Michael Dirda (The Post)

• Dirda on Books Archive • Book World • Talk: Books & Reading Message board • All Live Online Transcripts • Subscribe to washingtonpost.com e-mail newsletters • mywashingtonpost. com -- customized news, traffic, weather and more

Dirda on Books
Hosted by Michael Dirda
Washington Post Book World Senior Editor
Thursday, Feb. 27, 2003; 2 p.m. ET

Washington Post Book World Senior Editor Michael Dirda took your questions and comments Thursday, Feb. 27 at 2 p.m. concerning literature, books and the joys of reading.

Each week Dirda's name appears -- in unmistakably big letters -- on page 15 of The Post's Book World section. If he's not reviewing a hefty literary biography or an ambitious new novel, he's likely to be turning out one of his idiosyncratic essays or 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.

Read any good books lately?: I am devastated by the scandal of the Beverly Lowry review in the New York Times of the Sharon McDougal book, wherein Lowry, apparently, didn't read the book. Then to read the Evening Standard editor who says this happens all the time!

Say it ain't so, Joe, er, Michael!

Michael Dirda: Welcome to Dirda on Books! It's cold, gray, dreary, snowy, and altogether yucky here in Washington. Would that I were back in Orlando! Or sipping beer at the Breakers in New Smyrna Beach, while gazing out at the waves making to the pebbled shore (just as our minutes hasten to their end, to coin a phrase). Ah, let me just close my eyes a moment! Yes, the surfers are riding the whitecaps, the volley ball game stars a delightful young thing in the barest of thongs, my companion is . . . well, I'd better wrench myself away from the Florida sunshine and turn to the work at hand. Books! Yes, for the next hour we'll discuss books, publishing, etc. On with the program!

I know nothing of this supposed Lowry scandal. One of my colleagues did send me a clip about A.N. Wilson receiving a review from Paul Johnson before he'd sent out thej book. This is not, let me reassure the anxious, the common practice of reviewers. Still, one can sometimes tell that a book has been skimmed rather than truly read--there are secret signs, known only to book review editors and that we are pledged never to reveal. And, of course, the famous wit Sydney Smith once observed that he never read the books he reviewed because it tended to prejudice him.

Woodlands, Tex.:
Mr. Dirda,

Thank you for the chats. First, how would you rate Graham Greene relative to 20th century writers? Which of his books, if any, can claim greatness or near greatness? Also, I am a big fan of Peter DeVries. Are you familiar with him, and, if so, how would you rate his talent and his product?

Can you recommend any other authors based on the fact that I like Greene and DeVries?

Thank you for your time.

Michael Dirda: Greene is, for the moment I think, in that limbo of uncertainty that follows a writer's death. He wrote a lot, probably too much, but he possesses a flair for storytelling and taking the reader into whatever realms he wanted to go. I suspect that among the "entertainments" This Gun for Hire (aka A Gun for Sale) and The Third Man will last; among the novels: Brighton Rock, The Power and the Glory and one or two others. A Sort of Life and the essays are also quite good. Still, Greene wasn't an innovator and its those who make it new who tend to remain in the canon.
De Vries is one of those witty moralists I tend to like a lot-though I've never quite been crazy abou this books as I am about much of Evelyn Waugh, say. Already I fear he's being forgotten. I suspect he will become a cult author, rather like E.F. Benson in his Lucia books. Still, I've only read one or two novels, even though I own about a dozen. One of these days. I've always like the schoolteacher in Slouching Toward Kalamazoo who wears a scarlet A Plus.

Pentagon, Arlington, Va.: This is for the chatters who need a book for one more snow bound weekend. If you haven't read Seabiscuit: An American Legend yet, run, don't walk, to the nearest book store. (Before the movie comes out.) Who knew a book about a horse could be so great. The author is amazing, I felt like I was IN the race. And just in case you think you aren't a horse enthusiast, the book is so much more, the stories of people, history, Americans and cars, East Coast v. West Coast. Great book!

Michael Dirda: Nothing like enthusiasm, I always say: Still, a book about a horse. I would have thought Black Beauty and The Black Stallion pretty much exhausted the material.

Front Royal, Va.: I've been reading "Quo Vadis," by Henryk Sienkiewicz, and loving it. Apparently he won the Nobel for Literaturein 1905, but I'd never heard of him before (not really up on Polish authors). Any thoughts on the rest of his work? I've been considering "With Fire and Sword."

