowledges the narrator from her box.

Michael Dirda: What I love about the book, besides the prose and the bitter analyses of love, are the way it works like a detective story--how an unnamed gentleman glimpsed by the young narrator will years later be known to be Charlus, or how the new Duchesse de GUermantes will turn out to be (better not tell you), or how virtually all the characters turn out to be (better not tell you again). I also love worldliness in general--being myself a woozy romantic sentimentalist. "The decline of an invitation, an unintentional coldness can accomplish more than all the cosemtics in the world." "To think that I wasted my life, that I wanted to die, for a woman who wasn't my type at all." That sort of thing.

Washington, D.C.: I have seen Philip Dick's name around a lot recently (Minority Report opens, Blade Runner was on TV this weekend, friend was raving about him, etc.)

Have you read much of his work? I know the movies but how are the books?

Michael Dirda: Yes, I'm a longtime--forgive the term, a commonplace for PKD fans--Dickhead. The books are, as we '60s guys say, mind-blowing. Who else would have the heroes of a science fiction novel be the equivalent of typeriter repairmen? Or see the chrome-bright 21st century as a run-down, over populated ghetto, where no one knows how to fix anything? ANd of course his big theme--what is it to be human? And how do we know we are human, to begin with--is one open to more depth than it seems.

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

You wrote in your bio that you'd 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." What do you think of the book from last year that did all of that (except the Florida thing) "The Corrections."

I know everybody loved it. I did too. Until the last fifty pages. The ending felt like Franzen realized he'd written a 500 page novel and needed to wrap it up soon. Any thoughts.

Michael Dirda: Haven't read The Corrections. Hey, I'm on "vacation" and I'm rereading Anna Karenina.

New York, N.Y.: I could not finish Lasdun's The Horned Man. The first person narrative didn't work for me. The book plodded. I don't think it is at all like Russo's Straight Man, which made me laugh on almost every single page. The main character, too, was much more interesting than Lasdun's main character. The academic environment Lasdun was partially false and partially boring whereas Russo's seemed dead on (academic here). David Lodge's Small World, Nice Work, Paradise News, etc., are also really funny. Maybe I expected Lasdun's book to be funnier than it was.

Michael Dirda: I never suggested that The Horned Man was in the least funny--or if I did, I can't remember having done so (a Lasunian moment that). It's a dark, disturbing psychological thriller. I also love comic novels set in academe, having reviewed several of the Lodges you mention, as many others. Favorites? Jarrell's Pictures from an institution, Malcolm Bradbury's bitter The History man, Nabokov's Pnin, Lodge's Small World.

Wedding Planner: If you really want escape from wedding planning, try Watership Down. Heroism and no silly boy-girl (buck-doe) stuff.

Michael Dirda: thanks

Takoma Park, Md.: For such things as info on tapes of French books I've had great luck contacting the relevant embassy. There's always SOMEBODY homesick and literary-minded around an embassy.

Gosh, now I sound like a kind of sub-Graham Greene or something.

Michael Dirda: Being a sub-Graham Greene sort--a burnt out case or an honorary consul--there are worse fates.

Columbia, Md.: Re Lord of the Rings: Probably part of the appeal (for adolescents or anyone else) is that these books imply that there are epic struggles in life, that life means something and our efforts mean something. (Hmm. I'm sounding a little Apollonian here, aren't I?) Hopefully the kind of life-threatening moral decisions these books present will remain just escapism for all of us -- and we won't have to face them as so many do during wartime and dark periods like World War II. Just read Between Silk and Cyanide (a cryptographer recalls World War II and the many spies who risked torture and death to defeat the Nazis -- good book.)

Michael Dirda: Yes, we all secretly yearn to live lives of real consequence.

Arlington, Va.: Is there any chance that Book World will (or has) put out a guide to recently released children's books. I love to give books to children over summer vacation and for gifts. But, it's harder for me to find out by "word of mouth" which one's kids love and which ones are quality reads. Or, can you suggest a reliable source where I can find this information? Thanks.

Michael Dirda: Hmmm. ANother project for M. Dirda, Ph.D.--I reviewed kids books for 12 or more years and could do such a guide. For now, I"d look for Michele Landsberg's Reading for the Fun of it.

Washington, D.C.: Is it the newest translation of Anna Karenina you're reading? If so, what do you think?

Michael Dirda: No. I"m reading the classic Maude version. I'm not so sure about Pevear and Volokhonsky.

Washington, D.C. : Hi Michael: can you recommend a decent, lighthearted novel for a full time worker and graduate student? Something that I can pick up and put down precariously. I was thinking of the 4th Harry Potter. It's hard to fit it in, but I need my reading time! Thanks

Michael Dirda: Precariously? EVeryone loves Harry Potter, so if you're so inclinde, why not go with that?

not Takoma Park again, honest!: Michael, you might want to compare your re-reading of Anna K with my old friend Wendy Lesser's in her recent book on re-reading. Of course her middle age seems much more settled than yours, but she found herself focusing on Kitty and Levin and abhorring Anna's treatment of her son.

Interesting.

Michael Dirda: Everyone likes the more mature and sensible love story of Kitty and Levin. In fact, some say the book should have been called Constantine Levin instead of Anna K. But I prefer passion, upheaval, jealousy, confusion and broken hearts--give me intensity any day to sensible, rational matches. I live a life of caution and maturity; I don't need lessons about playing it safe.

