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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.

Orlando, Fla.: Sigh. So I start college in the fall and need to know: Which is the best thesaurus to have?

Michael Dirda: Welcome to Dirda on Books! For the next hour, questions about, well, books, get answered by, well, me--and sometimes by you. Let's see what's on this week's agenda:

Orlando! Are you going to the University of Central Florida? Give my regards to Drs. Trouard, Stearman, Schell, et al.
There are basically two kinds of thesaurus--those which are like dictionaries and those which are like indexes. In the first you look up beautiful and it gives you synonyms; in the other you look up beautiful in the back of the book and it breaks down the term into various categories and you go to the one that seems right. The dictionary format is easier to use, but not as thorough. I prefer the classic Roget's with index, and in fact prefer an old beat up edition from the 1940s. It's taped together at this point and must be the book I've used most in my life.

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SciFiGirl: Submitting early, but germane to a discussion a little while ago in this forum on opening lines. This article in the Independent talks about opening lines, and has a little quiz asking you to identify the opening lines of some books. Though, apparantly, the line they identify as being the first in Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, is wrong. Which makes the whole quiz suspect -- fun, but suspect.

Michael Dirda: Thanks. No time to look now, but later perhaps.

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Arlington, Va.: What Picasso biography would you reccomend? Thanks.

Michael Dirda: The standard life, though as yet incomplete, is John Richardson's--in two big volumes, so far. There's a short one by Patrick O'Brian of Aubrey-Maturin fame, and Francoise Gilot's Life with Picasso is fun to read.

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Raleigh, N.C.: I am going on a vacation to Hawaii and will have a lot of down-time to spend reading. I'd like to have something that is about, or at least set in, Hawaii. Any suggestions?

Michael Dirda: Well, there is James Michener's fat novel--it does give you a lot of history and tells a reasonably good story.
And then there's From Here to Eternity.
Can anyone else suggest books about Hawaii? I've never been there and never particularly wanted to go.

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Alexandria, Va.: Someone once told me that no skilled author will ever use the term "his or her."

Is there always a way for a skilled writer to avoid this phrase?

Another person told me never to use the passive voice. Will a skilled writer minimize his or her (oops) use of the passive voice?

Michael Dirda: In olden days, you just said "his" and that was supposed to embrace all humanity, regardless of sex. Some people started using "his or her" to be more exact, while others opted for "their" as covering both sexes, even if grammatically incorrect. I do use his or her, sometimes just his, and occasionally just her. The easiest way around this problem is to recast the sentence into the plural, so that you can write "their."
As for passive voice: In general, avoid it. But the real rule is listen to your sentences and make them as lively as you can.

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Arlington, Va.: When reading modern plays I often see the text "(beat)" interspersed with the dialogue.
Is this the same thing as a pause, or is it intended as some sort of directive to the actor? Should the reader of the play simply ignore it?

Michael Dirda: I've never seen this term in a printed play, but then the only plays I tend to read are those of Shakespeare and the Jacobeans, Shaw and Beckett.

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Kingstowne, Va.: Watching the media swoon over the Hillary book has reminded me of one of my favorite Michael Dirda quotes: "All memoirs are fiction." Any idea why people are so gullible that they believe Hillary has written, or even read, a single paragraph in her book? Thanks.

Michael Dirda: Oh, I suspect she's read the book and worked on it too--with a ghost writer. No publisher would trust an eight million dollar investment to a neophyte author.
I don't understand the frenzy over this book--a couple of exchanges with Bill about Monica Lewinsky--but what else? Where's the exitement? I must admit that I find both Clintons loathesome--but then I also find our current president a proto fascist. The best thing about this administration is Laura Bush, who does care about books to some degree.
There are times I think that the last president I liked was Richard Nixon--he was a liar and a crook but he had stature.