Michael Dirda: Never read him myself. I assigned Fire and Sword when it was newly translated--all I can remember is that it was long. But Polish literature is filled with interesting writers--Gombrowicz, Milosz, Schulz, etc etc.

Atlanta, Ga.: I'm about 100 pages into SUTTREE by Cormac McCarthy. It's the Modern Library edition -- "The World's Best Books." That's good enough for me! Although the language is lovely, I haven't any sympathy for the characters. Any insight on the book would be appreciated.

Michael Dirda: I think you'll need to focus on the beauty of the language. It's a convention only of popular fiction that a book requires a sympathetic hero. But without one, the author is throwing away his most valuable reader-hook.

Takoma Park, Md.: Secret signs? Quoting the jacket copy too liberally? Using worn-out cliches as opposed to fresh sparkling cliches?

Failing to correct the obvious error of cultural fact planted in the advance printing to catch incautious reviewers?

Michael Dirda: Ah, I see that the Secret Order of Book Critics will have to send you the Black Spot for revealing the sodality's secrets. If a large black Bookmobile pulls up in front of your house, know that you have only a few minutes to get your library in order.

New York, N.Y.: I have not read any of PG Wodehouse's books, but they come very highly recommended on this online chat. Is there one that you recommend to start with?

Michael Dirda: You can acquire a collection:The Most of P.G. Wodehouse or The Weekend Wodhouse. Personally, I think the book to start with is Leave it to Psmith.

Annapolis, Md.: Hello and thank you,

You always give such wonderful advice and my "to read" list has grown to mammoth proportions because of you.

Today, however, I would like to recommend an author to you and the rest of the Book World gang rather than ask for a recommendation from you.

Sheri S. Tepper writes wonderful science fiction. I highly recommend her to anyone. Her stories deal with large themes like feminism, ecology, religion, the needs of the individual vs. the needs of the society, and much more. But even dealing with such heavy themes she writes stories that move and keep you turning pages in breathless excitement. Her novel Grass is a good place to start. Singer from the Sea kept me up past midnight last night (the coffeepot was my best friend this morning) and I can't want to start on The Gate to Women's Country.

Happy Reading!

Michael Dirda: Thanks. We've occasionally reviewed Tepper's work in our sf column. Always glad to pass the word.

Cambridge, Mass.: If you could pick one book to be able to have the experience of reading it for the first time again, what would it be?

Michael Dirda: Essentially, you're asking what book gave me the most intense reading pleasure in five decades of reading? I'll give you four or five: Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, Bester's The Stars My Destination, Thoreau's Walden, Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu, oh this is too hard.

Richmond, Va.: Back in Snow Central after several weeks in sunnier climes -- natch, first thing I caught up on was Dirda on Books transcripts. And I was well rewarded as I was treated to my first introduction to Richard Wilbur's poetry. Lovely stuff, and quite a change from my current reading, an abridged version of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire -- which I began on Joseph Epstein's recommendation (it's the book he says he wants to reread before he dies) AND because I finally went on a long delayed trip to Rome (so I figured this was the right time for me to read it the first time). Turns out it was PERFECT for Rome (I love a thoughtfully opinionated guy) but I had to run out and buy Vasari's "Lives of the Artists" for Florence -- harder to wade through but it really enhanced my viewing of Michaelangelo's Last Judgement, learning that the guy in the lower right hand corner with his genitals being hidden by snapping serpent was some poor guy who dared to critique the copious nudes in a painting designed for the Sistine Chapel.

And my question(s) -- is there any particular book you want to reread -- mine is Middlemarch. And before I die I want to finish at least ONE of Henry James' longer books (the shorter ones I've been able to get through)-- which should it be?

Michael Dirda: Wonderful posting. I recommend the Naxos audio tape or CD of Gibbon--abridged on 16 cds or tapes--quite wonderful narrator.
To reread? Oh, within in a year or two I intend to spend all my time just rereading books. Mostly the classics: Dante, Shakespeare, the Bible, Wordsworth, Flaubert, Joyce, etc.
Of the longer books you should read Portrait of a Lady and of the later novels probably The Ambassadors or The Golden Bowl.

Speaking of Wodehouse: I just read my first, Picadilly Jim, on a flight last week. Hilarious and very satisfying. I just don't understand why it hasn't been made a film more recently than the 30s. I hope they're all that good!

Michael Dirda: Oh, at least a score are top-hole. But none of the movies is any good.

