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Oct 12, 2010

Abigail rated it:

It is clear to me, after reading Pierre Bayard's treatise on the art of "non-reading," that my circle of friends and acquaintances, which I had until now considered to be fairly literate, must surely be lacking the elevated cultural sensibility that seems to pertain in Parisian academia. I freely confess it: there are any number of towering works of genius, pillars of the literary canon, which I have never so much as cracked. But despite the complete candor with which I discuss the sub More...

22 comments like (27 people liked it)

Mar 16, 2009

Manny rated it:

Most of the people who criticize this book are referring to the English translation How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read. If you take the trouble to consult the original French edition, you'll see all sorts of clever allusions to the intertextual tradition that has grown up in Continental Philosophy over the last 40 years, many of which are lost in the transition to a different language. When Derrida observed that nous sommes tous des bricoleurs, he was stating a daring new thesis. Now, when More...

16 comments like (23 people liked it)

May 03, 2008

Jason rated it:

This is one of four newish books I recently read mostly so I could finally get them off my queue list, all of which were actually pretty good but are mere wisps of manuscripts, none of them over 150 pages or so in length. This one is the surprisingly thoughtful How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read, by a hip French literature professor named Pierre Bayard; because make no mistake, this is not exactly a practical how-to guide to faking your way through cocktail parties, but more a sneaky exami More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jan 21, 2008

Debnance rated it:

Catchy title. Was it a parody? Was the author writing in earnest? I heard an interview with the author on NPR and realized there might be more to this book than I’d initially thought.

Bayard defintes “books you haven’t read” broadly, including the obvious “books never opened”, but adding “books skimmed”, “books you’ve heard about but that you’ve never read”, and “books you’ve read but that you’ve forgotten.” Whew! That doesn’t leave much to put into the book log for the year, does it? More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

May 02, 2008

Corrielle rated it:

If one were to follow the the logic of this book to its inevitable conclusion, one would have to admit that none of us have "read" any books at all. We have all come into contact with a variety of books, it's true, but they are all "unread" books of some sort. Either they belong to the vast sea of works that we have never even heard of, they are works we've heard of but never actually opened, books we have only skimmed, or books that we have read that have been forgotten to More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 05, 2008

Alexa rated it:

I should say as a disclaimer that I actually took a course with Pierre Bayard at the Université de Paris 8 a few years back and would like to share two observations on that point: first, the course I took was titled "Madame Bovary," yet at no point in the course did we actually read Flaubert; second, Bayard is much more engaging (not to mention friendlier and less pompous) in print.
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Bayard's playful essay-livre is a simple retelling of Reader-Response Theory crafted for t More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 12, 2007

Tom rated it:

Bayard explores the oft-overlooked reader-responce theory with an expanded definition of "reader". His overall argument is that it is not so important to have read an "actual" book as it is to have an understanding of the book as it exists in within society and within both the collective and individual psyche. Through this understanding of the "essence" of a book - which Bayard argues is clouded by ones choice to read one book, and thus passively not-read every ot More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 19, 2008

Laine rated it:

This is a dense but strangely delightful book by a French philosopher, Pierre Bayard, about the act of reading a book and why, at it's core, reading a book is about the same as not reading a book and how, pretty much, we could practically be the author of a book and still manage not to have read it. Somehow his argument makes complete sense — and none at all — all at the same time.

Perhaps what I enjoyed most about the book is the irony inherent in reducing the act of reading to an a More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 08, 2009

Randall rated it:

One assumes from the outset that this this tiny volume was written ironically given its title. But as you proceed, you realize the author has a little something else in mind. And that he's dead serious. Bayard's book belongs to the reader-response school of criticism where a work is defined by what each audience member brings to the text. A work is not truly completed until it is interpreted by an individual.

Bayard offers a fascinating example of cross cultural interpretation and ho More...

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Feb 09, 2009

Chani rated it:

Pierre Bayard's theory is that there are many ways towards literature and that one of them might be not reading books. It's quite a joke since the paradox is that you have to read his books to learn about the practice of non-reading. His "narrator" is a Literature lecturer in University, like Bayard himself, who never reads the books he talks about. Bayard even says or makes his narrator say that non-readers are best to speak on literature. Of course it's obvious that you have to have More...

