Bound to Please Group Read

I have been using Classics for Pleasure by Michael Dirda to guide my reading this year and am going to use his Bound to Please to round out the year.

Ellen, Benita, and Cindy have all expressed an interest in doing a shared read of the book, so we are opening the read up to the group to see if anyone else would like to join with us.

We are starting on December 1st, but everyone may read at their own pace. Please avoid spoilers or use the spoiler tag - if there are even such things in the book. I have not read it before, so I have no idea!

Everyone is welcome!!

Checking in!
I'll probably start around Dec 3 after I return from Nashville. Looking forward to it!

Ill be there!

>2 EBT1002: >3 cindydavid4: Glad to hear it, ladies! I hope that we all enjoy the read. I am hoping that Benita can make it too, but her move has not really gone according to plan.

I placed my ILL request for this book at the local library. She said it would take a week to come in, so that should put me at starting it around December 1.

I received my copy and started reading. I like his introduction and he happens to start with Heroditus, probably my fav ancient historian. Last year I read Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuściński (also wrote shadow of the sun )

Perfect compantion read to HistoriesAfter he finished college, Ryszard became a foreign correspondent who hoped to go abroad, perhaps to Czechoslovakia. Instead, he was sent to India - the first stop on a decades-long tour of the world that took him from Iran to El Salvador, from Angola to Armenia. His only companion on his travels was a volume of Herodotus, a gift from his first boss. In his journey across continents, Kapuscinski discovers his life's work: to understand and describe the non-Western world in its remotest reaches, in all its variety, through his still-virginal Western eyes. Throughout his travels, the journalist tests and emulates Herodotus' methods - to wander, look, talk, and listen - so that he can later recount what he saw and learned.

>6 cindydavid4: Looks like you are off to a good start, Cindy!

I am starting the book tonight and probably will read about 50 or so pages a day. Just a heads up - I will be visiting my mother from December 7th-15th. My mother has no Internet so I will not be posting my thoughts on the book during that period. I will still be reading though :)

I haven't heard from the local ILL people yet and will be leaving for Alabama on Wednesday. I will be gone a week, so if the book isn't here tomorrow I won't be starting it until sometime around December 13th.

>8 benitastrnad: There is no pressure here to get it read, Benita, so if it does not get there until late, you are fine.

I am enjoying the read thus far, 100+ pages in, and the BlackHole is growing by leaps and bounds. I enjoy Dirda's writing style quite a bit.

I like his style too but I was surprised how much of the book was on Christianty. and how much European titles. Yes its a" one volume literary education" but Im surprised I havent yet come across any examples of Eastern world tho perhaps thats coming later?

I started today and read the introduction and his plea to read beyond the bestseller list. I like his writing style and I think this will be a bit male- and Euro-centric. Still, I think I'm going to enjoy it. Thanks for getting us rolling, Stasia!

>10 cindydavid4: After a brief look at the index, Cindy, I do not think he touches on the Eastern world at all.

>11 EBT1002: There are women authors scattered throughout the book, Ellen. As far as Euro-centric goes, definitely.

I have enjoyed what I have read thus far. Glad to have everyone along for the read!

I got a message today that my book has come in to the library - back in Kansas. Unfortunately, I am in Alabama for the next week. But they will hold it for me - at least they said they would.

>13 benitastrnad: We'll definitely still be in the midst of reading it when you get your copy, Benita. I'm going to treat this as a read to savor over the course of the month.

>13 benitastrnad: >14 EBT1002: There is no rush on the book. Everyone can just take it at their own pace.

I have now updated my copy of Crime and Punishment to the version translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky. My husband is giving it to me for Christmas :) I already own (and have read) their translations of both Anna Karenina and War and Peace, so I know how excellent that they are.

BTW - For those who participate in the monthly TIOLI challenges, I have put Bound to Please on the December challenge #9, if anyone wants to join.

I have decided not to take Bound to Please with me to visit my mother in Longview. I am bound to want to comment on something as I read and since I have no Internet access at my mother's, I will not be able to do anything about it!