New York: After your repeated recommendations (and those of friends) I sat down to read His Dark Materials -- although I was troubled by the alleged anti-religion in the book, I had heard such good things about his writing that I felt I had to try. I got part way through the second book before I gave up -- the comment that all religions want to degrade and destroy people was too much. Moreover, I had yet to encounter a single character with religious beliefs who was not evil. I was greatly disappointed in his books, even as I recognized his talent. Moreover, I lost respect for Pullman after reading several interviews where he discusses his hatred of the Chronicles of Narnia, because he felt the Christianity was too heavyhanded and all the good characters had to believe a certain way -- in my opinion, Pullman does the same thing. What is your view on the Narnia series? And have you ever given up on a book or author because his or her ideas/beliefs were too antithetical to yours?

Michael Dirda: In my reviews of the books I stressed the disturbing character of their religious views, particularly in the last volume. These didn't bother me, as I believe in the free expression of all kinds of ideas. I tend to agree with Pullman that religion is as often a force for wickedness as it is for good. But certainly a devout Christian would find the books offensive in places.

Need Help: I've run out of books to read so I have to go back to the store. Your advice please: Should I go for a little nostalgia and buy the Piers Anthony compendium (with the first three Xanth novels) or try for something I haven't read before. -- maybe something by Patricia Highsmith?

Michael Dirda: Go for the new (especially if the old is Piers Anthony). Try Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley or Strangers on a Train. Very satisfying, black-humoroed thrillers.

NW Washington, D.C.: Michael,
thought you'd like this: in a Simpsons video game my brother was playing, you can drive around as Rev. Lovejoy in a book-burning mobile. He even stops and tosses out a flaming copy of "Little Women" ... priceless.

Michael Dirda: Cool. As Montag remarks in Fahrenheit 451: "It was a pleasure to burn."

Washington, D.C.: Is poetry inherently middlebrow? It seems to me that the essence of poetry is the fetishizing of words. If the genre's focus is really on words rather than ideas, isn't that middlebrow?

Michael Dirda: Interesting idea, compactly expressed. My view of prose and poetry is this: Prose is a glad-handing politician, working the crowd, smiling, making sure that everyone likes him; poetry is Clint Eastwood, standing alone a dusty street in a serape, unconcerned about what anyone thinks of him and knowing he's the best.

Terra Bibliofilia: Evelyn Waugh said somewhere that the rule when he was young was that if you were going to give a book a bad review, you should at least read it first.

As for Polish literature, you mentioned the great untapped 20/c writers. But what about the greats of the 19/c: Mickiewicz, Sowacki, Norwid, inter al. Poland is so much closer to the Western tradition than is, say, Russia, but how much better known are Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Turgenev? If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that the partition of Poland throughout the 19/c helped keep those Polish writers obscure to Western critics.

Michael Dirda: I suspect you're right. My own knowledge of Polish literature is pretty much restricted to those of the mid 20th century.

Pleasantville, N.Y.: Any opinion on Mikhail Sholokov? To my mind, one of the most overlooked writers of the 20th century.

Michael Dirda: Maybe. But wasn't there some scandal that he didn't actually write And Quiet Flows the Don?

Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.: Hi Michael,

Thanks for another great chat. I've recently discovered Harry Crews and have throughly enjoyed The Gypsy's Curse, The Car, and several of his essays. I find his characters and the way they confront life's realities so matter-of-factly truly absorbing. I wonder if you could recommend any of his recent works or other authors whose material addresses similar themes. Thanks much.

Michael Dirda: You might like his autobiography, A Childhood. Also many people think A Feast of Snakes may be his best book. As for others, well, look into Charles Willeford--not so much the Hoke Moseley thrillers (Miami Blues) as Cockfighter and The Burnt Orange Heresy. In general, you might also want to check out the hard-boiled pulp writers: Jim Thompson, David Goodis, etc.

Cubesville, Md.: Saw "The Hours" movie recently, which I thought was excellent and more than did justice to the book. Don't remember past discussions of Virginia Woolf, to whose Mrs Dalloway the Hours is essentially a tribute. I know Mrs Dalloway is popular for teaching, it's more accessible than some of Woolf's work (The Waves, for example) but have a hard time seeing it as her best work. What is your take on Woolf?

Michael Dirda: I'm very fond of her essays, but could never read her novels. A profound failing, and one I keep trying to rectify. I start Orlando and go a couple of pages and grow bored. But I keep buying hardback firsts of her books when I find them cheap enough--American editions--and hope one day to immerse myself in The Waves, travel To the Lighthouse, and get caught Between the Acts.

