A review by uderecife
How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard
5.0
Is there really a book we have read? How so, if we immediately start forgetting when we read it? Is there a difference between a book we have not read and a book we have forgot?
These are no trifle questions; for this book is not to be taken lightly. This is not a self-help book. This is a treatise on literature, on culture as a whole.
If you want to find your way through the endless rows of the collective library of humankind, if you want delve deeper into whatever thing happens to be your thing, you obviously need books, lots of books; problem is: there are simply too many of them, and there's not enough time or life that would make that task feasible; game over; better quit. So what to do when you are faced with those inevitable situations where you will have to exchange information contained on that library, on all those books you failed to acquaint yourself?
Well, you simply have to start doing what the author here proposes, meaning you have to engage in more meaningful conversations while not bothering about reading books. It's not as scandalous as it sounds at first, for as the author himself points out, "what is essential is to speak about ourselves and not about books, or to speak about ourselves by way of books".
So do yourself a favor and read this book; or, better still: do not. Skim it. Get the general feeling of it. If the task is impossible, free yourself from the constraints. Cherry pick; enjoy, all the while you continue (or start) talking about the books you have not and will not read. Be creative. Reboot your attitude toward books.
These are no trifle questions; for this book is not to be taken lightly. This is not a self-help book. This is a treatise on literature, on culture as a whole.
If you want to find your way through the endless rows of the collective library of humankind, if you want delve deeper into whatever thing happens to be your thing, you obviously need books, lots of books; problem is: there are simply too many of them, and there's not enough time or life that would make that task feasible; game over; better quit. So what to do when you are faced with those inevitable situations where you will have to exchange information contained on that library, on all those books you failed to acquaint yourself?
Well, you simply have to start doing what the author here proposes, meaning you have to engage in more meaningful conversations while not bothering about reading books. It's not as scandalous as it sounds at first, for as the author himself points out, "what is essential is to speak about ourselves and not about books, or to speak about ourselves by way of books".
So do yourself a favor and read this book; or, better still: do not. Skim it. Get the general feeling of it. If the task is impossible, free yourself from the constraints. Cherry pick; enjoy, all the while you continue (or start) talking about the books you have not and will not read. Be creative. Reboot your attitude toward books.