As of tonight, I have read up to page 257 in my edition of the book and will continue from there when I come back late on the 15th. The author that caught my eye today is Avram Davidson, of whom I had never heard. Has anyone read him? If so, what did you think?

>17 alcottacre: OMG yes! cant remember who turned me on to him but I read his avram davidson treasury and I was hooked He has other collections and some novels but this collection of his shorts show his skill in writing. highly recommended!

I got the book today. I didn't even look at the number of pages and was surprised to find it a chunkster! Never-the-less, I started it this evening.

I was very surprised when I opened this book and found out it is a book of essays. I love reading essays. They are easy to read in small chunks. I was also surprised by the number of pages in this book. My copy has 525 pages. That means it is going to take me some time to get all of those pages read.

I was also delighted when the author set out his objective in the second paragraph of the Introduction. "All my writing, ..., has been aimed at the semimythical common reader, and usually one who is sleepily flipping through the newspaper while sipping coffee on Sunday morning." (intro, XV) He goes on to say "... think of these articles as old-fashioned appreciations ... My primary goal is to describe a work accurately, to quote frequently when sentences are clever or memorable, and to convey something of each book's particular magic, strength, or excitement. By preference, I usually hint at the whole arc of a writer's career, or provide brief introduction to a life and work. Hence the pages that follow ten to be brisk, fact-filled, ad anecdote-rich, sometimes stylistically playful ... and enthusiastic about a wide variety of creative makers." Right there is the goal of this book. The author tells the reader what he is going to do and how he is going to do it.

I have not read anything by this author and so was interested in his background and hope that I will enjoy the rest of this book of essays.

Ok, I admit I let this languish on the table beside my reading chair for over a week. I picked it up this morning and started reading. I was pleased to find that the essays are short and, dare I say it?, accessible. I doubt I'll finish the whole book this month as I have painting and snowshoeing and other reading also to do, but I'm IN.

I picked up the book for the first time in over a week last night since I did not take it with me while I was at my mother's. It struck me how much I appreciate being introduced to books and authors of whom I had never heard. Case in point, Vladimir Nabokov. I have read and enjoyed several of his books, but did not know that he had written Lectures on Literature. I now have a copy of that one on its way to me :)

>18 cindydavid4: Thank you, Cindy! I will have to see if I can track down some of his books!

>19 benitastrnad: Sorry, Benita. I guess I should have warned you. I really do not pay attention to the number of pages a book has since if I am going to read it, the number of pages does not matter, lol.

>20 benitastrnad: Like you, I also enjoy essays. This is at least the third of Dirda's books that I have read and I have liked them all. His writing style just works for me. I hope you continue to enjoy it!

>21 EBT1002: I think 'accessible' is the perfect word, Ellen. I hope you enjoy the book as you can! I see no reason that we cannot continue to post here after the month is over. There is no hard deadline involved after all. Enjoy the rest of your doings this month too!

>22 alcottacre:
This may be one of those books that it would be better to own a used copy of, than to place an ILL request for it. Because it is an ILL request it is due back on January 8, 2025 and I am not sure that I will be finished with it by then. This is clearly a book that can be dipped into off and on and probably doesn't benefit from reading straight through. However, I that is what I will have to do. Not that it is a chore, because the book is very entertaining and, as was stated above it easy to read in short chunks of time.

>23 benitastrnad: I guess I am lucky in that regard as I already owned the book even though I am reading it straight through although in 50 page chunks.

I have had one surprise this afternoon. I had marked several titles to add to my TBR list and so far have found two titles that are inaccurately cited. For example, on page Dirda lists Roy Strong as the author of Flesh in the Age of Reason. I looked this title up in the UA university library catalog and found that according to them the author is Roy Porter. I crosschecked it with Amazon and the author there is also listed as Roy Porter. I have not checked WorldCat yet to make sure that Roy Porter is the correct author, but corroboration by two sources is enough to make me think there is an error in the citation. This seems strange in a book by a book critic for the Washington Post. Where's the fact checking?

>25 benitastrnad: No idea where the fact checking is or who is responsible for doing it! I do find the lack of accuracy disturbing though.

