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HOW
TO
TALK
ABOUT
BOOKS YOU
HAVEN'T
READ
U.S.
$19.95
I
f
cultured people are expected to have read
all
the significant works of
literature,
andthousands more arepublished
onrh
year, what
are
we supposed to do in
those
inevitablesocialsituations where we're forced to talk aboutbooks we havent read? In
this
delightfullywitty, provocativebook, ahuge hit in Francethathas
drawn
attention from
critics
and
readers
around
the
world,
literature professor
and
psychoanalyst Pierre
Bayard
argues thatnot having
read
a
book
need not
be
an impedimenttohaving an interesting conversation
about
it.
(In
fact, he says, in certain situations
reading
the book is theworstthing youcould do.) Using examples from such writersas
Graham
Greene,
Oscar
Wilde,
Montaigne,
and
Umberto
Eco,
he describes the varieties of
"non-reading"—from
books that you've never
heard
of to books that you've read andforgotten—and offers advice on how to turn a
sticky
social situation into an occasion forcreative
brilliance.
Practical, funny, and thought-
provoking,
How to
Talk
About Books YouHaven't Read
is in the end aloveletter to
books,
offering a whole newperspective on
how
we read and
absorb
them. It's a book for
book
lovers everywhere to enjoy, ponder, and
argue
about—and
perhaps even
read.
PIERRE
BATARD
is
a
professorofFrench literature at the University of
Paris
vm and a psychoanalyst. He is theauthor of
Who
Killed
Roger
Aokroyd?
andmany other books.
JACKET DESIGN: PATTI RATCHFORDAUTHOR PHOTO: RENAUD MONPOURNY/LES INROCKUPTIBLES
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