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Swim-two-birds: Michael:

A couple of weeks ago, you described Nabokov as a "cold" writer and at first I nodded in agreement, but I've given it more thought and now I think I disagree. While Nabokov prided himself on his detachment, and scorned those who believe that a good piece of literature is one with cahracters with whom the reader can "identify," there is nothing cold about his depiction of the death of Hazel Shade and her father's grief in "Pale Fire," nor about the love story that is at the heart of "The Gift." I think Nabokov felt for some of his characters more than he liked to let on. Conversely, the hatred of totalitarianism manifested in "Bend Sinister" and "Invitation to a Beheading" and sympathy for its victims are palpable. Nabokov tried to remain detached as a prophylactic against sentimentality, but that's not the same as coldness.

Michael Dirda: Well argued. And you're right too--Vlad loved his own Dad dearly etc. etc. But still. I revere his genius but he's simply not a guy one can warm to. And Vera was worse.

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Fairfax, Va.: I'm reading Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley," a charming story about his cross-country trip in a camper with his French poodle.

He was in his 50s when he decided to make the trip because he felt the need to reconnect with the people and to reexamine the country.

You ever have the desire to make such a trip?

Michael Dirda: Only in his fifties! God, I remember reading this book in high school and thinking that Steinbeck was on death's door, aged beyond belief.
No, I think about running away from everything. I'd get some simple-minded job at a Florida marina or in a bar where I could look at pretty girls. Somehow I"d also get a lobotomy that would forestall the usual angst I am prey to. I'd check books out of the library and not own any. I'd grow increasingly eccentric and, in due time, be found dead in my boardinghouse room, surrounded by reams of manuscript--my great work--which the landlady would throw out with the trash. Alternately, I'd get taken away by aliens and be fed happy pills and given beautiful earth women with whom to mate. Or An Open Book will be a fabulous best seller and I can move to Paris. Or. . . Dissatisfaction is my middle name.

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Somewhere, USA: A point, and a question.

For me, Joan Didion, especially in her essays, is simply the best writer in the world. I love her wit, sarcasm, and ability to cut to the real heart of things.

Given that style of writing (although I'm open to all suggestions) I need some advice. I am travelling to Brazil for a month, (Rio, Amazon, and then two weeks in Salvador) and am looking for some good reading to bring with me. Brazil related a big plus. (Just finished Updike's Brazil)

Michael Dirda: JD is a terrific writer--I was lucky to have dinner with her a few months back after our public conversation about Slouching Toward Bethlehem.
Why not read some of the books that Updike mentions in Brazil as giving him inspiration? In particular, the novels of Machado de Assis--Braz Cubas (aka Epitaph for a Small Winner), Philospher or Dog, etc etc.

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Sacramento, Calif.: Some of Joan Didion's essays -- White Album? Slouching? -- involve Hawaii.

Michael Dirda: Slouching. Beautiful description of a woman weeping at a military grave, twisting and untwisting a bunch of flowers.

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SciFiGirl: In answer to Arlington's question about the (beat) in plays, they can be interpreted as pauses. But actors divide their lines into beats, which helps them figure out the best way to play the lines timing-wise. Why people put them in published plays is beyond me. When I acted, I wanted to figure out my own timing.

Michael Dirda: Manyh thanks.

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Bored at 12th and Penn., Washington, D.C.: Mr. Dirda:

Who will play the mature Dirda in the screen adaptation of "An Open Book?" From your picture, I'd nominate Kevin Kline.

Michael Dirda: A good choice. I have a new picture though, which I need to put up here. I always wanted Harrison Ford, but Kline does have more of my personality.

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Ballston, Va.: Dear Michael --

Inspired by your recommendation, I began reading "Wolves of Willoughby Chase" last night to my 8-year old son.

All I can say is: Wow!

Because it was getting late, we were limited to reading only one chapter -- but what a great chapter! Aiken's use of language is very compelling, and very visual. My son was VERY impressed with the heroine, and reluctantly went to bed. Can't wait 'til tonight!

Thanks!

Michael Dirda: Great to hear! You've got about nine more books in the series to go--in Black Hearts in Battersea (the next one) she introduces her great heroine, Dido Twite. It is my belief, increasingly confirmed by subsequent books, that Simon will become king of England and Dido end up Queen. Be that as it may, Aiken's language is wonderfully rumbustious.