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Jan 31, 2012

Jeff rated it:

Creativity. Acting. Conning. This the basic gist I got from the book. I find the book morally troubling. Sure, one can rationalize why one should speak with authority on the context of the material.It gives a credence to all those students in school that chose not to read a book assigned in the syllabus. It is all subjective. It buttering up the author. It is BS. Stuff like this just rationalize unscrupulous behavior. I accept that not everything can be read. I buy that we can not always rememb More...

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Dec 14, 2011

Jenny rated it:

I was looking for a resource to help the students in my music research class learn how to understand what a book included without reading it, particularly when needing to work through a lot of material and evaluating resources for potential research topics. A colleague recommended this book to me, and it did have some helpful tidbits I will be able to use with my class.

I don't disagree with the author in the sense that I think you don't necessarily need to have read a book in order More...

10 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 08, 2011

Rebecca rated it:

This philosophical book touting the benefits of not reading books one wants to discuss in order to access the full meaning is thought-provoking and mind-bending. M. Bayard makes incredibly provocative arguments for his case and I found this work quite an enjoyable read.

Bayard's theories have cut me to the quick; He has called my bluff on many reasons why I read and brings up so many thoughts/issues I have felt regarding the urgency and necessity to read as many books as possible in More...

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Sep 28, 2011

Claudia rated it:

Voy a admitir que no pienso terminar este libro.

Tiene algunas ideas interesantes, como evitar la noción de que hay libros obligatorios que todo mundo debe leer, y por lo tanto no sentirse avergonzado de no conocer los "clasicos". También es interesante la idea de que a veces podemos saltarnos partes o solo revisar los libros de modo general en lugar de leerlos completos, y es valido, y también se aprende de ellos de esa forma. Por último, me agrada la idea de construir víncul More...

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Jul 30, 2011

Angela added it

I'd recommend this book to anyone considering a degree in literature. It proves that you don't have to read every last page of every last 'literary' text in order to speak intelligently about them. Often, just knowing their place in society is enough.

When you think about it, it's stupid to force our way through books we hate reading. I love Bayard's take on why we do this: 'the truth of culture, which is that it is a theatre charged with concealing individual ignorance and the fragmentation of More...

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Feb 25, 2011

Sias rated it:

When you meet somebody, you form an opinion about him/her in a matter of minutes. Deciding if you like or dislike somebody doesn't take long. Really getting to know somebody takes a little longer, but you don't have to take ages to form a definite opinion about what he is like. This initial opinion forms the basis of your future view of him, although your opinion might change quite a bit as time passes.
This is the basic strategy that Pierre Bayard proposes we should follow with books as w More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 23, 2010

DoctorM rated it:

A quick, easy, fun read about the secret so many of us are keeping--- that we actually haven't read a lot of the must-reads that make up the criteria for being an educated person. Bayard puts it simply enough--- look, the number of people who talk about Proust or Henry James (and talk with fluency about them) far exceeds the number of people who've ever actually read all the way through their actual works. (And, okay, yes, it's quite possible to teach books you haven't actually read: the other h More...

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Mar 18, 2010

David rated it:

This book, which I read in its entirety, is about 25% sensible commentary wrapped in an irritating froth of supercilious bullshit. Professor Bayard has a number of observations to make about the whole exercise of reading, some of which are insightful and on point and many of which are bloody obvious. The irritating part is that each little nugget is presented with the kind of self-congratulatory smugness befitting a Faberge egg. But, for the most part, the professor doesn't scintillate nearly as More...

6 comments like (15 people liked it)

Dec 28, 2009

Kris rated it:

In essence reading shouldn't be about attaining some snobby "collective library" that stamps us cultured. Instead we should read with the goal of self discovery and invention in mind. Self-invention is why we ought to read.

Bayard's argument is as follows.
- Very few people remember texts they've read and/or can objectively comment on them.

- Each person is subject to his internal biases ("inner library") making it hard, at times, to reconcile two i More...

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Jul 24, 2009

Debbie (Readerbuzz) rated it:

Catchy title. Was it a parody? Was the author writing in earnest? I heard an interview with the author on NPR and realized there might be more to this book than I’d initially thought.

