Podcast appearances and mentions of michael dirda

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 10, 2025 is: chary • CHAIR-ee • adjective Chary is usually used with about or of to describe someone who is cautious about doing something. // The director is chary about spending money. // I've always been chary of travelling alone. See the entry > Examples: “Overall, Rendell is chary about divulging the selling price of various documents, but he does occasionally reveal some financial details.” — Michael Dirda, The Washington Post, 3 Feb. 2024 Did you know? How did chary, which began as the opposite of cheery, become a synonym of wary? Don't worry, there's no need to be chary—the answer is not dreary. Chary's Middle English predecessor, charri, meant “sorrowful,” a sense that harks back to the Old English word cearig, meaning “troubled, troublesome, taking care,” which ultimately comes from an assumed-but-unattested Germanic word, karō, meaning “sorrow” or “worry,” that is also an ancestor of the word care. It's perhaps unsurprising then, that chary was once used to mean “dear” or “cherished.” Both sorrow and affection have largely faded from chary, and today the word is most often used as a synonym of careful.

Relive Capclaves past and present during the lightning-round Capclave Donut Carnival, where you'll hear R. Z. Held and me bond over rejection, David Hacker explain his love of listening to writers read, Michael Dirda recall why Orson Scott Card once kneeled before him on an elevator, James Morrow share his fascination with Charles Darwin, how Katy Lewis found her husband through Dungeons and Dragons, Michael Walsh's favorite moment as a con chair (which involved Howard Waldrop, Gardner Dozois, and George R. R. Martin), Bill Lawhorn clarify the creation of the bronze dodo, Sarah Pinsker reveal how and why her first science fiction convention was Capclave, Adeena Mignogna explain why space is cool but space travel gets really hot, Mike Zipzer's memories of Terry Pratchett's surprise visit, Sarah Mitchell's arranging of a secret con wedding, Sunny Moraine opine on how the world's response to COVID-19 changes our ideas of what would happen in a real-world zombie apocalypse, John Pomeranz chat about how the infamous Disclave Great Flood transformed him into a hotel liaison — and much more!

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 8, 2023 is: ascetic • uh-SET-ik • adjective Ascetic is a formal word used to describe people or things that are markedly simple and restrained in appearance, manner, or attitude. Its original meaning, still in use, is “practicing strict self-denial as a measure of personal and especially spiritual discipline,” as in “an ascetic monk.” // On her first visit to Colorado's Great Sand Dunes, she immediately fell in love with their ascetic, windswept beauty. // His choice to lead such an ascetic lifestyle was at first in defiance of the conspicuous consumption of modern society, but it had the added benefit of bringing him great inner peace. See the entry > Examples: “[T. S.] Eliot's bedroom was flamboyantly ascetic: a single bed, an ebony crucifix, a bare lightbulb hanging from a chain.” — Michael Dirda, The Washington Post, 28 Sept. 2022 Did you know? If you've been refraining from adding ascetic to your vocabulary, it's time to let your hair down and live a little! In other words, be the opposite of ascetic. Ascetic comes from askētikos, a Greek adjective meaning “laborious,” and its earliest meaning in English implies the labor involved in abstention from pleasure, comfort, and self-indulgence as a spiritual discipline. These days, ascetic is also used to describe anyone or anything demonstrating marked restraint, plainness, or simplicity, even when no appeals to the divine or spiritual are attached, making it not unlike another adjective with connections to ancient Greece: spartan.

“Plutarch regularly shows that great leaders transcend their own purely material interests and petty, personal vanities. Noble ideals actually do matter, in government as in life.” —Michael Dirda, Washington Post Pompey, Caesar, Cicero, Brutus, Antony: the names still resonate across thousands of years. Major figures in the civil wars that brutally ended the Roman republic, their lives pose a question that haunts us still: how to safeguard a republic from the flaws of its leaders. This reader's edition of Plutarch delivers a fresh translation of notable clarity, explanatory notes, and ample historical context in the Preface and Introduction.