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Carlisle, Pa.: re Hawaii -- "The Revolt of Mamie Stover" by William Bradford Huie is a delightful seriocomic novel about social class and the changes wrought by WWII in Honolulu. The narrator becomes the principal character in Huie's follow-up novel "The Americanization of Emily." Both are well worth searching for.

Michael Dirda: THanks. I know of the books--weren't there movies?--but have never read either.

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Aloha!: Good books about/taking place in Hawaii: "The Shoals of Time" is a history, and "Voyages of Discovery" about Captain Cook's explorations of the Pacific (this I read on the beach at Wailea, Maui years ago).

Michael Dirda: thanks too.

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Arlington, Va.: Hi Michael: Glad to see that the Library of Congress will host another book festival in October. I went to both and they were great. Is this going to be an event that continues after the Bush Admin? It seems like every major city has a book festival and it just took DC a long time to get our own.

Michael Dirda: Don't really know if the festival will keep going. I suspect that it might readily lapse without somebody in power being interested.

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Lewisville, Tex.: So many books, so little time. Sigh.
What I need to shake off my despondency
Is an achievable reading list consisting of a wide sample of literary gems. Let’s call it The Dirda 100. You must already have a semblance of it in your head, or on paper, right? How about sharing it with us?

Michael Dirda: Oh, gosh. I could do such a list, but it would only seem worthwhile insofar as it was idioysyncratic. But then it wouldn't be canonical. If you want to read 100 great established classics, look for Clifton Fadiman's Lifetime Reading Plan, or check out the authors and books in The Great Books of the Western World (I'd use different editions, though, and better translations, in some cases).
My memoir, An Open Book, does contain a reading list similar to what you describe as an appendix--but it's simply the classics I"d read by the time I was 16, most of them between the ages of 13 and 16. I've never read so much or so intensely as then. Let me add: This is not to say I understood those books very well--but my eyes passed over the sentences of The Magic Mountain and Rousseau's Confessions.

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RE:books about Hawaii: Paradise News by David Lodge.

Michael Dirda: Oh yes: I even reviewed that. NOt one of Lodge's best, but still fun.

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Bethesda, Md.: Hello, I just finished Margaret Atwood’s amazing new book “Oryx and Crake” -- have you read it, and if so, what did you think? Are you an Atwood fan in general? I was absolutely enthralled by The Blind Assassin and this one is just as good, maybe better.
Thanks!

Michael Dirda: Reviewed Blind Assassin, which I liked with a number of rerservations. I do like Atwood, but don't feel drawn to this new book.

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Washington, D.C.: Hi there. I wanted to ask some reccomendations for travel writing. I have always been attracted to travel writing in all forms and have liked anything from Bill Bryson to a 16th sentury travelogue by a priest through Spain that I found wandering the stacks in college (the book sthat is, not the priest). I am currently reading through a "Salon.com" anthology of short travel essays by various writers. Any reccommendaitons? Thanks!

Michael Dirda: Oh, this is a big genre, but here are some high spots:
Eothen, by A.W. Kinglake
The Road to Oxiana, by Robert Byron
Brazilian Adventure, by Peter Fleming
A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, by Eric Newby
In Patagonia, by Bruce Chatwin
Old Glory, Jonathan Raban
The Wilder Shores of Love, by Leslie Blanch

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Palookaville: Arts and letters Daily today links to a piece on Weldon Kees, a writer and poet apparently quite admired by other poets but completely unfamiliar to me. I found a couple of his poems online and they seemed decent, but didn't wow me. Admittedly, I didn't have enough time to spend with them to make a proper judgment. Have you read him? What's your take?

Michael Dirda: Have read one or two, and he seems appealing to me. We have a review of the Kees bio in the works. Our new NEA director, Dana Gioia, is Kees's best known and most vocal champion.

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Somewhere, USA: As per usual this time of year, I've shifted into a lighter reading gear. I just finished The Horned Man and a similar unsettling novel (Ghost Story by Straub) and I'm hungry for more. Any recs. for a good unsettling/scary read?

Michael Dirda: Look for anything you can find by Robert Aickman. E.g. Cold Hand in Mine,Painted Devils, The Wine Dark Sea.
Also, I'm writing a piece on my favorite ghost-story writer, Vernon Lee. Her most famous story, found in different anthologies but notably Montague Summers' Supernatural Omnibus, is "Amour Dure."

