Glen Engel-Cox reviewed Browsings by Michael Dirda
Dangerous to your To Be Read pile
5 stars
This book is a collection of essays (with some revision) that Dirda originally posted on The American Spectator’s blog, a thing he did for one year. As such, they are much less formal than his essays and reviews for his normal venue, The Washington Post Book World, but they are nevertheless just as erudite and interesting. In some ways, the blog format make these feel more like a conversation with Dirda, albeit one-sided. That said, I’d love the opportunity to have a real discussion with him, although I’m afraid my reading and knowledge of authors and writing pales in comparison. We must all have heroes, though, and in terms of book commentary, Dirda is one of mine.
As with any good book commentary, the danger herein is how it will greatly expand your To Be Read pile if you don’t beware. Early on I was amused because Dirda namedrops Paul …
This book is a collection of essays (with some revision) that Dirda originally posted on The American Spectator’s blog, a thing he did for one year. As such, they are much less formal than his essays and reviews for his normal venue, The Washington Post Book World, but they are nevertheless just as erudite and interesting. In some ways, the blog format make these feel more like a conversation with Dirda, albeit one-sided. That said, I’d love the opportunity to have a real discussion with him, although I’m afraid my reading and knowledge of authors and writing pales in comparison. We must all have heroes, though, and in terms of book commentary, Dirda is one of mine.
As with any good book commentary, the danger herein is how it will greatly expand your To Be Read pile if you don’t beware. Early on I was amused because Dirda namedrops Paul di Filippo for gifting him a blank notebook, then I was surprised to find an essay about Readercon, a Boston SF convention that I’m planning to attend for the first time this year. I knew Dirda was favorable to genre work from having read Book by Book, but I wasn’t aware that he also embraced at least some of the fan community.
Because I liked this book so much, I thought I would check out The American Spectator and see who was now the book blogger, but was dismayed to discover it was a right-wing propaganda machine supporting the orange felon and dismissive of progressives in general. Because of what I saw on the home page, I didn’t even try to delve deeper to find the books section. Given my impression of Dirda’s politics, I find it strange that they would have given him a soapbox, but maybe something has changed there in the last decade.
