Linebarger, by the way, was the authority on psychological warfare in the 1950s, and as Cordwainer Smith one of the greatest short story writers in science fiction: Try "Scanners Live in Vain" or "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" or "The Game of Rat and Dragon." Linebarger in a copy of a novel by Ford Madoz Ford, in which he wrote that he first bought the book in 1930 and then lost it, and found his very same copy in a used book store in 1935 and bought it again. But I've seen some appealing inscriptions. I don't think I've ever found anything particularly cool in a used book - an interesting clipping, perhaps, generally a review, though none comes to mind.
Remember to stay tune after this program for either Tim Page or David Segal on music. Anyway, for the next hour we'll talk about reading, reviewing, and the world of books. I never remember it being so bad as this even when I lived in Orlando during August a couple years back. It's been as miserably hot and suffocating a three days this week as any in my 25 years in Washington. Michael Dirda: Welcome to Dirda on Books. Earbrass did ("For Angus - Will you never forget the bloaters?")? What's the strangest/coolest thing you ever found in a used book you bought? Ever buy a book with a niftily enigmatic inscription, like Edward Gorey's Mr. dated October, 1937 tucked between the pages. I found a receipt for a renewal on an insurance policy for a Mr. Recently I purchased an old collection of Ring Lardner short stories at a used bookstore.
A guy can daydream, right?Įditor's Note: 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. 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. Eliot, Nabokov, John Dickson Carr, Joseph Mitchell and Jack Vance. His favorite writers are Stendhal, Chekhov, Jane Austen, Evelyn Waugh, T.S. He hopes to bring out a companion volume soon.ĭirda 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. In the fall of 2000 Indiana University Press published "Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments," a selection from Dirda's Book World columns. He claims that the happiest hours of his week are spent sitting in front of a computer, working. 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 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). in comparative literature from Cornell, Dirda has somehow managed to retain a myopic 12-year-old's passion for reading. 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. Washington Post Book World Senior Editor Michael Dirda takes your questions and comments concerning literature, books and the joys of reading.Įach week Dirda's name appears - in unmistakably big letters - on page 15 of The Post's Book World section.
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