Autographed copy of Michael Dirda's newest publication:
An Open Book

FROM THE PUBLISHER:
An Open Book is the story of how comics and adventure stories, poetry and Proust can change your life. In its pages literary journalist Michael Dirda recalls not only his colorful family, friends, and teachers but also, and just as importantly, the fictional characters and assorted books that fueled his imagination. In the backyards and branch libraries of a gritty factory town, the pudgy, nearsighted boy discovers an eclectic world of literary characters - the urbane Count of Monte Cristo, the all-powerful Green Lantern, Tarzan of the Apes, the brooding Sherlock Holmes, Hamlet, and Raskolnikov, not to mention the sexy Candy and Fanny Hill. He memorizes passages from Thoreau's Walden, writes love poems to high-school heartthrobs, and sends away for correspondence-school courses and guides to the great books. Above all he daydreams - about getting in shape, learning to speak properly, becoming "cultivated," having adventures.