Pulitzer Prize-winning literary journalist Dirda takes a sentimental journey back to his 1950s and '60s childhood in the Midwestern steel town of Lorian, Ohio. The only boy of four children, he grew up in a blue-collar family with a "worried" mother and a father who "hated his lot in life with every particle of his moody, dissatisfied soul." To escape from home life and his own "dissatisfied and restless" feelings, the young Dirda sought solace in books, thus beginning a lifelong literary affair of unwavering intensity and curiosity. With total recall for themes, quotes, characters and plot lines, Dirda tirelessly records virtually every book he encountered in his young life, covering comic books, classics, poetry, mystery novels, high-brow literary criticism and soft-core erotica. It's an impressive accomplishment for anyone, but especially someone so young growing up in a house where neither parent read books (his father was "appalled at [Dirda's] bookishness") and money was scarce. Aided by his similarly nerdy classmates and friends and a string of supportive mentors, this "four-eyed, pasty-faced bookworm" evolved into a complicated, compelling kid: smug, pompous, self-doubting, insatiable. Dirda often tries readers' patience with mundane details of small-town geography and endless summaries of obscure texts, and toward the end of the book, there are a few cringe-worthy moments as he describes his crushes on various "sweet-fleshed young thing[s]" and the "sexual acts of unspeakable deliciousness" they inspire in his imagination. But this story of intellectual tenacity in middle America rises above its author's sometimes overly precious attempt at self-examination. Photos.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

In this engaging literary memoir, Pulitzer Prize winner Dirda, senior editor at the Washington Post Book World, recounts his coming of age as a reader in small-town America. He remembers being beguiled by the power of stories as his mother cradled him in her lap and read to him from one of the dozen "Golden Books" in their living room, leading him to develop a voracious appetite for books. Dirda beautifully weaves stories of his father, mother, and sisters into his meditations on reading works as diverse as Crime and Punishment and Tarzan. His portraits of family and friends are affectionate and disarmingly honest, shedding light on such delicate experiences as the time his father first introduced him to the wondrous world of libraries. Above all, this graceful memoir reveals with wry humor and wistful nostalgia a more innocent time in America when books could still have a profound influence in a child's life. Dirda stands shoulder to shoulder with our finest essayists, and his book provides a rich and evocative portrait of the reader as a young man. Essential.-Henry L. Carrigan Jr., Lancaster, PACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

No one answers the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" by saying, "A literary critic," but a deep need for story and an ardent love of books do shape lives. Dirda, columnist for the Washington Post Book World and a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for his lucid, expert, and just criticism, traces the book-strewn path that led to his life as a literary journalist with a wistful sense of wonder and gratitude. In describing his boyhood in the small, blue-collar town of Lorain, Ohio, as the precocious, misfit son of a nurturing mother and an often gruff steel-mill worker father, Dirda is nearly hagiographic, which leads to some awkwardness; but once he starts writing about his mentors and the books that have enthralled and inspired him, simpatico readers will relish the refresher course his autobiography provides. As Dirda grapples with the questions that have engaged him for decades--Why read? Why do books matter?--his fellow book lovers will experience a renewal of their faith in literature. DonnaSeaman. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.