New York: Norton, (2003). First edition - Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist recounts his 1950s and '60s childhood in the Midwestern steel town of Lorian, Ohio. The only boy of four children, he grew up in a blue-collar family with a father who "hated his lot in life with every particle of his moody, dissatisfied soul." To escape from home life, he buried himself in books - and describes many of them here. Photographs. Includes Dirda's book list. 330 pp.