Today's show is a discussion and review of the 2021 American Neo-Noir Psychological Thriller Nightmare Alley. In 1946, Author William Lindsay Gresham, published his novel Nightmare Alley, which was a study of the lowest depths of showbiz and its sleazy inhabitants - the dark, shadowy world of a second rate carnival filled with hustlers, scheming grifters, and Machiavellian femmes fatales.  Gresham's book is considered to be one of the finest American novels of the 20th century.  Pulitzer-Prize winning book critic Michael Dirda stated, “I was utterly unprepared for its raw, Dostoevskian power…it's not often that a novel leaves a weathered and jaded reviewer like myself utterly flattened, but this one did…it's more than just a steamy noir classic.  As a portrait of the human condition, Nightmare Alley is a creepy, all-too-harrowing masterpiece”.In 1992, actor Ron Perlman, who also stars in the film, gave Guillermo del Toro a copy of William Lindsay Gersham's 1946 novel, “Nightmare Alley”.  After reading the book, del Toro acknowledged it would be nearly impossible to put everything contained in the book in a feature film, but his adaptation would be “just a straight, really dark story”.Contrary to what folks believe, del Toro blends a style of fantasy with somber tones and a blend of whimsy and wonder.  This dark story is a departure from his previous films in that there is no supernatural element like In the Shape of Water, The Strain, Hellboy, and Pan's Labyrinth.One final note before we get into our feature film is that del Toro claims his film adaptation of Gersham's book has no relation to the 1947 film of the same, although both are born of the same book.  So for today, we are going to forgo comparisons to the first film adaptation and focus solely on del Toro's film on its own merit.  Afterall, this film received 4 Oscar noms, so let's see what this film has to offer.    In this show, we do more than a movie review by delving into the lives of the cast and crew, fan theories, trivia, scene breakdowns, and anything related to the film itself.  Needless to say, our shows are a little longer than your average movie review show, but we can assure you that our shows are jam packed with entertaining and interesting discussions.  If that sounds like your sort of bag, hang out with Kenny and Del as they get into Nightmare Alley.Thanks for listening and feel free to hit us up on any of our social media platforms!https://linktr.ee/BiAPodcastTheme song "Loli'ana" written and performed by award-winning musician Kamuela Kahoano.   Listen to more of Kamuela's music on iTunes and https://kamuelamusic.com/.  Also, "Loli'ana" performed live at The Ko'olau Banquet Hall can be seen here https://youtu.be/YDJ1NNJgEiA  If you enjoyed our show, subscribe and check out our new shows that drop every Friday.  Also, new this year, our non-routine Hot Topic show where we discuss what's hot in the movie world and our Anniversary Specials, which are 30 minute show that pay tribute to a movie celebrating a significant anniversary.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 2, 2022 is: captious • KAP-shuss • adjective Captious usually means "tending to find fault and raise objections." Less commonly, it means "calculated to confuse, entrap, or entangle in argument." // Surprisingly, the critic, who is known for being captious, found the movie to be a flawless gem. // Befuddled by the captious questions, the suspect broke down and confessed to the crime. See the entry > Examples: "Enjoyable as the book is, a purist will nonetheless fault its loose construction. Still, readers shouldn't be overly captious about this diverting, light entertainment." — Michael Dirda, The Denver Post, 7 Oct. 2018 Did you know? Captious comes from Latin captio, which refers to a deception or verbal quibble. Arguments labeled captious are likely to "capture" a person; they often entrap through subtly deceptive reasoning or trifling points. A captious individual is one who might also be dubbed "hypercritical," the sort of carping, censorious critic only too ready to point out minor faults and raise objections on trivial grounds.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 2, 2022 is: captious • KAP-shuss • adjective Captious means "tending to find fault and raise objections" or "calculated to confuse, entrap, or entangle in argument." // Surprisingly, the critic, who is known for being captious, found the movie to be a flawless gem. // Befuddled by the captious questions, the suspect broke down and confessed to the crime. See the entry > Examples: "Enjoyable as the book is, a purist will nonetheless fault its loose construction. Still, readers shouldn't be overly captious about this diverting, light entertainment." — Michael Dirda, The Denver Post, 7 Oct. 2018 Did you know? Captious comes from Latin captio, which refers to a deception or verbal quibble. Arguments labeled captious are likely to "capture" a person; they often entrap through subtly deceptive reasoning or trifling points. A captious individual is one who might also be dubbed "hypercritical," the sort of carping, censorious critic only too ready to point out minor faults and raise objections on trivial grounds.