Bayard defines “books you haven’t read” broadly, including the obvious “books never opened”, but adding “books skimmed”, “books you’ve heard about but that you’ve never read”, and “books you’ve read but that you’ve forgotten.” Whew! That doesn’t leave much to put into the book log for the year, does it? More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 08, 2009

david-baptiste is currently reading it

I'm rereadig this at a book store abt a year after i first read it, when itcame out in english. Bayrd has a new book outin france i have found excerpts from on line--inc. one inenglish--i nwhich he tackles the questions of reviewing, esp of books he puts in a select category which is that which emocpasses the worst books or unifinsed works of great or at least good writers.

In the How to talk book, Bayard is examing some of the implications which the old "Bluffer's Guyides" m More...

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Jul 11, 2011

Ruben rated it:

I think everyone who actually reads this would agree that there's more to it than a paradoxical title. What makes this book a winner is the way each chapter alludes to a book or film scenario where books (and characters' concepts of them) teach us about the problem of believing that we need to read a book in order to be qualified to talk about it.

My favorite chapters were the ones about The Third Man and The Name of the Rose. Even Bill Murray and Groundhog Day feature in the discussio More...

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Aug 21, 2009

Tommy rated it:

This was a rather amusing book about the nature of reading and how we view it in binary terms (either you've read something or you haven't) when there are many levels of gray including heard of, skimmed, and read and forgotten. I think this is a very useful observation and being aware of such distinctions can help us think and speak more intelligently about literature.

Bayard also points out that people frequently, by choice and necessity, talk about books they haven't read and observ More...

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Jul 27, 2009

Elizabeth rated it:

If you can get beyond the mind fuck at the heart of this book (Bayard is making an argument against reading which he is supporting with examples from books and presenting within the context of yet another book), there are some useful things here, particularly for the beginning dissertator (especially if her dissertation is about books). What is most useful are not the obvious facts Bayard puts forth: that even the most assiduous and enthusiastic reader will never actually be able to read the vas More...

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Sep 01, 2010

Genevieve rated it:

What I managed to glean painfully through the smoke-and-mirrors:

Bayard's thesis is that it is immaterial to one's cultural literacy (an object he never establishes the supremacy of over, say, literacy) to have actually read every, or even one, book in our "collective library" (a term he unnecessarily substitutes for Western literary canon). His supporting arguments, consisting of how we relate to books and how we use books to relate to each other, are occasionally interesti More...

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Oct 17, 2010

Manonpinkcorner rated it:

The appropriate time span, for Bayard and Oscar Wilde, for reading a book is ten minutes after which you risk forgetting that the encounter is primarily pretext for writing your autobiography. The cultural apparatus has created and reinforced taboos, within particular social circles, and Bayard offers advice on how to free ourselves from the goal/guilt of reading as an accumulation of culture. I find it only appropriate that the medium of absorbing this book into your inner library should be thr More...

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Oct 04, 2011

John rated it:

It was kind of a surprise to find that this book is actually fairly serious. Bayard argues that it is simplistic to say you've "read" or "haven't read" a given book. More important is whether you can place the book in relation to literature as a whole. He posits a whole range of "books", including "screen books", phantom books", and "inner books". These distinctions have to do with one's experiences of books individually and relative to othe More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 28, 2011

Meg - A Bookish Affair rated it:

I had to read this book for my book club (notice I said had to). This book is literally about how to talk about books without reading them. Sort of weird for a book club to read, no? I thought so too.

I had two issues with this book:

1. I didn't really like the argument for not reading a book in order to discuss it. It seems almost deceptive in a way. It's one thing to talk about the ideas within a book without reading a particular book as so many books are based on ideas f More...

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Jan 17, 2011

Dimitris rated it:

Excellent read. Whenever I find myself despairing over the number of books I want to read but don't have the time for, or over the fact that it is impossible to remember all the books I've read and what made them important for me (even with the help of this here site!), sometimes, just sometimes, I recall Monsieur Bayard and how he deconstructs our literature and bookworm myth. He shows half-seriously half-in-jest but 100% realistically how it is not at all necessary to have read a book, either More...

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Aug 09, 2009

Joseph rated it:

As a lifelong reader and bibliophile, I find the idea of talking about books I haven't read an anathema. That being said, Pierre Bayard has some very insightful things to say about reading in his book How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read. One important insight is that any act of reading a particular book is also an act of not reading other books. Like the economic idea of opportunity cost, you need to keep this in mind when you choose a book to read. Bayard also writes about how books ar

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