People sometimes think that I bring home all these old books because I'm addicted, that I'm no better than a hoarder with a houseful of crumbling newspapers. Michael Dirda addictbookbring Change image and share on social
I don't like gross monetary inequities. I firmly believe that the wrong people and the wrong professions are being rewarded, and rewarded absurdly, and that the hardest work the obscenely rich do is ensuring that they preserve their privileges, status symbols, and bloated bank accounts. Michael Dirda absurdlyaccountbank share on social
Most scholarly books we read for the information or insight they contain. But some we return to simply for the pleasure of the author's company. Michael Dirda authorbookcompany Change image and share on social
Summertime, and the reading is easy... Well, maybe not easy, exactly, but July and August are hardly the months to start working your way through the works of Germanic philosophers. Save Hegel, Heidegger, and Husserl for the bleaker days of February. Michael Dirda augustbleakday share on social
Sad to say, multi-tasking is beyond me. I read one book at a time all the way through. If I'm reviewing the book, I have to write the review before I start reading any other book. I especially hate it when the phone rings and interrupts my train of thought. Michael Dirda bookhateinterrupt share on social
I think of my own work as part of a decades-long conversation about books and reading with people I will mainly never meet. Michael Dirda bookconversationdecade Change image and share on social
People who've read my reviews know my tastes, know how I approach a book, know my background. I can write with believable authority. It doesn't mean I'm always right. Michael Dirda approachauthoritybackground Change image and share on social
Literary generations come and go, and each generation passeth away and is heard of no more. In the end, simply the making itself - of poems and stories and essays - delivers the only reward a writer can be sure of. And, perhaps, the only one that matters. Michael Dirda deliverendessay share on social
Most lyric poetry is about love, whether yearned after, fulfilled, or wistfully regretted; what isn't tends to consist of laments and cris du coeur over this, that, and the other. Michael Dirda coeurconsistcris Change image and share on social
In a single lifetime, roughly from 1865 to 1930, one finds the pioneering and patterning works of modern fantasy, science fiction, children's literature and detective fiction, of modern adventure, mystery and romance. Michael Dirda adventurechilddetective share on social