Perhaps you’re an appreciator

 A couple of days ago, I had a long note about major and minor works of literature and how I almost invariably love the minor.

But Michael Dirda has been on my mind, and I found this:

In fact, I’m a bookman, an appreciator, a cheerleader for the old, the neglected, the marginalized, and the forgotten. On sunny days, I may call myself a literary journalist.

I don’t call myself a literary journalist. But as for the rest … that’s me.

Dirda got to the matter in 29 words. It took me almost 500.

But it explains a feature of this collection of notes. You’ll see more references to writers like Charles Reznikoff and Lorine Niedecker than to writers like Dante and Shakespeare.

Source: Michael Dirda, “Book Projects: The Art of Keeping Busy”; The American Scholar, Jan. 18, 2013.