I always thought that there was one way to read a book. Start to finish. Cover to cover. It was painful. And I never remember anything. There has to be another way to be knowledgeable without slaving over every last little word.
Pierre Bayard, a professor at Paris University (I can’t believe I am actually going to agree with a Frenchman!) wrote a book How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read.
The book encourages you to engage in intellectual banter and discussion about books you didn’t read or finish. And he says that’s ok, “because he wanted to help people conquer their fear of culture by challenging the way that literature is presented to students and the public in France.”
I agree with Mr. Bayard, who describes culture as a “wall.” If you haven’t read the newest Harry Potter or the classics, you can still fell accepted at dinner parties or in cultural settings. If you know the basics, you can go from there by applying them to yourself or to other related concepts or books in the genre. This is because reading is more than just a cover-to-cover examination of the words on the page but how overall concepts apply to our lives or affects us all.
I have to read The Grapes of Wrath for a class. I think I will try Mr. Bayard’s technique. Afterall, it can’t be that hard can it be to talk about tumbleweeds and the great depression.
Whitney M Dipollina @ Sun, 02/25/2007 - 8:14am
Judging by the Times article, a more appropriate title for said book would be "How To Not Talk About Books You Haven't Read."
Suggestions like "trying to change the subject" or trying to talk about oneself instead, in the pretext of the book, without mentioning it's contents both seem like techniques of avoidance to me.
For now, I'm sticking by the professor-prescribed technique of getting to know a book by, well, reading it.