“Deep in my cortex, the year is divided into reading seasons. The perio...” — Michael Dirda Quote

“Deep in my cortex, the year is divided into reading seasons. The period from mid-October to Christmas, for instance, is 'ghost story' time, while Jane Austen and P. G. Wodehouse pretty much own April and May.”

“From the late 19th to the early 20th century, the December issue of almost any general-interest magazine regularly featured a holiday horror or two.”

“For years, I meant to read 'Arabian Sands', Wilfred Thesiger's account of two punishing camel journeys during the late 1940s across Southern Arabia's Empty Quarter. Now that I have, I can sheepishly join the chorus of those who revere the book as one of the half dozen greatest works of modern English travel writing.”

“At school, I'd be the dude singing to the girls, always up in the auditorium, in the lunch room singing Christmas carols, in the halls between class. I was always singing, and same thing with my grandfather. The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree; you know how that goes.”

“A title means marketing. It means that company's coming soon, and you'd better get out the Christmas lights so they don't miss your house.”

“Chum was a British boy's weekly which, at the end of the year was bound into a single huge book; and the following Christmas parents bought it as Christmas presents for male children.”