“Book by Book” makes a fascinating gift for book explorers

The idea of giving a book as a gift is not an unusual one. It becomes a pleasure to locate tomes that others might enjoy, searching numerous nooks and crannies for off-the-beaten-path and well-hidden jewels. In my own case, a recent Internet expedition yielded a comprehensive list of books about books, including Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life. It sounded intriguing, so I ordered it. When Book by Book arrived some days later, I eagerly opened it and started with the preface in order to learn about the author, Michael Dirda. It was an enchanting, lively preface, but the first chapter just didn’t flow for me. With some reluctance, I set the book to one side. I picked it up again several weeks later, but instead of reading from beginning to end, I started anywhere—anywhere at all. It was then that Book by Book sprang to life and I knew it would make an ideal gift this holiday season.

Michael Dirda, as he explains in his preface, has been a professional book reviewer and columnist for The Washington Post Book World for 30 years. He reads and reviews books that cover a wide spectrum of topics, styles, and classifications. He describes Book by Book as “a ‘bouquet’ of insightful or provocative quotations from favorite authors, surrounded by some of my own observations, several lists, the occasional anecdote, and a series of mini-essays on the aspects of life, love, work, education, art, the self, death. There’s even, occasionally, a bit of out-and-out advice.”

Book by Book is all that Dirda said it is. I leafed through its chapters, scanning here and there and finding topics of interest from the headings at the top of each page. In desiring to learn about the pleasures of learning, I had only to turn to the chapter so named—in which, among other essays, he includes a list of “contemporary classics about teachers and students.” As a result, I look forward to finding and reading a few of the suggested books, which include (among many others) Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall, John Updike’s The Centaur, and John Barth’s Giles Goat Boy. Considering that I’ve never been an ardent fan of modern literature, perhaps this is saying something about Michael Dirda’s powers of persuasion.

Likewise, I tend to not read holiday books, having had them pushed at me in every direction from the time I could toddle, through numerous years of schooling, and by popular culture in one form or another since that time. (Illiterate and unintelligent television specials come to mind.) However, Dirda again provides a commentary in which he explains which books might be a pleasure to read for the season and why they are enjoyable and have such lasting appeal. While I have read a few of these works, I might try others this year based on his recommendations—like the following:

John Masefield’s The Box of Delights; Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales; the “Dulce Domum” chapter of The Wind in the Willows; Henry Van Dyke’s The Story of the Other Wise Man; O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. These are holiday classics—rich with mystery and blazing fires and selfless generosity, beautifully told.…

The author has presented a marvelous cornucopia of books in which the harvest comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, and flavors—exotic and rich and varied. You may choose to read the book in sequence, or you may do as I have done: Skip and leap through sections piecemeal, as time and crowded schedules permit. I assure you, the journey is exciting. And I recommend this book as a gift for the readers in your life and as a special gift to yourself.