In 1891, a mysterious figure appeared on the streets of London, dispensing pills to poor young women who then died in agony. Suspicion came to center on a Scottish-Canadian doctor with a dark past in North America. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe the career of the Lambeth Poisoner, whose victims remain uncounted. We'll also consider a Hungarian Jules Verne and puzzle over an ambiguous sentence. Intro: How can an investor responsibly divest herself of stock in a company that she feels has acted immorally? Lightning can vitrify sand into rootlike tubes. Sources for our feature on Thomas Neill Cream: Dean Jobb, The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer, 2021. Lee Mellor, Cold North Killers: Canadian Serial Murder, 2012. Joshua A. Perper and Stephen J. Cina, When Doctors Kill: Who, Why, and How, 2010. John H. Trestrail III, Criminal Poisoning: Investigational Guide for Law Enforcement, Toxicologists, Forensic Scientists, and Attorneys, 2007. Angus McLaren, A Prescription for Murder: The Victorian Serial Killings of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream, 1995. Paula J. Reiter, "Doctors, Detectives, and the Professional Ideal: The Trial of Thomas Neill Cream and the Mastery of Sherlock Holmes," College Literature 35:3 (Summer 2008), 57-95. Ian A. Burney, "A Poisoning of No Substance: The Trials of Medico-Legal Proof in Mid-Victorian England," Journal of British Studies 38:1 (January 1999), 59-92. Penelope Johnston, "The Murderous Ways of Dr Thomas Neill Cream," Medical Post 33:38 (Nov. 11, 1997), 47. Carolyn A. Conley, "A Prescription for Murder: The Victorian Serial Killings of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream by Angus McLaren," American Historical Review 99:3 (June 1994), 899-900. Philippa Levin, "Modern Britain -- A Prescription for Murder: The Victorian Serial Killings of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream by Angus McLaren," Canadian Journal of History 28:3 (December 1993), 595-597. E.H. Bensley, "McGill University's Most Infamous Medical Graduate," Canadian Medical Association Journal 109:10 (1973), 1024. "A Crazy Poisoner," British Medical Journal 1:3302 (April 12, 1924), 670. Michael Dirda, "A True-Crime Columnist Turns His Attention to Victorian-Era Serial Killer Thomas Neill Cream," Washington Post, Aug. 11, 2021. Evan F. Moore, "New Book Details Canadian Serial Killer's Murderous Legacy in Chicago and Beyond," Chicago Sun-Times, Aug. 10, 2021. Rick Kogan, "Story of Serial Killer Dr. Thomas Neill Cream Takes You on a Grand, Gruesome, Historical Journey, With His Time in Chicago," Chicago Tribune, July 22, 2021. W.M. Akers, "Getting Away With Murder, Literally," New York Times, July 13, 2021. "When Canada's 'Jack the Ripper' Serial Killer Struck in Ontario," Toronto Star, May 29, 2021. Marc Horne, "Doctor Who Had a Taste for Poison," Scotland on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2008. Jill Foran, "The Evil Deeds of Dr. Cream," The [Winnipeg] Beaver 86:4 (August/September 2006), 16-22. "Coincidences Point the Finger at Cream as the Ripper," [Regina, Saskatchewan] Leader-Post, May 5, 1979. "The Violent and Sadistic Dr. Cream," [Regina, Saskatchewan] Leader-Post, April 28, 1979. "Poisoner Trailed Over Three Countries," Knoxville [Tenn.] Journal, Feb. 2, 1947. Ruth Reynolds, "When Justice Triumphed," [New York] Daily News, Feb. 2, 1947. "His Last Letter," Waterloo [N.Y.] Advertiser, Dec. 9, 1892. "Cream's Joke," Arizona Republican, Nov. 30, 1892. "Execution of Neill," [Cardiff] Western Mail, Nov. 16, 1892. "Cream's Two Manias," Waterbury [Conn.] Evening Democrat, Nov. 16, 1892. "Execution of Neill, the Poisoner," Yorkshire Herald and the York Herald, Nov. 16, 1892. "A Demon Strangled," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Nov. 15, 1892. "Cream's Many Crimes," Boston Globe, Nov. 15, 1892. "Neill Cream Hanged," [Wilmington, Del.] Evening Journal, Nov. 15, 1892. "Neill Will Hang," [Brockway Centre, Mich.] Weekly Expositor, Oct. 28, 1892. "Neill Cream On Trial," [Wilmington, Del.] Evening Journal, Oct. 17, 1892. "On the Grave's Brink," [Wilmington, Del.] Evening Journal, Aug. 9, 1892. "The South London Poisoning Cases," Berrow's Worcester Journal, July 2, 1892. "The Mysterious Poisoning of Girls," Reynolds's Newspaper, June 26, 1892. "Lambeth Poisoning Cases," Daily News, June 25, 1892. "Poisoning Mysteries," Lloyd's Illustrated Newspaper, June 19, 1892. Edward Butts, "Thomas Neill Cream," Canadian Encyclopedia, 2019. Listener mail: "Visit Norfolk Area Nebraska" (accessed Nov. 6, 2021). "Norfolk, Nebraska, United States," Encyclopaedia Britannica (accessed Nov. 6, 2021). City of Norfolk, Nebraska (accessed Nov. 6, 2021). Aaron Calvin, "17 Words Only a True Iowan Knows How to Pronounce," Des Moines Register, Sept. 16, 2021. "How to Pronounce Vaillant," Forvo (accessed Nov. 4, 2021). This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Peter Quinn. You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Google Podcasts, on Apple Podcasts, or via the RSS feed at https://futilitycloset.libsyn.com/rss. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

