Read Online How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard - Free Book Online
Authors: Pierre Bayard
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reading books and not reading but discussing them, anyway, are not necessarily mutually exclusive. In this half-serious, half-mischievous treatise on what reading means, non-reading becomes another form of reading. In quintessential French fashion, Bayard has devised a felicitous methodology to permit one to converse intelligently about books without shame: there’s skimming; reading reviews; making up stuff about what one has read and forgotten; and then, if one has completely run out of things to say about the book in question, Bayard suggests talking about oneself. Beneath his wry commentary (reminiscent of Alain de Botton’s philosophical books on travel and architecture), Bayard views reading as one component of a larger social discourse with the world; to be able to chat about books via second-hand means is neither duplicitous to others nor demeaning to the author, who, after all, really only wants to know that one likes his book.”
—Steve Shapiro, Rainy Day Books (reviewed on NPR’s Morning Edition)
“One of those witty guides to thinking about books that long will linger in the minds of booklovers.”
—Susan Larson, New Orleans Times-Picayune
“A subversive, insouciant ‘meditation on this forbidden subject,’ the literary act of faking it . . . Like Harry G. Frankfurt’s sleeper 2005 essay book, On Bullshit , part of the pleasure of Bayard’s work is arguing with it . . . Entertaining.”
—Karen R. Long, Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Witty and charming and often fun.”
—Sam Anderson, New York
“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
“ How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read is delightful—and even insightful. We need not have read Hamlet to know it’s a Shakespeare story about a vacillating prince. Thanks to Bayard, ‘To read or not to read?’ will never seem as primitive or stupid a question as it once did. And the charming professor, in disarming his own knowledge of books, as well as Wilde’s, Valery’s, and Montaigne’s, makes us more comfortable with our petty arsenal . . . For those in the rising generation who still believe in art, Bayard’s prescription should be read, mused over, laughed through, and surrendered to memory’s fade.”
—Garin K. Hovannisian, National Review
“Provocative and charming . . . Contrary to its attention-grabbing title, Bayard’s slim book isn’t a glib instruction manual aimed at philistines hungry for quick tips to impress their more literate friends at cocktail parties. Instead, it’s a thoughtful, often humorous, meditation on the myriad ways in which we encounter the written word and how the process by which we interact with text not only shapes our perceptions of an author’s work but also ultimately transforms our inner lives in a true act of creativity . . . Bayard’s book may strike some as a subversive, even dangerous, work. Still, I doubt avid readers—a category I trust describes most subscribers to this publication—are likely to forsake any time soon the elemental pleasure that attaches to the simple act of curling up with a good book.”
—Harvey Freedenberg, Shelf Awareness
“Bayard ( Who Killed Roger Ackroyd? ), a professor of French literature at the University of Paris openly (if not entirely convincingly), confesses to having neither the time nor the inclination to do much reading. Yet he is all too aware that in his profession, one is often expected to have read the literature one is teaching or talking about with colleagues. In this extended essay, a bestseller in France, Bayard argues that the act of reading is less important than knowing the social and intellectual context of a book. He is so convinced of this that he claims there is great enjoyment—and even enlightenment—in
—Steve Shapiro, Rainy Day Books (reviewed on NPR’s Morning Edition)
“One of those witty guides to thinking about books that long will linger in the minds of booklovers.”
—Susan Larson, New Orleans Times-Picayune
“A subversive, insouciant ‘meditation on this forbidden subject,’ the literary act of faking it . . . Like Harry G. Frankfurt’s sleeper 2005 essay book, On Bullshit , part of the pleasure of Bayard’s work is arguing with it . . . Entertaining.”
—Karen R. Long, Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Witty and charming and often fun.”
—Sam Anderson, New York
“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
“ How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read is delightful—and even insightful. We need not have read Hamlet to know it’s a Shakespeare story about a vacillating prince. Thanks to Bayard, ‘To read or not to read?’ will never seem as primitive or stupid a question as it once did. And the charming professor, in disarming his own knowledge of books, as well as Wilde’s, Valery’s, and Montaigne’s, makes us more comfortable with our petty arsenal . . . For those in the rising generation who still believe in art, Bayard’s prescription should be read, mused over, laughed through, and surrendered to memory’s fade.”
—Garin K. Hovannisian, National Review
“Provocative and charming . . . Contrary to its attention-grabbing title, Bayard’s slim book isn’t a glib instruction manual aimed at philistines hungry for quick tips to impress their more literate friends at cocktail parties. Instead, it’s a thoughtful, often humorous, meditation on the myriad ways in which we encounter the written word and how the process by which we interact with text not only shapes our perceptions of an author’s work but also ultimately transforms our inner lives in a true act of creativity . . . Bayard’s book may strike some as a subversive, even dangerous, work. Still, I doubt avid readers—a category I trust describes most subscribers to this publication—are likely to forsake any time soon the elemental pleasure that attaches to the simple act of curling up with a good book.”
—Harvey Freedenberg, Shelf Awareness
“Bayard ( Who Killed Roger Ackroyd? ), a professor of French literature at the University of Paris openly (if not entirely convincingly), confesses to having neither the time nor the inclination to do much reading. Yet he is all too aware that in his profession, one is often expected to have read the literature one is teaching or talking about with colleagues. In this extended essay, a bestseller in France, Bayard argues that the act of reading is less important than knowing the social and intellectual context of a book. He is so convinced of this that he claims there is great enjoyment—and even enlightenment—in
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