Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments

Intimate, humorous, and insightful, Readings is a collection of classic essays and reviews by Michael Dirda, book critic of the Washington Post and winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for criticism. From a first reading of Beckett and Faulkner at the feet of an inspirational high-school English teacher to a meeting of the P. G. Wodehouse Society, from an obsession with Nabokov's Lolita to the discovery of the Japanese epic The Tale of Genji, these essays chronicle a lifetime of literary enjoyment. The crime of his life -- The quest for Scrivener -- Talismans -- Maxims, etc. -- Heart of the matter -- Bookman's Saturday -- Supplementary materials -- Listening to my father -- Romantic scholarship -- Weekend with Wodehouse -- An abecedary -- Mr. Wright -- Heian holiday -- Childhood's end -- The one and the many -- Commencement advice -- Four novels and a memoir -- The October country -- Bookish fantasies -- Pages on life's way -- A garland for Max -- Read at whim! -- Comedy tonight -- Light of other days -- Data daze -- Four-leaf clovers -- Sez who? -- Lament for a maker -- Clubland -- The learning channels -- Guy Davenport -- Eros by any other name -- Frank confessions -- Mememormee -- Tomes for tots -- Three classics -- Vacation reading -- One more modest proposal -- Shake scenes -- After strange books -- Awful bits -- Turning 50 -- Blame it on books -- On the road not taken -- Excursion -- Millennial readings