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Arlington, Va.: Hi Michael,

I just finished reading Henry Green's "Loving." I enjoyed the book but am curious about two things:

(1) Why such an abrupt ending? It seemed as if he just got tired of working on the book and ended it.

(2) What do the peacocks symbolize? I understand he has used other birds in other books as well.

Michael Dirda: Don't know if he got tired of writing, but he is an innovative writer and may simply have decided it was time to stop.
Peacocks can be, arguably, many things, and i can make those arguments too, if I had too, but the short answer is I don't know.
I just like Green's odd prose and way of looking at things. Plus his sentences can be so original and beautiful.

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Chapel Hill, N.C.: Is there any English translation that captures the beauty and magic of Madame Bovary and if so, which one is it?

Michael Dirda: No.
The two most esteemed translations, though, are 1) Eleanor Aveling's (as revised by Paul de Man for the Norton Critical Edition), and 2) Francis Steegmuller's.
Steegmuller's Englsih selection from Flaubert's letters is a marvel, but not even he could recreate Flaubert in English. Learn French.

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Washington, D.C.: I started reading the Aubrey-Maturin novels after you mentioned them in your column -- thank you; I've been rationing them out to myself over the past few years, but, sadly, I've come to the end of the series. I never did figure out most of the nautical terms, but I loved the characters, action and the historical setting. Please help! Could you suggest something to take their place in my reading lineup?

Michael Dirda: My friends tell me that Bernard Cornwell's novels about Sharpe--set during the Napoleonic wars--are terrific historical adventure stories. You could also go back to C.S. Forester's Hornblower novels, or read--not sjupposed to say this name--Jane Austen, O'Brian's model for much of his land comedy.

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Travel Writing: I'd also point out From the Holy Mountain by Dalyrymple. He traces a 15th century monk's route through the middle east in the 1990's staying as close to the original path as possible.

Michael Dirda: Oh yes. I reviewed that too. Met Dalrymple in fact last month in New York at John Berendt's--see, I can drop names with the best of them--and he told me that mine was the best review he'd ever gotten in America. Very winning, outgoing guy. Good book too.

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Gasoline Alley: Ah, my favorite hour of the week... I think it was a recent Book World that had a review about a Vietnam war vet and an indian on the UP in Michigan. Anyway, some similar Hemingway book was cited -- do you know which one?

I suppose we read for different things at times, but do you find that your reading elicits introspection? thanks!

Michael Dirda: A number of early Hemingway stories are set among Michigan Indians. In our Time.

Elicits introspection? Sometimes, but mostly, for me, reading is a way to avoid introspection.

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Alexandria, Va.: Are you familiar with Jamie O'Neill's recent novel, At Swim Two Boys, and, if you are, what are your thoughts on it? Also which of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels would you recommend for someone just starting to read them?

Michael Dirda: I know of the book, but don't know anything much about it, other than it's play on the Flann O'Brien classic At SWim two Birds. As for Pratchett: Mort is a good one to start with; Small Gods may be his best.

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Washington, D.C.: Dear Michael, You and your readers haven't steered me wrong yet. I like Kurt Vonnegut's satire/humor -- can you recommend any recent authors with a similar sensibility?

Michael Dirda: Christopher Moore? Tom Robbins? Charles Portis? B.S. Johnson?

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Takoma Park, Md.: Atwood enthusiast here:

Oryx and Crake was full of fine writing and did an excellent job of illustrating the slide from now to the dystopia (most writers start straight into the dystopia).

But it did not come to any real conclusion as far as I was concerned.

Great pgraph by pgraph, put it down wondering if there was any final point.

Michael Dirda: Thanks.

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Boston, Mass.: Was "A Drink with Shane Macgowan" ever reviewed by The Washington Post? Have you read it?

Michael Dirda: No,haven't read it, and I don't think we reviewed it. Good, was it?

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Washington, D.C.: Mr. Dirda:

I am curious as to just what it means when a book blurb quotes from "Publishers Weekly" or "Booklist." Are these reviews in the same sense as a review appearing in Book World, or are they just marketing by the publisher? Thanks.