In this "Cutaway" episode, Jeffrey Overstreet continues to "unpack" (to borrow a word popular with pastors) the package of books he received from Eighth Day Books for attention during these months of "sheltering at home." Here, he takes a deep dive into Alan Jacobs' Breaking Bread With the Dead, and also considers Eric Gill's Beauty Will Look After Itself and Michael Dirda's Bound to Please. This is part two of a two-part reflection on readings for a time of pandemic isolation.

Michael Dirda is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post Book World and the author of the memoir “An Open Book” and of four collections of essays: “Readings,” “Bound to Please,” “Book by Book” and “Classics for Pleasure.” Dirda was born in Lorain, Ohio, graduated with highest honors in English from Oberlin College, and received a Ph.D. in comparative literature (medieval studies and European romanticism) from Cornell University. We met in Washington D.C., pre-Covid, to discuss specifically Michael's book Readings, and more generally the books he thinks are worth reading and collecting. 

Chow down on crab cakes with Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic Michael Dirda as we discuss the convention at which he thought he was about to be punched out by Harlan Ellison, the book he wants to write but which he realizes he could probably never publish, how discovering E. F. Bleiler's Guide to Supernatural Fiction opened a whole new world for him, whether he faced judgment from his peers for believing Georgette Heyer is as important as George Eliot, why he wants to be buried with a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo, how Beverly Cleary's Henry Huggins is like a Proustian madeleine, the way he navigates the tricky act of reviewing the fiction of friends, the word he used which annoyed Gene Wolfe, and much more.