Baltimore, Md.: You say you think about changing your life and you're rereading Anna Karenina -- are you ever so influenced by the plot of a book that it makes you change your behavior or at least seriously reflect on the course it has taken, or do you read more so for the beauty of the prose?

Michael Dirda: Yes, several books have changed my life profoundly. When I applid to college I used the obligatory essay to list the five that had most influenced me up to thta time: The Odyssey, Walden, Atlas Shrugged, Zorba the Greek, and Heart of Darkness.
See previous posting for more on Anna k. It's hard to read a translation for the beauty of the prose.

Takoma Park, Md.: The recently deceased Zena Sutherland kept her tome on kid's books pretty up to date. Can't remember the exact name, but she had good judgement and lots of influence finding new classics early.

Michael Dirda: Yes, and you can probably find the book in any public library's reference section.

Washington, D.C.: What did I lose if I read the most recent translation (by the couple) of Karenina?

Michael Dirda: Probably nothing.

Arlington, Va.: I just bought Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf after hearing how great it is. I was wondering if you could recommend good translations for Chaucer and Dante? Thanks!

Michael Dirda: It is great--I reviewed it after all. But as I said there, it isn't Beowulf--you need to read the Old ENglish, or at least for that. Certainly, you shouldn't read Chaucer in anything but Middle English--it's not that hard. Dante, you should pick up wiht a facing page translation. Standards are the old Temple edition--studied by T.S> Eliot, among other--by Wicksteed and Caryle; Laurence Binyon's; John SInclairs; and the very scholarly Charles Singleton's (with three volumes of commentary). You might prefer, htough, the poet's translations of recent years by Robert Pinsky of The INferno and W.S> Merwin of Purgatorio.

Takoma park, Md.: Sorry to be so wordy today; I'm trying to avoid reading an awful tome called Enterprise JavaBeans 2.0.

But WRT to fiction about writers, try making it about a painter, sculptor or architect. Same difference sort of, and those pawky ole editors don't always catch on that it is the same thing, mutatis mutandis.

Michael Dirda: thanks, Gully Jimson.

Brooklyn, N.Y.: Mr. Dirda --

The breath of your reading interests astounds me. How much of your time is devoted to reading in, let's say, one week? I know you do this for a living, but how do you keep up the energy to continue your reading constantly without losing your mind? Do you have time for any other activities?
Also, do you always finish books that you've started? If not, when do you give up on a book?

Michael Dirda: I read a lot, but by no means all the time. But I do remember what I read pretty well--largely becasue I move myu lips while reading. Books have been important to me, but then I'm almost as good on classical music and art--he said immodestly--not to mention sure-fire techniques on how to pick up women in bars.

Washington, D.C.: Oh it's getting late but how did any one of those books change your life? I'm so interested.

Michael Dirda: I was 16 when I read this sentence in Zorba: "I had fallen so low that if I had had to choose between falling in love with a woman or reading a book about love, I should have chosen the book." I went out on my first date three days later.

Crystal City, Va: Michael, on your recommendation I read Hughart's BRIDGE OF BIRDS, and it was wonderful, apart from a slight flaw I won't reveal here. It struck me as better than either Carroll's THE LAND OF LAUGHS or Pratchett's MORT, which I also recently read. He's only written two other books, it seems; are they as good?

Michael Dirda: The Story of the Stone is almost as good. And I'm still saving Eight Skilled Gentlemen. Pity he's stopped writing.

Pentagon, City, Va.: I'm sorry, but did you say Vonnegut is a COMIC author? I have read almost all of his books and comic is the last thing I would call him. Cynical, ironic, maybe, but not comic. I usually end up depressed as hell after reading him.

I do agree with you about his earlier works being better, though.

Michael Dirda: All right: black humorous. I mean that all human history has taken place so that a spare part can be transported to a marooned alien on Titan--that's funny, but yes, depressing too.

Charlotte, N.C.: Jane Austen has always been an author I go back to time and again. I was glad to see you praise Persuasion a couple of chats back - it's always been my favorite novel. Have you come across Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen mysteries? Plots are a trifle outlandish, but the verisimilitude is enchanting! I've been reduced to ordering hardbacks from Amazon.com as they are published! Great escapist literature for vacation reading...

Michael Dirda: thanks. nope, don't know the barron mysteries.

Laurel, Md.: Do you miss Crown Books?

The one near me has become a Books-a-Million, which seems almost exactly like Crown, except you have to carry their card to get the discounts, so I don't shop there.

Michael Dirda: I miss many things in life, starting with my beloved stuffed bunny, but I don't miss crown books.

New York, N.Y.:
Michael --

I know you read a huge volume of literature, and that sometimes means that you can't spend as much time with a given text as you'd like. So I'm curious -- what are some of the books that you've re-read the most often?

Michael Dirda: A huge volume of literature--is that like a double-elephant folio or something. I dip and redip into books a lot, but hitherto I haven't been much of a rereader. But I"m a very careful reader. And I remember everything in a story, as it unfolds, so that I can pick up the patterns.

Round Hill, Va.: Good afternoon. I notice that famed rap artist Busta Rhymes is "chatting" at this very same hour. Which leads me to the obvious question: If you were a rapper, what, pray-tell, would YOUR name be?

Michael Dirda: I see myself more as a Bruce Springsteen rocker, with a denim jacket embroidered "Born to Read."

And with that, we have reached the end of this week's inimitable hour with Dirda. Until next Wednesday at 1, keep reading!

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