Bound to Please: An Extraordinary One-Volume Literary Education

This was not the book to pick up if I was enjoying any trace of the illusion that I was catching up on the books I want to read. I don’t know why I forget, over and over, the futility of that hope: Each book I read brings to mind at least two or three other.
But Michael Dirda exploded the last trace of self-deception. This collection of Sunday essays for the Washington Post Book World introduces me to hundreds of books that escaped my detection or reminded me that “I’ve been meaning to read that.” I had read almost none of the books he features, although a few had made it onto my shelves.
If all Dirda did was to point me to books, that wouldn’t have been so bad. But his brief essays — 1500–1800 words — not only explain why show more a given book (or books) are worth reading; they also infect me with his enthusiasm.
Some of the books he champions are difficult, post-modern novels. But lest you suspect him of elitist bias, he’s a declared fan of science fiction, fantasy, murder mysteries, and even Georgette Heyer.
Yet there are limits. Dirda decries “sub-literate thrillers, ignoble memoirs, and the evanescent speculations — on history, economics, or world affairs — of media whiz kids” (p. 387).
I have one quibble: This book, in addition to having a great title, comes with two subtitles. The first of these, “An Extraordinary One-Volume Literary Education” is bombastic and off-putting as Dirda’s own writing is not. The second subtitle, “Essays on Great Writers and Their Books,” performs the role of a good subtitle. I imagine it was on the manuscript as it went to the publisher, but then someone — perhaps in the marketing department — thought it needed tarting up. In my fantasy, a stand-off ensued. Dirda wouldn’t drop his, and the marketers insisted on theirs. So, voila, two subtitles.
If you’re wondering what you might want to read next, you might pick this up and sample an essay or two. Just don’t say you haven’t been warned. show less

Reviews that inspire you to read better books - and more. I used to read Dirda's reviews in the Washington Post back when I lived in Maryland, before I moved to the Michigan hinterlands where, it seems, very few people read at all. Not long after I arrived here in the north country I read Dirda's memoir of growing up in Ohio (An Open Book), a book which explains plainly and often humorously why he has this love affair with books - all books, both great and small. I enjoyed Mike's memoir so much that I moved on to these collected reviews. I've had Bound to Please for close to a year now and I'm still making my way through it. Reading these erudite reviews of books, many of which I have never read and perhaps never will, is a kind of show more education in itself. It is a humbling experience to see how Dirda absorbs, understands and then explains books about the Bible, Ovid, Rilke, Herodotus, Trollope, Flaubert, Proust, Shaw, Housman, etc. - the list seems endless. And he progresses from the classics of western civilization on to more contemporary writers like Updike, DeLillo, Gaddis, Gass, Colette, Amis, Byatt, and even Edgar Rice Burroughs. Reading Dirda on writing and writers is like listening to a favorite lecturer, and I'm over forty years past my last college classroom. He almost makes me want to go back and start over. But perhaps I'll just use these essays as a starting point and try to make time to go back and either re-read or read for the first time all those important writers I've already enjoyed or have only heard of. I keep this book handy to take with me to the bathroom. It's always nice to learn something while taking care of baser bodily business. Thank you for sharing your erudition and opinions, Mr. Dirda. show less

Bound to Please is a wonderful book. Subtitled An Extraordinary One-Volume Literary Education, it’s just what it says on the box.

It’s a compilation of book reviews and a few essays by Michael Dirda, who is the book critic for the Washington Post . He is extraordinarily well-read, and is able to bring his vast experience as a reader to write illuminating reviews of an eclectic collection of books. Each article pulls you in, even when he’s looking at books and authors who you may not have read or will never read.

Dirda’s reviews are so well written that this volume is hard to put down. Just as you feel you’ve had enough, your eye drifts to the next article and before you know it you’re reading a review of the collected letters show more of Flaubert, or of a biography of John Ruskin, or of Edgar Rice Burroughs, or of the collected fiction of Jorge Luis Borges or… As I say, a very wide-ranging, eclectic selection of literature.

It’s delightful to me that Dirda is so enthusiastic about so many authors who I have already experienced and enjoyed: A. S. Byatt, Phillip K. Dick, Terry Pratchett, Anthony Trollope, Edith Nesbit and many more. He’s a big fan of quality science fiction as well as the classics. Amazingly, he even knows his comic books. In fact, at times you feel that this man has read every book in the world.

And he makes you want to read everything too. It’s almost enough to make you despair, as you read the next review and think My gosh, I’d like to read that. If one only had but world enough and time…

This is a book which will make you fall in love with reading all over again. It’s a treasury of delights. show less

Michael Dirda is my favorite literary critic. He has a wonderful way of describing books that I like to refer to as the "Commas of Intrigue." When writing a review, he'll group together various things from a book that make it sound irresistible. For example, if he was reviewing The Bible, he'd say something like this: "It's a book full of secret betrayals, of a man who can raise the dead...of rivers of blood, swarms of insects, and magical weapons; it is a book of harlots and kings and peasants..." and make the book sound just amazing. I may sound like I'm criticizing this method, but really I admire it as a way to convey how exciting and wonderful he finds a certain book.

In fact, I think that I've discovered more great books by show more reading Bound to Please--along with its sequel, [Classics for Pleasure], in which Dirda writes about neglected books he thinks everyone should read and enjoy--than by any sort of "Modern Library 20th Century Best" list. Georgette Heyer, Ronald Firbank, Raymond Chandler, Oscar Wilde, Sheridan Le Fanu, Vernon Lee, and Anthony Burgess are just a few of the authors rendered ultra-compelling via Mr. Dirda's pen. Not to mention the fact he covers such books as The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh, A Dead Man in Deptford, The Manuscript Found in the Sargasso, and The Civilzation of the Renaissance. Dirda seems to be a true expert on British mystery and golden age horror books, and to recognize that the best criticism doesn't cling to theory and diagram, but rather discusses the points and the questions raised by the literature, is a nice cool literary breeze.

In a time when literary criticism is being locked away in the narrow fluorescence of academia, and professors (to paraphrase Gore Vidal) cling desperately to figures and formulae in emulation of their "serious" rivals in Physics and Chemistry (words having failed them yet again), men like Michael Dirda (and Harold Bloom, and Edmund Wilson, and Gore Vidal) should be read by those who want to learn to write well about Those That Write Well. show less

I hesitate before reading a Michael Dirda collection, because I know I'll end up adding another 20 books to my reading list by the time I've finished. Indeed, every review seems to be of something I'd like to read. And dirda is not a snob; his science fiction recommendation list looks pretty good to me, and he's a fan of Dunsany and Lovecraft. But now, thanks to him, I'm very keen to read Beckett novels, Djuna Barnes, Avram Davidson, Sebald, Dawn Powell, and a biography of Algernon Blackwood. For starters.

I really enjoyed this book. It was my first Dirda and won't be my last.
I have picked up two books based on Dirda's recommendations. Though both were good, I didn't enjoy it as much as he did. But I guess everything is better when consumed with an expert's palatte?

Dirda's writing is great and inspiring. It's kind of like reading book about books. Except there are stories about stories. He has definitely opened my eyes to more authors writing outside of my own country.

Well worth picking up for anyone who enjoys the written word and wants to see what else is out there.

Dirda, a book reviewer for the Washington Post, writes a great review, just the right length and very enticing. There were reviews of many books I was unfamiliar with, as well as some old favorites.