Take a crash course in Indie Publishing 101 with the founders of Restless Books; hear Scholar senior editor Bruce Falconer explain how John le Carré burned the bridge between genre and literary fiction; and learn from Witold Rybczynski how an iconic modern chair was inspired by an ant. Mentioned in this episode: • Bruce Falconer’s review of The Pigeon Tunnel • Our list of 13 “Spooktacular” Books and Michael Dirda’s attempt to out-scare us with a list of his own • An excerpt from How to Travel Without Seeing by Andrés Neuman, published by Restless Books, which offers a glimpse inside the surreal operations of Venezuela’s book...  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Take a crash course in Indie Publishing 101 with the founders of Restless Books; hear Scholar senior editor Bruce Falconer explain how John le Carré burned the bridge between genre and literary fiction; and learn from Witold Rybczynski how an iconic modern chair was inspired by an ant. Mentioned in this episode: • Bruce Falconer’s review of The Pigeon Tunnel • Our list of 13 “Spooktacular” Books and Michael Dirda’s attempt to out-scare us with a list of his own • An excerpt from How to Travel Without Seeing by Andrés Neuman, published by Restless Books, which offers a glimpse inside the surreal operations of Venezuela’s book... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"I am one of a hundred" [ILLU]  Well, we managed to do it. And it only took us nine years, an 18-month hiatus, one lost episode and thousands of fans.   That's right, it's our 100th episode.   We asked you what you wanted to hear for the centenary of the first podcast for Sherlock Holmes devotees, and time and again, we heard from you, telling us to do a retrospective - a look back at our favorite moments from what we've accomplished. We also asked you what your favorite moments are and what you wanted to know from us. Well, we managed to deliver on both.   Our 100th episode gave us a chance to reflect on exactly what turning 100 means, and to dive back into our murky and fuzzy origins. We try to answer some of your queries and we celebrate those who joined us previously before launching into our top memories of the show, as represented in audio clips. Our Gas-Lamp features two readings, including a new one created just for this episode. Finally, we wrap up with a couple of important announcements that you won't want to miss.   We thank Mary Miller for her ongoing and generous support of our program on . Perhaps you'd like to become a patron in honor of our 100th show. If ongoing support scares you, are welcome too.    Additional Thanks We have so many of you to thank — from those of you who wrote in with feedback, to those who provided reviews, created something for us, provided financial support, and of course, those who appeared on the show. It's all been absolutely overwhelming.   So, in no particular order, thanks to: Steve Doyle, Mark Gagen, Steve Rothman, Bob Katz, Andy Solberg, Jon Lellenberg, Dan Stashower, Mike Whelan, Peter Blau, Les Klinger, Bert Coules, Mike Berdan, Michael Dirda, Bob Thomalen, The Baker Street Babes, Otto Penzler, Maria Konnikova, Nicholas Meyer, Evelyn Herzog, Susan Rice, David Harnois, Steve Mason, Rob Nunn, Claire Strum, Peter Calamai, Nicholas Pidgeon, Nick Utechin, Ray Betzner, David Stuart Davies, David Ian Davies, Chris Redmond, Jamie Mahoney, Leah Guinn, Jerry Margolin, David Morrill, Sally Sugarman, Graham Moore, Henry Zecher, Tom Francis, Don Hobbs, Tom Richmond, Tim Johnson, Ken Ludwig, Glen Miranker, Zach Dundas, Bonnie MacBird, Bill Barnes, Roseane McNamara, Doug Elliott, Kerry Murphy, Christopher Sequeira, Erin O'Neill, and Robert Veld.   And extra special thanks to our spouses  Kathi and Mindi, who tolerate this silliness and allow us to interrupt the flow of home life more than we thought they would. Or certainly more than they'd prefer.     Notes 1:37 Welcome and intro 2:25 Someone else is pretty excited 3:19 Other centenary celebrations in 2016 7:10 Milestones can be , featuring 9:32 Our humble beginnings 11:14 Spending time 11:55 I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere - by the numbers 15:49 Multiple IHOSE interview guests 18:10 Your kind reviews 20:24 21:40 You asked for it / your favorite moments 23:29 How it all began 34:24 Remembering our hiatus 41:00 Looking back at our favorite moments 42:25 Mike Berdan on getting involved with Sherlock Holmes  45:12 Christopher Morley on the reality of Sherlock Holmes 48:00 Peter Blau on Edgar Smith 51:38 Otto Penzler gets defensive about his literary doppelgänger 55:23 Fritz Weaver recalls Baker Street, the characterization of Sherlock Holmes, and the importance of Conan Doyle 57:54 Michael Dirda reads from On Conan Doyle 1:01:59 Lara Pulver reflects on her success 1:05:03 Bert Coules on the role of the writer with BBC Radio, the importance of his director David Johnson recognizing the major characters in The Hound of the Baskervilles 1:11:20 Bert Coules talks about casting Michael Williams as Dr. Watson, as opposed to Nigel Bruce 1:14:55 A comic interlude: a halfway decent Jack Benny impersonation 1:20:22 Lyndsay, Ashley and Ardy from the Baker Street Babes play Jeopardy and make Burt's editing job a living nightmare 1:24:06 A flashback within our flashback as Steve Rothman is unruffled and Bob Katz freaks out about Dr. Rosenbach's credentials 1:26:57 Nicholas Meyer recounts how he was invited to the BSI dinner and how he overstepped 1:35:25 Susan Rice shares the story of the afternoon when women were granted membership in the Baker Street Irregulars, together with a recording of Tom Stix presiding at that very event. 1:42:53 The Baker Street Journal 1:45:02 The Editor's Gas-Lamp: a two-fer with "221B" and "A Long Evening with Holmes" 1:50:45 Housekeeping, special thanks and two announcements — listen closely, as we need your feedback     Sponsors This episode includes our two longtime sponsors and we thank them. Please support our sponsors by visiting their sites: The , featuring .  , where you can get a gift subscription for the up and coming Sherlockian.      Would you care to become a sponsor? You can find .   Links: Our Episodes and (Sherlockian 101) : Mike Berdan  : Sherlockian 101  : Peter Blau  : Otto Penzler  : Fritz Weaver : Michael Dirda  : Lara Pulver Episodes and : Bert Coules : The Baker Street Babes : Nicholas Meyer : Susan Rice and Evelyn Herzog : that Jack Benny impersonation : Bob Katz, Andy Solberg and Steven Rothman Leave us a rating or review The  page The      Many more links, articles and images are available in our Flipboard magazine at  , as well as on the  on Google+ (with over 3,700 members), as well as through our accounts on  , , ,   and .     Please , , ,  or  and be kind enough to leave a rating or review for the show. And please tell a friend about us, in any fashion you feel comfortable.   Your thoughts on the show? Leave a comment below, send us an email (comment AT ihearofsherlock DOT com), call us at (774) 221-READ (7323).        

