Book by Book Notes on Reading and Life

Once out of school, most people read for pleasure. But for some of us there is an equally important reason that we read: to learn how to live. Drawing on sources as diverse as Dr. Seuss and Simone Weil, P.G. Wodehouse and Isaiah Berlin, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Michael Dirda shows how the wit, wisdom, and enchantment of the written word informs and enriches nearly every aspect of life, from education and work to love and death. From essential works for children to the definitive ¿interior library¿ that every reader should have at his command, Dirda offers us an opinionated and personal account of what -- and how -- to draw meaning from what we read. ¿Brilliant.¿ ¿As warm and stimulating as a library to which one returns again and again.¿