An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland

from datrappert

Very enjoyable though not very profound story of Dirda's life through college, all revolving around his discovery of reading, love of books, and the people he met and places he went as a consequence. It includes an interesting story of his relationship with his father - highlighted by a deeply mo...

from

This is the story of how books shaped a life and about life in America in the middle of the 20th century. Dirda, the Pulitzer Prize winning book critic of the Washington Post, tells the story of his life up till his college years at Oberlin College. In some ways the world he writes about is now p...

from polywogg

PLOT OR PREMISE: The author is a book reviewer for the Washington Post; this is the story of his life up until graduation from university. . WHAT I LIKED: "Dirda was recommended to me by a colleague from work, whose appetites for reading are far more literary than mine. He actually recommended Bo...

from cookierooks

Let's just say I relate.

from TimBazzett

I read this book a year or two ago, but remembered it again recently while reading Wendy Werris's new memoir, An Alphabetical Life, because both reflect such a love of books. To people like Dirda and Werris - and me - books are nearly as important as eating, loving, breathing. And that affinity i...