Author’s scrapbook of musings is more scraps than book

By BRYAN WOOLLEY THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS

“Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life” by Michael Dirda; Henry Holt ($17) A hundred and more years ago, a lady or gentleman with leisure time might keep a “commonplace book.” It was a combination journal and scrapbook. In it, its keeper would jot down memorable poems, quotations from books and wise sayings, paste in clippings from newspapers, write down some of his own feelings and ideas and maybe press a flower or two. From time to time, the keeper of a commonplace book would browse it, remembering the inspiring and instructive moments that his reading and observing had provided over the years. Upon the death of its keeper, the commonplace book would be placed in a trunk or box in an attic. Years later, an heir would sell it in a garage sale. In “Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life,” Michael Dirda, Pulitzer-winning books columnist of The Washington Post, offers his commonplace book. Naturally, Dirda being who he is, it’s mostly about stuff he has read. But he has some thoughts and ideas of his own, too, and some practical advice. Dirda has read everybody a self-regarding intellectual would consider worth reading. He has dug out many wholesome morsels about life, love, education and personal fulfillment from such diverse writers as Simone Weil, P.G. Wodehouse, Proust, Goethe, Cicero, Nietzsche, Foucault and the like (Dirda favors European authors) and serves them up in the easy-to-swallow bite-size wisdom bits that commonplace bookkeepers always have favored. Similar conclusions We find that a lot of writers have come to similar conclusions about many things. For instance, Auden, Colette and Waugh all agree: “Find the right work, the work you should be doing, and you will have largely solved the key question of how to spend your life.” None, however, offers any help in dealing with corporate layoffs and loss of medical insurance. But let’s skip the warmed-over stuff and dive right into Dirda’s own deep thoughts. Here’s one: “It is impossible to read serious novels, poetry, essays and biographies without also growing convinced that they gradually enlarge our minds, refine our spirits, make us more sensitive and understanding.” Here’s another: “Every child should be taught what used to be called the social graces: good manners, clear speech, the art of dinner-table conversation, sketching, singing, competence in playing a musical instrument, and even ballroom dancing. Upon such simple foundations as these, true civilizations are built.” No help, however, on getting the brat away from the Xbox and the iPod for his civilization lessons. From time to time, Dirda offers a syllabus for those wishing to concoct their own reading courses about love or whatever. One is a reading list for the Christmas season. Along with “A Christmas Carol” and “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” the family gathered round the blazing yule log should read the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth, he says. “Try reading Mark or Luke’s narrative at home, preferably in an English version with some grandeur to it: the King James, the Revised Standard …” The Gospel of Mark, however, contains nary a word about the birth of Jesus. The nativity stories are in Luke and Matthew. Dirda is better on hygiene matters. He recommends brushing and flossing. “Book by Book” is a priggish, didactic, silly book. Polonius would have loved it.

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