Washington, D.C.: Hello Michael -- To continue the Wodehouse theme, I read "Leave It to Psmith" a year or so ago on your recommendation, and just loved it. Then, on a trip to New York City last week, I found "Mike and Psmith," which tells of Psmith's boyhood days at boarding school. It's just hilarious, and I would certainly recommend it to anyone who is fond of "Leave It to Psmith."

Michael Dirda: Thanks.

"boys" books?: Dear Michael --

I am asking this question of you based on your experience as a father with boys. My son, 8, is betwixt and between, in that his reading skills and vocab is large, yet his emotional maturity is not. As his mom, I am at a loss as to what to suggest/look for to supplement his own library finds. He has enjoyed Brain Jaques and Lemony Snicket, yet he is disdainful of "series." He was unimpressed with Harry Potter. He is interested in Gary Paulson, and has read "Hatchet," but a lot of the themes in Paulson's other books seem too adolescent for him (for him, girls still have cooties). Other books I think of still seem too "grown-up" in my opinion (Wrinkle in Time, Heinlein Juvies).

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Michael Dirda: Tough age. Paulsen does have a couple of sequels to Hatchet--Brian's Winter is one. Brian Jaques has a good non Redwall book called Castaways of the Jolly Roger, about the Flying Dutchman. You might try Edward Eager's Half Magic books--that's the title of the first, funny fantasy. In a more modern vein, Daniel Pinkwater: Lizard Music, The Hoboken CHicken Emergency, the two Snarkout Boys books. I'd also suggest talking to librarians and children's bookstore staffers.

Woodbridge, Va.: To Michael and Posters: In reading the transcripts over the past few months I recall seeing both requests for recommendations for locked door mysteries and for snow related reading (although the latter, as I recall, was earlier in the season, before we had so much snow in real life!)

Anyway, here are two recommendations: Jill McGown’s Murder in the Old Vicarage and Lawrence Block’s A Burglar in the Library. Both are about murders occurring in settings worthy of Agatha Christie: McGown’s setting is an English country vicarage and Block’s a country inn located in an old upstate New York mansion. Both are well-plotted mysteries. The Block book has the extra benefit of being very funny, a spoof of the old English cozies. I originally bought this book when you, Michael, recommended the Rhodenbarr books in this chat. This particular novel is delightful, partly because of the ongoing comments by Rhodenbarr, who sells books and who has gone to the inn hoping to steal a Raymond Chandler first edition, about Christie, Chandler, and whether the murders they are solving are like Christie or like Chandler.

Michael Dirda: I don't know that McGown, but I reviewed that particular Rhodenbarr. It is fun, though Block makes a big factual mistake in the book (which I won't point out here). The universe of mysteries is so vast that one read nothing but for the rest of time.

Charlotte, N.C.: Just a comment about the Seabiscuit recommendation. You mentioned Black Beauty and the Black Stallion, but neglected the one whose name alone can take adult women back to their 10-year old selves: Misty of Chiconteague. There is something about young girls and horses that has no parallel in adult life, and all my senses come in to play in the memory of reading that book as a child. Even, as a grown woman, visiting Chiconteague for the Annual Pony Swim, even seeing the great-great-great grandaughter of Misty herself in a stable on the island, didn't come close, because by then my childhood sensibilities had become muted by the real world. If there were a way to recapture the magic of our childhood reading experiences, I'd pay any price.

Michael Dirda: Any price? Well, heh, heh, heh. Just sign below and my associates and I will permit you to feel again the joy of a first reading of Misty of Chincoteague. P.S. What a bargain! We usually have to offer vast fortunes, power, beautiful men or women. . .

I--your name here--promise to deliver my immortal soul to .....

Yes, I know about Misty. My wife seems to have the same feelings as you about that book. But I loathed animal books as a kid: I think out of fear of the pain caused when the animal is, usually, hurt, lost or otherwise mistreated.

Silver Spring, Md.: To the Lighthouse is probably the Woolf with the best balance between readability and greatness. Probably better than Mrs. D, with some amazing stuff that hovers between stream of consciousness and naturalistic writing.

The Waves is accessible but only on second reading.

Michael Dirda: Thanks.

Pleasantville, N.Y.: Yes, exactly what I think of much poetry, fetishizing of words. Excellent description. Now, why are the really great poets not like this? Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Shelley? Why so much damn navel-gazing now?
Don't say triviality of the times; movies don't suffer from that, when they are good.

