How
To Talk About Book You Haven’t Read?
by Pierre Bayard
Publisher: Bloomsbury, 2007
Translated by Jeffrey Mehlam from Comment parler des livres
que l’on n’a pas lus?, Editions de Minuit,
2007
If civilized people are expected to have read all important
works of literature, and thousands more books are published
every year, what are we supposed to do in those awkward social
situations in which we’re forced to talk about books
we haven’t read? Literature professor and psychoanalyst
Pierre Bayard argues that it’s actually more important
to know a book’s role in our collective library than
its details. Using examples from such writers as Graham Greene,
Oscar Wilde, Montaigne, and Umberto Eco, and even the movie
Groundhog Day, he describes the many varieties of “non-reading”
and the horribly sticky social situations that might confront
us, and then offers his advice on what to do.
“It may well be that too many books are published,
but by good fortune, not all must be read…A survivor’s
guide to life in the chattering classes…evidently much
in need.”
— New York Times
“In this work of inspired nonsense —which nevertheless
evokes our very real sense of insecurity about the gaps in
our cultural knowledge— reading is not only superfluous,
it is meaningless. Our need to appear well-read is all.”
—
Sarah Gold, Chicago Tribune
“Brilliant…A witty and useful piece of literary
sociology, designed to bring lasting peace of mind to the
scrupulous souls who grow anxious whenever the book-talk around
them becomes too specific.”
— London Review of Books
“With rare humor, Bayard liberally rethinks the social
use [of literature] and the position of the reader…Read
or skim How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read. Or
simply listen to what people say about it so that you can
talk about it with ease. In either case, you may not be able
to forget it.”
— Les Inrockuptibles
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