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    An Open Book
    An Open Book
    An Open Book
    Audiobook11 hours

    An Open Book

    Written by Michael Dirda

    Narrated by Jonathan Hogan

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Dirda shares his love for all literature-novels, comic books, poetry, even erotica-in this humorous memoir of his childhood. Growing up in a bluecollar, Midwestern household of the 50s and 60s, Dirda appalled his father with his insatiable thirst for reading. His humorous remembrances of the works he loved will spark the interest of anyone who savors a good story.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJun 6, 2008
    ISBN9781436116404
    An Open Book

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    Reviews for An Open Book

    4/5

    64 ratings5 reviews

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    • 4/5
      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 past, technology and globalization have seen to that. Yet, there is, in this well written memoir, a road map, a kernel of an idea. That idea is this: books and a life of reading can serve as launching pad to another life if we so desire. Dirda, as some reviewers on this website found out, is very honest about his growing years. An honest writer is like that and a well written memoir should not flinch from that aim. This is a book any book lover can take to heart.
    • 4/5
      Let's just say I relate.
    • 4/5
      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 Bound to Please, which is a collection of Dirda’s reviews of more literary prose from throughout history, but I tripped over this book first. I’m quite glad I did as I probably won’t read the collection of essays until I’ve read most of the tomes reviewed, but An Open Book is a fantastic autobiography. It reads in some place like Angela’s Ashes without the darkness of Irish poverty. However, it is not without conflict or family dysfunction during the author’s childhood, and he tells the story in places with openness and unashamed personal bias. The main part of the story recounts Dirda’s intellectual progress as he moved through comic strips from the newspaper (p.49), pun and joke books (everyone sing: “great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts”!), the TAB book club (p.66), the Hardy Boys and Tom Swift series (p.90), a brief stint with romance novels (p.201), and the importance of great literature to challenging society and even changing history (p.290). It also includes his non-literary education – playing with BB guns (p.81), understanding firsthand how hard his father’s job was (p.185), learning about art and music (p.267), the ceasing to care about grades when writing essays and the corresponding improvements in marks (p.310), the contribution of early influences in his life to later character traits (p.320), and looking back at one’s life (p.321). The book recounts his life relatively linearly in time, yet with lots of interesting digressions that veer away from developments in his personal life and situation with the texts he was reading at the time.".WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:It would have been interesting to see more of the reactions from teachers throughout the author’s life, including perhaps even tracking some of them down. It is hard to imagine exactly how certain ones would have reacted to his precocious reading of more advanced novels, and the existing allusions to some of their reactions are rudimentary at best. As well, the final decision (to become a freelance journalist upon leaving university) is rushed in the story, and negates much of the relaxed pace to that point..BOTTOM-LINE:See the early influences on a literary book reviewer.DISCLOSURE:I received no compensation, not even a free copy, in exchange for this review. I am not personal friends with the author, nor do I follow him on social media.
    • 4/5
      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 moving realization Dirda has while working at a summer job in the steel tube plant his father has worked in since returning from WW 2, and an extended narrative of Dirda's discovery of girls. The early parts of the story are the best, before he even gets to college, though his story of those years will no doubt do wonders for Oberlin College's recruiting efforts, at least among intelligent parents looking for a place to send their children. Dirda's tastes are broad, and his reading embraces H.P. Lovecraft as easily as French novels read in the original language or complex works of criticism. Nevertheless, there is a sense of loss that runs throughout this book. Dirda, like most very intelligent people, can't help but think of the things that might have been--all the possibilities that never came to pass and all the roads not taken.
    • 5/5
      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 is so astutely reflected here in Michael Dirda's story of his childhood in Lorraine, Ohio. It's a midwest boyhood to the nth degree, albeit one of a kind of nerdy, bookish unathletic kid. I was a kid like Mike. I could relate. If you grew up in the fifties and sixties and loved books, then don't miss this one. It will take you back - to those dusty, second-hand bookstores you found with such joy, and to your folks yelling at you to "getcher nose outa that book and go outside for a while! It's a beautiful day, dammit!" Like that. Thanks for sharing your kidhood, Mike.