American - Critic | 1948 -
I don't think of myself as a critic at all. I'm a reviewer and essayist. I mainly hope to share with others my pleasure in the books and authors I write about, though sometimes I do need to cavil and point out shortcomings.
Michael Dirda
HopeMyselfThinkSometimesNeed
Adventurous reading allows one to escape a little from the provincialities of one's home culture and the blinders of one's narrow self.
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Every summer, I regret that I didn't become a college teacher. Such a sweet life! With all that vacation time! You'll never get me to believe that being a tenured professor at a good college is anything but Heaven on earth.
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Writers keep writing and publishers publishing - it never grows boring.
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In a single lifetime, roughly from 1865 to 1930, one finds the pioneering and patterning works of modern fantasy, science fiction, children's literature and detective fiction, of modern adventure, mystery and romance.
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I find that the Amazon comments often are exceptionally shrewd and insightful, so I'm not going to diss them. But you don't really have any guarantees that what you're reading wasn't written out of friendship or spite.
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Critics for established venues are vetted by editors; they usually demonstrate a certain objectivity; and they come with known backgrounds and specialized knowledge.
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People who've read my reviews know my tastes, know how I approach a book, know my background. I can write with believable authority. It doesn't mean I'm always right.
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I think of my own work as part of a decades-long conversation about books and reading with people I will mainly never meet.
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I once read that in vaudeville, it was often the straight guy who got paid more than the comic because that's the tougher job. He has to set up the jokes in just the right way.
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My gift, if that's not too grandiose a term, is one for describing novels, biographies, and works of history in such a way that people want to read them.
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Books can be a source of solace, but I see them mainly as a source of pleasure, personal as well as esthetic.
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