Last year, at the World Fantasy Convention held in Saratoga Springs, a panel was presented on 'Creating the Fantasy Canon'.  The panel description was: There are some books we all agree on as fundamental to the genre, but can we agree on a canon of twenty stories? Our panelists will discuss which twenty books are essential reading for understanding the genre and how this list has changed over time. Jonathan from the Coode Street Podcast was cast in the role of moderator, and the panelists for the discussion were John Clute, Michael Dirda, Yanni Kuznia, Gary Wolfe, and Ron Yaniv. The conversation that unfolded was energetic, thoughtful and entertaining, and even if it didn't resolve the question, it nonetheless was something we at Coode St thought you might enjoy. The Coode Street Podcast team would like to thank the administrators of the World Fantasy convention for permission to present the panel here, and would specially like to thank sound expert Paul Kraus for his hard work on making sure the recording was as good as it is. As always, we hope you enjoy the episode!

More than 30 of the year's Virtual Memories Show guests tell us about the favorite books they read in 2015 and the books they hope to get to in 2016! Guests include Derf Backderf, Anthea Bell, John Clute, Michael Dirda, Matt Farber, Jonathan Galassi, Brad Gooch, Langdon Hammer, Liz Hand, Jennifer Hayden, Ron Hogan, Dylan Horrocks, David Jaher, Kathe Koja, Jonathan Kranz, Peter Kuper, Lorenzo Mattotti, JD McClatchy, Scott McCloud, Michael Meyer, Dan Perkins (a.k.a Tom Tomorrow), Summer Pierre, Witold Rybczynski, Dmitry Samarov, Elizabeth Samet, Liesl Schillinger, Posy Simmonds, Levi Stahl, Rupert Thomson, Irvine Welsh, Warren Woodfin, Jim Woodring, Claudia Young, and me, Gil Roth! Check out their selections at our site!