Michael Dirda: The rule is this: If you look at a book cover and you see a quote that just says "Greatest book of our time.--Gore Vidal"--this is a blurb by a friend, which may or may not have critical merit. If it says, "Greatest book of our time--Gore VIdal, PUblishers Weekly" or just "GBOoT--PUblishers WEekly" this means that the person or magazine has actually read and reviewed the book. These one can credit with a bit more critical authority.

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Fairfax, Va.: Thoughts on Don DeLillo? I read "Libra" many years ago and found it thick and boring. Recently decided to give him a second chance and picked up "White Noise" (his masterpiece?), but haven't started it yet. Have you read "Cosmopolis?" What's the scoop on Dirda and DeLillo?

Michael Dirda: I like DeLillo's entire artistic enterprise, though all his books are flawed. I think his best writing are the opening 75 pages--Pasco at the Wall--in Underworld. Most people think White Noise his most appealing book.

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Washington, D.C.: Michael -- Are you going to read Harry 5? (otherwise known as "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix").

Will Book World review it?

Michael Dirda: We will review it. I've only read HP I and II, both of which I reviewed. I'm sure that III and IV are even better, as I"ve been told, but I need a reason to go back to Harry Potter. I kind of got the idea from the first book. Or so I thought. Of course, my friend Barbara Mertz, aka Elizabeth Peters, thinks these are the Oz novels of our time.

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Washington, D.C.: For person wanting to know where to start with Discworld. My friend introduced me to the books with Men at Arms and Feet of Clay, two books about the Night Watch. I found they were a good place to start, and went on to read all of them. (Well I thought I had read all, until I picked up Small Gods -- it really is fantastic)

Michael Dirda: Yes, Pratchett does seem particularly fond of the Night Watch sequence these days. They're a good starting place. Of course,you could go back to The Colour of Magic.

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Williamsburg, Va.: Re: Travel books

Eric Newby also has a fine colleciotn of shrt pieces from travel writers throughout history called "Traveller's Tales."

And, Paul Theroux has several interesting travel narratives.

Michael Dirda: Yes. thank you.

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Takoma Park, Md.: An awful thought just struck me:

Maybe Atwood is imitating Doris Lessing, by doing a string of sci-fi novels in her late middle age.

We can only hope that she is imitating Lessing completely, and publishing novels under an assumed name. Can't wait until that is revealed, as Lessing did for Jane Summers or whatever her pseudo's name was.

Michael Dirda: Interesting thought.

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Recommendations please: I love mythology, fairy tales, legends, and that type of fiction. Loved the Mists of Avalon. Can you recommend anything good in that vein?

Michael Dirda: Jack Vance, The Dying Earth. T.H. White Once and Future King. Lord Dunsany short stories.

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NW Washington, D.C.: A recommendation: Madison Smartt Bell's novels ("All Souls Rising," "Master of the Crossroads," and a third yet to come) about the Haitian Revolution. Though not Faulknerian in style, they concern his big subject (race: THE American subject) and also have that sense of constant motion. I read both non-stop over a weekend in bed with a sprained ankle. On Monday morning, it took real effort to return to this workaday world.

Michael Dirda: Many thanks. Madison will be gratified to hear your endorsement of his work. He's an amazing talent.

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Pennsylvania: Just to let everyone know to be sure to order your copy of "An Open Book" now; it's a gem, and all on this chat will certainly love it.

Michael Dirda: Hmmm. Did you go to Book Expo? How did you get a copy? By the way, I polished the book twice after that set of galleys was made, so the finished book will be at least a little better. Plus, we shouldn't restrict its readership to people who like this chat. I feel that An Open Book belongs in every home in America, next to the Bible and Webster's Dicitonary. And, of couse, Roget's thesaurus.

And that brings us to the end of another adventure packed hour of Dirda on Books. I need to rush off to a gala at the University of Maryland--ah, the literary life!--but first must send up next week's daily reviews to Style.
Till next THursday at 2, keep redaing! Yes, redaing! much more satisfying I've found that mere reading.

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