How to Talk about Books You Haven't Read

 

Pierre Bayard (translated by Jeffrey Mehlman, read by Grover Gardner)

Suggested by a fellow BookLikes member

 

 

I just don't know what to say about this book. Is this guy serious or is he tongue-in-cheek?

I have never felt guilty about the classics I have never read (most of them) and still have no intention of reading any book just because it is considered a classic; there is more to choosing a book than its academic status.  This is not to say that I don't read classics. In fact, I have read a number of them. Some of them as part of my education and college studies and others over the years simply because I wanted to read them.  In other words, I am reading them not because I should read them but because something about them has attracted my attention.

Pierre Bayard is a Professor of Literature in Paris, France  -- and an iconoclast. In other words, it seems he is not your run of the mill literature professor. In his book, he sets about to to turn the world of reading and literary criticism on end and to divest it of its pomposity -- and, hopefully, in the process,  readers of any guilt brought on the avoidance of the high-brow. It does seem a bit like he is biting the hand that feeds but he does it in such a nice way.  And who knows, maybe we do need some teachers who are willing to upset the apple cart and to help us learn to look for new approaches to literature and culture.

Written in the style and structure of an academic treatise, Bayard examines five different styles of  not reading-- each one of which is roll on the floor amusing since he uses examples from the real world, including The Third Man and Groundhogs Day.  The book is short and an easy listen in spite of its academic overtones. At the very, very end, he finally reveals why he thinks his approach has merit -- and I am not going to reveal it here so that you can have the pleasure of discovering it yourself.

Three and half stars.