Author of Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books   Interview starts at 15:46 and ends at 42:34   My main attraction to a Kindle is only age-related. If my vision deteriorates enough that I need to make the type bigger, then I could see that it's just a wonderful tool to have. But so long as I can enjoy the books that I have, the physical books, I'll stick with them. I have nothing against them [eReaders]. I believe that what fundamentally matters is stories, poems—people need them. The means that we access them isn't crucial at all.    News “Amazon to Release $50 Tablet as it Struggles to Sell Pricier Devices” by Greg Bensinger at The Wall Street Journal - September 7, 2015 (Behind paywall - copy headline and paste into Google) “What's New Tonight from Amazon—Summary of New Kindles and Fires” at The Kindle Chronicles - September 17, 2015 “Amazon Kindle Voyage 2 to be Released November 2015” by Michael Kozlowski at Good e-Reader - July 9, 2015 “Amazon's Kindle Scout Publishing Platform Expands Internationally” - press release September 9, 2015 “20 Years of Amazon.com Bookselling” by Jim Milliot at Publishers Weekly - September 4, 2015   Tech Tip How to type like 1,000 monkeys on a Kindle on-screen keyboard   Interview with Michael Dirda      Reviews of Browsings in The Washington Post, The Minneapolis StarTribune, and Wall Street Journal “Book Shopping with the Best-Read Man in America” by John Lingan at The Paris Review - December 28, 2012 Michael Dirda's reading at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C. - August 10, 2015 Twisted Clay by Frank Walford On Conan Doyle: Or, The Whole Art of Storytelling by Michael Dirda The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle Professor Challenger Premium Collection by Arthur Conan Doyle The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard by Arthur Conan Doyle   Content Books published by Kindle Press based on Kindle Scout reader input Housebroken by The Behrg Eddie & Sunny by Stacey Cochran   Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Persepctive" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD.    Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

Pulitzer Prize-winning book reviewer Michael Dirda rejoins the show to talk about his new collection, Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books (Pegasus Books). We discuss the importance of reading for pleasure, the difference between book-collecting and shopping, the role of the book reviewer (and how it differs from that of the critic), a recent negative review he didn't want to write, why he doesn't read reviews of his work, what his mother said when he won the Pulitzer Prize, and more!

More than 30 of this year's podcast guests tell us about the favorite books they read in 2014! Guests include Maria Alexander, Ashton Applewhite, David Baerwald, Nina Bunjevac, Roz Chast, Sarah Deming, Michael Dirda, Jules Feiffer, Mark Feltskog, Mary Fleener, Nathan Fox, Josh Alan Friedman, Richard Gehr, Paul Gravett, Sam Gross, Rachel Hadas, Kaz, Daniel Levine, Sara Lippmann, Merrill Markoe, Brett Martin, Mimi Pond, George Prochnik, Emily Raboteau, Jonathan Rose, Ron Rosenbaum, Dmitry Samarov, Seth, Katie Skelly, Ron Slate, Maya Stein, Rupert Thomson, and Frank Wilson! Check out the list of books at our site!

Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic Michael Dirda rejoins the Virtual Memories Show at Readercon 2014 to talk about the time Neil Gaiman tried to explain Twitter to him, his new project on the golden age of storytelling, what he dislikes about the tone of today's book reviewers, and more! [Also, we remastered our original Dirda podcast from 2012, over here!]

