Michael Dirda is a weekly book columnist for The Washington Post and the author, most recently, of Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books. Its essays originally appeared on the home page of The American Scholar.
Michael Dirda
Books for the Holidays
Gift ideas for the young and old
by Michael Dirda | Friday, December 21, 2012
Thirteen for Halloween
Or, how one book critic thinks he can out-spook the Scholar
by Michael Dirda | Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Mr. Zinsser, I Presume
by Michael Dirda | Friday, February 10, 2012
Mr. Zinsser, I Presume
by Michael Dirda | Thursday, March 01, 2012
Scribble, Scribble
by Michael Dirda | Friday, March 23, 2012
Books on Books
by Michael Dirda | Friday, March 30, 2012
Text Mess
by Michael Dirda | Friday, April 06, 2012
After the Golden Age
by Michael Dirda | Friday, June 08, 2012
Rocky Mountain Low
by Michael Dirda | Friday, June 22, 2012
Readercon
by Michael Dirda | Friday, July 20, 2012
The Evidence in the (Book) Case
The books that reside on a writer’s nightstand can speak volumes indeed
by Michael Dirda | Friday, August 24, 2012
In Praise of Small Presses
The books they publish would enliven any library—but you likely won’t find them at your average big box
by Michael Dirda | Friday, December 07, 2012
The Art of Elegant Simplicity
by Michael Dirda | Monday, April 07, 2014
Bookish Pets
by Michael Dirda | Friday, March 02, 2012
Style Is the Man
by Michael Dirda | Friday, February 17, 2012
Hail to Thee, Blithe Spirit!
by Michael Dirda | Friday, May 04, 2012
Wonder Books
by Michael Dirda | Friday, July 13, 2012
Anglophilia
by Michael Dirda | Friday, June 01, 2012
Musical Chairs
by Michael Dirda | Friday, August 17, 2012
Armchair Adventures
by Michael Dirda | Friday, February 24, 2012
Anthologies and Collections
by Michael Dirda | Friday, June 15, 2012
Synonym Toast
by Michael Dirda | Friday, May 11, 2012
Aurora
by Michael Dirda | Friday, July 27, 2012
Out of Print
by Michael Dirda | Friday, August 03, 2012
Twilight of an Author
by Michael Dirda | Friday, April 13, 2012
Cowboys and Clubmen
by Michael Dirda | Friday, May 18, 2012
Spring Book Sales
by Michael Dirda | Friday, April 20, 2012
Paper
by Michael Dirda | Friday, March 09, 2012
Grades
by Michael Dirda | Friday, May 25, 2012
The Fugitive
by Michael Dirda | Friday, June 29, 2012
This Is a Column
by Michael Dirda | Friday, March 16, 2012
Memories of Marseille
by Michael Dirda | Friday, April 27, 2012
Thrift Stories
by Michael Dirda | Friday, August 10, 2012
Hot Enough for You?
by Michael Dirda | Friday, July 06, 2012
Ending Up
Man can live on books alone, but he needs more bread to do so
by Michael Dirda | Friday, January 25, 2013
Oberlin
Nostalgia and longing for the middle of nowhere and the flowering of culture one finds there
by Michael Dirda | Friday, October 26, 2012
Let Us Now Praise Dover Books
The literary legacy of E. F. Bleiler
by Michael Dirda | Friday, December 28, 2012
New and Old
Building a book collection, one treasured volume at a time
by Michael Dirda | Friday, September 21, 2012
Jacques Barzun—and Others
The eminent scholar was among the last representatives of a grand literary tradition
by Michael Dirda | Friday, November 02, 2012
Christmas Reading
A lot more than Dickens can help invoke the Yuletide spirit
by Michael Dirda | Friday, December 14, 2012
A Positively, Final Appearance
And an exhortation to read, read, read
by Michael Dirda | Friday, February 01, 2013
Dirty Pictures
George Bellows, the beauties of an industrial landscape, and a tribute to the quiet men who got things done
by Michael Dirda | Friday, September 28, 2012
Language Matters
Style, substance, and the labor involved in getting it just so
by Michael Dirda | Friday, November 16, 2012
Waving Not Drowning
All those books set aside for projects yet to come—but is it madness?
by Michael Dirda | Friday, October 19, 2012
Souls Hungering After Meaning
In Aegypt, John Crowley's just-completed four-book masterwork, ordinary people bear a faint symbolic glow through real and mythological realms
by Michael Dirda | Saturday, December 01, 2007
I Wanted to Be Robert Phelps
by Michael Dirda | Sunday, March 01, 2009
THIS WEEK’S ARCHIVE PICK
