An Open Book: Chapters from a Reader's Life [Paperback]

Michael Dirda (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 17, 2004

"A love story, full of a passion for literature and marked by intellectual vigor."—Bernadette Murphy, Los Angeles Times

"All that kid wants to do is stick his nose in a book," Michael Dirda's steelworker father used to complain, worried about his son's passion for reading. In An Open Book, one of the most delightful memoirs to emerge in years, the acclaimed literary journalist Michael Dirda re-creates his boyhood in rust-belt Ohio, first in the working-class town of Lorain, then at Oberlin College. In addition to his colorful family and friends, An Open Book also features the great writers and fictional characters who fueled Dirda's imagination: from Green Lantern to Sherlock Holmes, from Candy to Proust. The result is an affectionate homage to small-town America—summer jobs, school fights, sweepstakes contests, and first dates—as well as a paean to what could arguably be called the last great age of reading. "Dirda is a superb literary essayist."—Harold Bloom "Michael Dirda's memoir—no surprise to me—is so good that I went up to the attic meaning to send him one of my antique Big Little books as a salute to excellence...A great job. I'll be buying An Open Book for my children and grandchildren."—Russell Baker, author of Growing Up "Here, in An Open Book, is the show and tell of a wonderful American story, everything coming together in the immemorial dance of literature and memory, of history and gossip, and of the deeply felt, bittersweet story (his own) of a young life. Read it and rejoice."—George Garrett "A lovely, unapologetically nostalgic remembrance of growing up in a more innocent America, but it is also the touching story of one person's lifelong love affair with words."—June Sawyer, San Francisco Chronicle "Dirda inhabits each book he reads. Inhabits it—and makes a space alongside it for us to join him....He is a rare treasure."—James Sallis, Boston Sunday Globe

Editorial Reviews

Review

A great job. I'll be buying An Open Book for my children and grandchildren. -- Russell Baker, author of Growing Up

A lovely, unapologetically nostalgic remembrance of growing up in a more innocent America. (June Sawyer, San Francisco Chronicle -- June Sawyer, San Francisco Chronicle

Dirda inhabits each book he reads. Inhabits it—and makes a space alongside it for us....He is a rare treasure. -- James Sallis, Boston Sunday Globe

Dirda is a superb literary essayist. -- Harold Bloom

Here, in An Open Book, is the show and tell of a wonderful American story....Read it and rejoice. -- George Garrett

About the Author

Michael Dirda, who won a Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism at the Washington Post Book World, is the author of An Open Book, Bound to Please, and Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (December 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393326144
• ISBN-13: 978-0393326147
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #695,127 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Charming, Erudite Memoir, November 4, 2006

By 

NEZ (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An Open Book: Chapters from a Reader's Life (Paperback)

Our book group was fortunate enough to have Michael Dirda attend our discussion of this memoir. He is delightful, witty and steeped in the pleasures of reading, just as his book is. It's the story of an insecure, highly intelligent boy from a family of limited means who engages the world through literature. He is guided by several inspiring teachers, but mostly is self-taught as to what makes good reading and the lessons in life to be gleaned from books. While his keen intelligence sets him apart from his family in many respects, he also lives an ordinary and in some respects idyllic boyhood in Ohio.

As Michael Dirda said of one of the books he recently reviewed for the Washington Post, "you really should read this book."

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love this guy..., March 9, 2008

By 

W. Carter (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: An Open Book: Chapters from a Reader's Life (Paperback)

I have read most of Michael's (and, yes, I feel as though I know him well enough after reading this book to call him by his first name) books and always find them both highly entertaining and informative. I am fascinated by all things literary--including other people that are. On the surface, this is the story of one man's journey through life who befriended literature at an early age as, perhaps, a means of dealing with the usual insecurities. Reading became an obsession and he was able to parlay this love (with the help of a "little" talent and intelligence) into a Pulitzer Prize winning career. I wish he would have been able to spend more time talking about individual books and authors within the context of his own interests and life experience; however, he pointed out at the beginning he would not be using this particular venue for such.

I found his memoirs delightfully readable.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars mon semblable! mon frere!, January 3, 2010

By 

Caraculiambro (La Mancha and environs) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: An Open Book: Chapters from a Reader's Life (Paperback)

Michael Dirda is the chief book reviewer at the Washington Post. This book is his autobiographica literaria, his attempt to recount the books he was exposed to growing up and how they shaped him.

I would only recommend the second half, starting just after the young Michael comes home from trying to run away. The first half isn't so great.

Though I personally enjoyed it, I don't think it was very well written. After a few pages, it seems like he's just mentioning title after title without going into much detail at all about any of them, or precisely how they helped to mold his mind. "In the afternoons I would thrill to the adventures of John Carter of Mars. I also loved Robinson Crusoe." That sort of thing.

Dirda seems to have no trouble mentioning the books that he's read or that affected him, but as for explaining how they shaped his personality, he doesn't do that very well here. Maybe in one of his other books. True, he does that for a few books when discussing his Oberlin application, but that's the exception. Now that I think about it, this book doesn't give you much of an idea about the author's personality at all, beyond just that he's from a working-class family and has pretty much always liked reading books.

There's really no overarching theme, and Dirda changes topics so frequently that one must pay close attention: nearly every paragraph is about something else. Rarely do you see a sequence of several paragraphs about the same theme or situation. I think Dirda would have done better to present this as a disjointed series of vignettes, since that's pretty much what it is. Running all these disparate paragraphs together as if he were telling a coherent narrative gets trying.

If you love books, you'll often find a smile of recognition on your face while going through this; for me, it lacks the magic of character or circumstances to warrant a re-read.

Lastly, I would have to say this book humbled me, so maybe I'm angry at it. I thought I was well read, but this guy. Jesus H.!