![]() ![]() He further cites writers like Montaigne, who could not remember what he read, and Paul Valéry, who found ways of praising authors whose books he had never opened. ![]() ![]() And he recalls passionate exchanges with people who also have not read the book under discussion. Bayard reassures them that there is no obligation to read, and confesses to lecturing students on books that he has either not read or has merely skimmed. “With this book, they can shake off their guilt without psychoanalysis, so it’s much cheaper.” “I am surprised because I hadn’t imagined how guilty nonreaders feel,” Mr. “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read?” has become a best seller here, with translation rights snapped up across Europe and under negotiation in Britain and the United States. Now Pierre Bayard, a Paris University literature professor, has come to their rescue with a survivor’s guide to life in the chattering classes. Of course, many people don’t get through these books, either, and too embarrassed to admit it, they worry constantly about being exposed as philistines. In practice, primed by publishers, critics, teachers, authors and word-of-mouth, a form of natural selection limits essential reading to those classics and best sellers that become part of civilized intellectual and social discourse. 23 - It may well be that too many books are published, but by good fortune, not all must be read. ![]()
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