It looks like I will be finishing Bound to Please tomorrow if all goes well. I am thoroughly enjoying the read and will be sorry to finish it off, in a way.

I am making good progress on Bound to Please and am on page 150. Since I am not going anywhere for Christmas I should complete it before its ILL due date.

I finished the book tonight and, all in all, very much enjoyed it. This makes the third of Dirda's books that I have read and I have not been disappointed in one yet. I have also added a bunch of books to the BlackHole. . .

>28 benitastrnad: Great, Benita!

I am about 60 pages from the end of Bound to Please and hope to finish it later tonight. I am still astonished by some of the weird editing, and lack of copy editing, given that poor copy editing is one of the things that Dirda complains about in some of his reviews. He thinks that poor editing creates frustrated readers. I agree with him on that point.

Well, I've been mostly a no-show for this. Sorry about that. My reading time has been limited by house remodel activities and painting! However, I do plan to keep reading the book but at a snail's pace over the next few months. Thanks for organizing us, Stasia!

I finished reading Bound to Please and enjoyed it. The book was a big'un. 535 pages. I got it read in a little over 2 weeks because I got it through the Public Library ILL system and it is due back January 8, 2025.

Essentially this is a book of book review essays that the author wrote while he was the book reviewer for the Washington Post. However, there were some annoying copy editing problems with the book - misspelling, punctuation, and sentences that didn't make a whole lot of sense. This was ironic given that the author complained about the same problem in some of the books he reviewed. The book did introduce me to some author's about which I didn't know much and actually caused me to put many more books on my TBR list. (I will have to live a long time before I would run out of titles on my TBR list.) The author's essays serve as an introduction the works of each of the authors or books that he featured in the essays. These essays serve as the vehicle to titillate a reader into reading more books by the featured author. I would say that the author accomplished his objective. That being to introduce the American public to great writing by authors who consistently produce good books.

>31 EBT1002: Believe me, I understand completely about house remodel activities! I am glad to hear that you plan to keep going with the book, Ellen.

>32 benitastrnad: I am happy to see that you enjoyed the read in the end, Benita!

ETA: I tell everyone that I can never die given the number of books in the BlackHole. Dirda consistently adds to it for me too.

I'm also going to keep this thread warm for a while..... *smile*

>34 EBT1002: Yay! You are doing better at it than I am! Lol

Here is another mistake in the book. On page 44 Dirda recommends a book titled Entered by the Sun by George Garrett. The correct title is Entered From the Sun. These little errors in the titles of books bug me since this is supposed to be a book to encourage readers to read the books by the featured authors. Even so, this wasn't enough to stop me from reading this book and adding a whole bunch of titles to my TBR list.

>36 benitastrnad: Wow, I am surprised by the number of errors.

Here is another thing that I read in Bound to Please that confused me.

"A wealthy Brazilian aristocrat, Lota Soares, whisked the American writer away to a villa an hour and a half from Rio and there, barring a few trips abroad, the couple passed the next fifteen years. Eventually, though, pressures of illness and overwork let to Lota's increasing irritability an an eventual breakdown. Following doctor's orders Bishop returned to New York. When Lota was finally allowed to visit, she seized the opportunity to commit suicide by taking an overdoes of her medication." pg. 290

Who had the breakdown? The passage says that Lota did, but then Bishop committed suicide? Didn't make sense. Wikipedia to the rescue. Lota was the one who committed suicide in 1967. Bishop lived for another 10 years.

This kind of unclear passage is not what I would expect from Dirda. It might be that he thinks that readers of his column would know who Elizabeth Bishop was and that it was her lover Lota who committed suicide, but that is a big assumption for a newspaperman to make. It seems to be a silly mistake.

This is going to be my last comment about the book. I have to turn it in tomorrow at the library. I finished it and overall liked it. I got about a hundred book recommendations - as if I need more of those - and learned a great deal about a great many great authors and critics. It was well worth the time to read. It was my last book for 2024 and a good way to end the reading year.

>38 benitastrnad: It was well worth the time to read. It was my last book for 2024 and a good way to end the reading year.

That is good to hear, Benita!