Browsings
A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books
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کتاب های مرتبط
- اطلاعات
- نقد و بررسی
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نقد و بررسی
Early in this audiobook, the author warns that the best way to enjoy it is to listen to only one or two of the essays at a time. He's not wrong. While narrator John Lescault has an amazingly pleasant voice and reads Dirda's words with a chuckle or a scowl, whichever is called for, the topics and tones of the essays vary so much that it can be difficult to maintain attention. Dirda writes about his favorite authors, the culture of book collectors, the nature of libraries, and almost everything else under the literary sun. Lescault sounds as though he's delighted and amused to be narrating such a variety of ideas, and his warm baritone is endlessly soothing. G.D. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
June 22, 2015
The columns collected in this volume—all originally posted to the American Scholar’s home page in 2012 and 2013—make up a valentine to people who love reading and books. Washington Post book critic Dirda, a self-described “bookish literary journalist,” channels his passion for reading and collecting books into “essays, meditations, and rants” touching on a wide variety of literary topics: famous pets in fiction, Shelley’s poetry, Poe and Baudelaire, and the legacy of Dover Books, among others. Several pieces describe his excursions to used bookstores and library book sales, where acquisitions serve as madeleines, prompting reminiscences about fellow book collectors, forgotten classics, and underappreciated writers. Some of the essays stray far from the world of books—for example, a nightmarish vacation trip to a Colorado state park and a weeklong power blackout at the height of summer—but their literary allusions show how reading invariably seeps into all aspects of a book-lover’s life. Dirda is gently self-deprecating about his writing and enthusiasms, but his humility is contradicted by his huge roster of literary acquaintances, vast knowledge of both popular and literary fiction, and omnivorous tastes as a reader. Agent: Lynn Chu, Writers’ Representatives.
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