↓
 

The PolyBlog

My view from the lilypads

  • Home
  • Life
    • Family (all posts)
    • Health and Spiritualism (all posts)
    • Learning and Ideas (all posts)
    • Computers (all posts)
    • Experiences (all posts)
    • Humour (all posts)
    • Quotes (all posts)
  • Reviews
    • Books
      • Master Reading and Review List (by Author)
      • Book Reviews List (by Date of Review)
      • Book Reviews (all posts)
      • PolyWogg’s Reading Challenge
        • 2023
        • 2022
        • 2021
        • 2020
        • 2019
        • 2015, 2016, 2017
    • Movies
      • Master Movie Reviews List (by Title)
      • Movie Reviews List (by Date of Review)
      • Movie Reviews (all posts)
    • Television
      • Television Premieres (by Date of Post)
      • Television (all posts)
      • Master TV Season Reviews List (by Title)
      • TV Season Reviews List (by Date of Review)
  • Writing
    • Writing (all posts)
  • Goals
    • Goals (all posts)
    • #50by50 – Status of completion
    • PolyWogg’s Bucket List, updated for 2016
  • About Me
    • About ThePolyBlog.ca
    • Privacy Policy
    • Subscribe
    • Contact Me
    • WP colour choices
    • PolySites
      • ThePolyBlog.ca (Home)
      • PolyWogg.ca
      • AstroPontiac.ca
  • Andrea’s Corner

Tag Archives: literature

An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland by Michael Dirda (2003) – BR00035 (2007) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
May 3 2007

Plot or Premise

The author is a book reviewer for the Washington Post; this is the story of his life up until graduation from university.

What I Liked

Dirda was recommended to me by a colleague from work, whose appetites for reading are far more literary than mine. He actually recommended Bound to Please, which is a collection of Dirda’s reviews of more literary prose from throughout history, but I tripped over this book first. I’m quite glad I did as I probably won’t read the collection of essays until I’ve read most of the tomes reviewed, but An Open Book is a fantastic autobiography.

It reads in some place like Angela’s Ashes without the darkness of Irish poverty. However, it is not without conflict or family dysfunction during the author’s childhood, and he tells the story in places with openness and unashamed personal bias.

The main part of the story recounts Dirda’s intellectual progress as he moved through comic strips from the newspaper (p.49), pun and joke books (everyone sing: “great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts”!), the TAB book club (p.66), the Hardy Boys and Tom Swift series (p.90), a brief stint with romance novels (p.201), and the importance of great literature to challenging society and even changing history (p.290). It also includes his non-literary education – playing with BB guns (p.81), understanding firsthand how hard his father’s job was (p.185), learning about art and music (p.267), the ceasing to care about grades when writing essays and the corresponding improvements in marks (p.310), the contribution of early influences in his life to later character traits (p.320), and looking back at one’s life (p.321).

The book recounts his life relatively linearly in time, yet with lots of interesting digressions that veer away from developments in his personal life and situation with the book he was reading at the time.

What I Didn’t Like

It would have been interesting to see more of the reactions from teachers throughout the author’s life, including perhaps even tracking some of them down. It is hard to imagine exactly how certain ones would have reacted to his precocious reading of more advanced novels, and the existing allusions to some of their reactions are rudimentary at best. As well, the final decision (to become a freelance journalist upon leaving university) is rushed in the story and negates much of the relaxed pace to that point.

The Bottom Line

See the early influences on a literary book reviewer.

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, B&N, biography, book review, Chapters, Good Reads, hardcover, library, Library Thing, literature, non-fiction, PolyWogg, prose, stand-alone | Leave a reply

Biblioholism: The Literary Addiction by Tom Raabe (1996) – BR00013 (2001) – 🐸🐸⚪⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
February 18 2001

A mixed-tone argument that you can be “addicted” to reading and owning books, with some examples of book hoarders from years-gone-by.

Continue reading →
Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, B&N, biography, book review, Good Reads, library, Library Thing, literature, non-fiction, paperback, PolyWogg, prose, reference, self-help, stand-alone | Leave a reply

Ruined by Reading: A life in books by Lynne Sharon Schwartz (1996) – BR00010 (2001) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
February 18 2001

Schwarz starts with a commentary by a Chinese scholar that some people are handicapped by reading too much, and not thinking enough about what they read. From there, she looks at the books she has read in her life and the role they have played. It is not a heavy analytical tone throughout, but rather a personal commentary on the books that have been important to her in her life, and the elements of her life that took place in and around books.

Continue reading →
Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, B&N, biography, book review, Chapters, Good Reads, Google, hardcover, Kobo, library, Library Thing, literature, non-fiction, Nook, PolyWogg, prose, reference, stand-alone | Leave a reply

My Latest Posts

  • Deadlines, dominoes, and delaysJanuary 30, 2023
    As most people who have read this blog from time to time already know, I’m big on time management techniques, various options for to-do lists and tracking tasks. I like to set ambitious annual goals, and then monitor them throughout the year. Some years turn out better than others. Whereas many people set resolutions and … Continue reading →
  • Curated: We Need To Talk About Professional Jealousy – Electric LiteratureJanuary 20, 2023
    I occasionally like to share online articles that I like, and you’ll see sporadic posts entitled “Articles I Like” throughout the blog. But honestly, Curated is probably a more accurate title. I recently found an article by Benjamin Schaefer on the website Electric Literature, although I was led there by ThePassiveVoice website. The article is … Continue reading →
  • Schrodinger’s computer purge (part 1 / 3)January 15, 2023
    So, I’m a techno-wannabe-geek with elements of hoarding in my DNA. I find it hard to dispose of working computer parts, long after I’ve outgrown the need for them. Some “saves” are practical and some are not. And like Schrodinger’s cat, my computer purge is both real and theoretical at the same time. A. Network … Continue reading →
  • Some more reading ideas…January 15, 2023
    Chapters/Indigo has their Reading Challenge for the year too. They do it up like a bingo card, but the headings are: I’ll have to go through some of the links to see if there’s anything I want to add to my long list. 🙂
  • 11 years, a gig platform, and a chequeJanuary 13, 2023
    Somewhere in this universe, if life after death exists, my father is rolling over in his grave. Or rolling his eyes, shrugging his shoulders, throwing up his hands…whatever the ghosts do when they see their descendants doing stuff that they think is ridiculous. And it is NOT my father’s fault. Let me be clear. He … Continue reading →

Archives

Categories

© 1996-2021 - PolyWogg
↑