Michael Dirda: In fact, there are hundreds of poets surrounding Milton or Shakespeare that we no longer read. In another hundred years, we'll go back to the works of perhaps two dozen poets in English from our lifetime. All the ohters will be represented by a poem or two in a volume called Minor Poets of the Twentieth century. Even the greatest poets write reams of verse that no one reads any more. Coleridge and Shelley, for instance, are remembered for a half dozen poems each, when they wrote scores of others.

Diagnosis: Ah, another victim of Old Yeller Syndrome. My sympathy.

Michael Dirda: INdeed. I would never see the movie of Old Yeller again without the offer of vast sums of money. Same is true of The Yearling.

Woodbridge, Va.: Maybe we could have a chat in which we discuss what we as readers want from book reviews and whether we think we get it or not.

Michael Dirda: Sure. Let's do this next week. Book Reviews--what works, what doesn't. We'll have to start, of course, from the premise that Mine Are The Best. If we can agree on this minor premise, I foresee a fine discussion.

The Ardent:
Once again, thanks for the chats!

My girlfriend and I have tried reading to each other. She is reading Manon Lescaut in French for a project, and I read a section of it in English to her. The story might be a roller-coaster, but reading to another is fun; hopefully this continues.

I do have one question, relating more to reading than to specific titles. She finished reading "First Love" for project on love and the absurd and found herself depressed after the ending. (I haven't read it.) She also has found herself frightened after reading some French stories of the fantastic (e.g. demons attempting to take over) for a class of hers.

Any suggestions on how to cope with this? It's admirable to see her moved by literature, but how much movement can one be expected to handle with stories without one's brain or spirit 'turning to mush'? I had heard Harold Bloom had real trouble working through "Blood Meridian" before completing it.

Michael Dirda: I don't quite get this question. People are supposed to react to what they read: first in a visceral, human way--ie the sadness at the end of Old Yeller--but then in a more dispassionate, analytic way: Why do I feel this way? How did the novel produce this effect? Etc. etc. If your girlfriend can read scary stories without feeling any twinge of fear or fail to be downcast by love gone wrong, I'd be worried about her lack of human empathy.

Richmond, Va.: I find myself in agreement with the poster who did not enjoy the Dark Materials trilogy -- I found Pullman very heavy-handed in his critique of Christianity (more a reaction to Milton than Paul) and his protagonists really lightweights against the great evil they were supposedly fighting -- at least Milton didn't stack the deck.

I also got the impression from some print interviews that Pullman actually thinks of this stuff as more a personal theology than fiction. I wish he would read Lewis's Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength) and take that on instead of Narnia which is too easy/obvious a target -- I began reading the the first as an antidote to The Amber Spyglass (which I really disliked although I had enjoyed The Golden Compass quite a bit) and plan to move right into finishing the next two -- I also think Lewis' Abolition of Man would be instructive for Pullman as well -- well, at any rate, I learned a lot from it.

Michael Dirda: Thanks. Good luck on the Lewis project. I do agree that The Golden Compass is the best book in the trilogy.

Takoma Park, Md.: I stand warned. I shall bundle my copies of Cold Comfort Farm, Peter Leroy and everything by Virginia Woolf and Richard Powers and David Lodge and Terry Pratchett into a bookcase by the door, in order to be ready.

But seriously (ha), an author I think more readers would like is Eric Kraft. His series on the Life and Times of Peter Leroy, now in multiple volumes, is funny and serious and deep. All the things I want in a book.

Michael Dirda: Yes, I kept meaning to read Kraft--and now the days have piled up and I wonder if I'll ever get round to his work. Ah, to vary the line of Tennyson: Not lips, but books that are for others.

Colchester, Vt.: I was pleased that Ian McEwan's Atonement won the National Book Critics Circle prize. I enjoyed that book on so many different levels and regard as the best novel I've read in a long time. I suspect that it may be a book that is still being read 50 years from now. What did you think of it?

Michael Dirda: Never read it. It's hard for me to find time to read any contemporary novel I'm not going to review. When I have spare time, I'm afraid I turn to older books, classics, favorite authors, neglected Victorian fiction.

Silver Spring, Md.: Among Polish writers don't forget Pope John Paul George Ringo, who has published quite a few books over the decades.

And, more seriously, Wiszlawa Szymborska, whose newish book of literary essays is terrific.

Michael Dirda: thanks

The Billiards Club, London: A whisky for my friend Jorkens, please, and one for Mr Dirda for introducing me to Lord Dunsany's amazing stories. I'm looking forward to the re-release of them, so I can start giving them as gifts to friends. In the meantime, another whisky!

