Shabbat Reading: Pierre Bayard's How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read

Pierre Bayard, How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read, trans. Jeffrey Mehlman (Bloomsbury, 2007)

In this charming book, Bayard shows there’s nothing more gauche than talking about a book you’ve read. You want to say what happened, share your favorite quotes, etc. But doing so risks setting the book in stone forever. It’s far better, Bayard argues, to talk about books you haven’t read! First of all, there are so many of them. Plus, anything might yet occur in them. A book you haven’t read is never shut once and for all; it always stays with you, changing as your conversations change—and as you do. I committed a faux pas by reading Bayard’s book, but I can’t wait to forget it so I can really start talking about it.