"...my little bookshop at the corner..." [EMPT]  When we have the opportunity to sit on a couple of sofas and interview some of the most erudite and interesting Baker Street Irregulars of our time, we take it. And it seems that the BSI Weekend serves as just the spot to do that. Two years ago, we had an opportunity to do just that with Michael Dirda (ref. ), and we were again afforded that opportunity this year. On January 16, 2014, we had the great fortune to find an upstairs room in The Players Club in Manhattan, where we plunked our microphones down in front of Ray Betzner, BSI ("The Agony Column") and the esteemed Susan Rice, BSI ("Beeswing"), ASH ("Some Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen") and got them to wax poetic about the great Sherlockian and bookman, Vincent Starrett. While many people are familiar with the names of Edgar Smith and Christopher Morley when it comes to early Irregular history, Vincent Starrett may not be as widely known. He was certainly very well known in his own time, and particularly in his city of Chicago. His contributions to the world of Sherlock Holmes were immense, and his own magnum opus  is probably the most well known. But what else was known of this man? How did he become such a great scholar of Holmes? What of his professional life? What mysteries within his own personal life and commitments kept him from attending all but the first BSI Dinner, despite his death some 40 years later in 1974? Our interview subjects delve into all of these topics and many more as they help us explore the multifaceted bookman Vincent Starrett. We hear from Vincent himself in the opening strains of the show and we close not with a Gas-Lamp, but of a reading of his touching poem "221B." Both of these are available on , available from the Wessex Press, our sponsor. Listener comments are back (thank you!), both written and audio, and we give those some airtime. Finally, we have a special item - an article that Starrett wrote for The Observer, the catalog from Oppenheim's from Autumn 1929, titled "Fashions in Fiction" - that is available as a bonus item only for listeners who have downloaded our , our , or our . Links: Ray Betzner's new website:  - including ""  - 75th anniversary edition, edited by Ray Betzner (Wessex Press) An excerpt from  (BSI Archival History) "" in The Golden Book Magazine - available to one lucky collector (Amazon.com)  (via the Internet Archive)  (Hypable) Our  and  site aggregate lots of content for your enjoyment. Please  and be kind enough to leave a rating or review for the show. And please tell a friend about us, in any fashion you feel comfortable. Your thoughts on the show? Leave a comment below, send us an email, call us at (774) 221-READ (7323) or use the Speakpipe app right here on the site. Connect with us and other interested Sherlockians on  on Google+, ,  and . And of course, our  is a nice collection of links, articles and images. And above all, please let our sponsors know that you heard us rant and rave about their excellence during the programme:  and . Image credit:  --

Michael Dirda discusses Sherlock Holmes and his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, at the 2012 Library of Congress National Book Festival. For captions, transcript, and more information visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=5830.

Pulitzer-winning book critic Michael Dirda joins us to talk about the role of negative reviews, the value of book reviews in the internet age, breaking out of the genre ghetto, his path into Book World, and more! [This one is a re-mastered edition of the Oct. 2012 episode.]

This week we're joined by Pulitzer Prize award winning critic Michael Dirda to discuss his new book on Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Gene Wolfe and the golden age of story. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!

Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Dirda recently reviewed Keith Roberts' magestic novel, Pavane, in The Washington Post, describing it as a fix-up novel, a term coined by the late A.E. van Vogt. The review sparked a conversation about fix-ups, what they are and where the term comes from, and how terminology forms in the SF field. It's digressive, unresearched, and un-factchecked, but at least it's not talking about awards. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast.

The winners of the 2011 National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest received their awards during a ceremony at the Library. The program included a talk, "The Thrill of the Hunt: The Serendipitous Pleasures of Book Collecting" by Michael Dirda. Speaker Biography: Michael Dirda is senior editor for "The Washington Post Book World." He taught world literature at the university level and worked as a free-lance writer, translator and editor before joining "Book World" in 1978. He is recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism and is author of "Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland." For captions, transcript, and more information visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=5358.

One of the great benefits of being a member of the Baker Street Irregulars is that we get to meet a lot of interesting and famous people. Chief among them are the literati, such as Michael Dirda, the Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic for the Washington Post, who makes his living by writing about the literati.   In this case, Michael himself is the author, having been tapped by the Princeton University Press to contribute to their "Writers on Writers" series with the volume . In it, he takes us through Conan Doyle's life and writings - many of which may not be familiar to the Sherlock Holmes fan - and gives us a perspective on many of them through the Canon.   Burt and Scott had a chance to sit down with Michael at the Players in New York City during the 2012 Baker Street Irregulars Weekend - marking the first time our podcast has been recorded with the two hosts together in the same room.   Rather than give you an Editor's Gas-Lamp in this episode, we asked Michael to read something from his own work.

The 2011 Mencken Memorial Lecture,  "The Literary Journalist in the Era of H. L. Mencken: Vincent Starrett, Christopher Morley, and Clifton Fadiman," is presented by Michael Dirda, book columnist for the Washington Post.Michael Dirda received the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for criticism. A graduate of Oberlin College, he received a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Cornell University. Dirda is the author of the memoir An Open Book and of four collections of essays: Readings, Bound to Please, Book by Book and Classics for Pleasure. His latest book, On Conan Doyle, will be published this fall by Princeton University Press. Recorded On: Saturday, September 10, 2011