Michael Dirda: Here! Here! Just let me pull my chair closer to the fire--

Arlington, Va.: Hi Michael:

Since Washingtonians still can't handle snow, I think it is best if I stay inside cuddled up with some hot chocolate, a warm blanket and a book. I'm stopping by Border's on my way home. Can you suggest a sleeper fiction and non-fiction book that would be great for a weekend read. Thanks.

Michael Dirda: Oh, there are so many. How about Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White? Or if that's too long an AGatha Christie like The ABC Murders? For nonfiction: a good biography. Pick someone you're interested in. Delve beyond the best seller tables.

Herndon, Va.: Mr. D: You would mention "Old Yeller." I can't get THAT scene from the movie out of my mind -- who cares about all the new puppies at the end? While we're all recommending books, let me give my semi-annual plug for any of George MacDonald Fraser's, but, if we have to be specific: non-fiction, "Quartered Safe out Here" (you'll never be able to forget the WWII Burma campaign after reading it); fiction, take either of two, "yours" -- "The Pyrates" or mine, "Flashman."

Michael Dirda: Thanks. Fraser would be a good choice for the previous poster too. Or Patrick O'Brian.

Venus: Hello Michael. I'm going by myself to Paris next week for a long weekend break. I've never been there before. What reading would you recommend to get me in the mood?

Michael Dirda: Paris for the weekend! Read the stand alone section of Proust: Swann in Love.

Mt. Airy, Md.: Last week you were critical of on-demand publishing. How else can unknown authors get published? Do you automatically question the artistic value of an author not blessed by the East Coast elitist press?

Michael Dirda: NOt exactly. But I figure that if your book is any good, somebody-whether university press, trade publisher, or small press--will want to publish it. If no one does, you need to make your book better. Otherwise you are bringing out a book solely to satisfy your own vanity.

Terra Bibliofilia: Speaking of mysteries, have you read John Dunning's Cliff Janeway bibliomysteries (BOOKED TO DIE & THE BOOKMAN'S WAKE)?

I heard Dunning speak at the San Francisco International Antiquarian Book Fair a couple of weeks ago, and he promised two more Janeway mysteries on the way.

Michael Dirda: I read the first one, and figured out the plot twist once I realized the collecting character of the two guys who lived next door to each other. I liked the book--but not the sudden irruption of gory violence that seemed quite out of place.

Alexandria, Va.: Is "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" a work of literature or of history?

Can literature include not merely memoirs and novels but history as well?

Michael Dirda: Literature and history. Of course, lit includes history: Herodotus, Thucydides, Macaulay, among others. History must be artful--stylistically appealing, etc.--to be read beyond the lifetime of its author.

Richmond, Va.: Or -- for the week-end in Paris -- if you can find it -- Paris Was Yesterday by Janet Flanner, pretty sure it is out of print but there used to be lots of copies in used bookstores!

Michael Dirda: Oh, yes. Any of Flanner's books would be ideal: Paris Journals, Men and Monuments, etc.

Washington, D.C.: I had always been prejudiced against Graham Greene. I thought of him as sort of a dated scenester -- until I saw the movie of "The Quiet American" with its intriguing moral issues. What book(s) do you recommend as a good place to start on Greene?

washingtonpost.com: Don't forget to check out the movie "The Third Man" -- also penned by Greene.

Michael Dirda: Yes. "One never knows when the blow will fall." (opening of novella Third Man). Start with the essay, The Lost Childhood, then read A Sort of Life, then This Gun for Hire, then Brighton Rock, then The Power and the Glory, then The Heart of the Matter.

Still cold in Buffalo, N.Y.: Are you familiar with Mexico's Juan Rulfo? I recently read his (only) novel Pedro Paramo and found this short book a completely devesting and compelling read. Ghosts and dust and shadows -- I believe this work had to have influenced a young Cormac McCarthy esp. in the amazing Blood Meridian. One can only imagine why or what compelled a writer of such vision to stop publishing such as Rulfo did.

Do you know any other writers who, with one or a few "strong" works, stop publishing altogether?

Michael Dirda: Yes, I've read Pedro Paramo--Garcia Marquez says it greatly influence his own ONe Hundred Years of Solitude. There was a book of Rulfo's miscellaneous writing coupled with photographs a while back.

Michael Dirda: Oops, time's come and gone. Till next week--when we'll discuss book reviews, and anything else--keep reading.

   |      |