I talk about books I haven’t read

Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content. Paul Valery

Is there shame in admitting this?  Having dinner with friends once, I mentioned that my undergraduate degree didn’t teach me to read books – you dip into them, read a chapter here or there, steal the references, scan the index for your subject matter, you become adept in speaking about them as if you knew them in entirety.  I pointed out that I wanted to learn how to read – I think I’ve blogged about this before (I’ve also been taken to task for speaking about books I haven’t read).  My friends pointed out that not reading was a very efficient study technique.

This is, in fact, a foundational experience for our book-soaked culture.  Everyday, we orient ourselves in different ways to books that we haven’t read.  Think about it – you don’t need to have read Philip Pullman or J.K. Rowling to have an opinion about their books, do you?  It is like being in a great library, and knowing where philosophy, business or ancient history is located – it is about knowing how to refer to the right book at the right time, and in the right way.  It indicates a whole range of social and power positions, commitment and values.  It is this that Pierre Bayard’s book How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read explores.

With the help of Paul Valery, Umberto Eco and others, Bayard shows that we’re frequently untruthful about what we have read, and that, in fact, sometimes reading a book can be disadvantageous – as in The Name of the Rose (a book I have not read), where people die because of their reading a particular book.   Furthermore, reading is actually hard to pin down.  If I skim a book, or read several chapters, but not all, have I read it?  If I read it, and then forget about some of it, or if my mind is elsewhere while my eyes pore over the content, have I read it?  I told my supervisors recently, ‘I want to read Derrida properly!’ To which the reply came ‘Yes, but you also must graduate in the required time!’

Does this description agree with your experience?  If so, then I can recommend you read this one… this book which, although I have not read all of it yet, it’s certainly worth talking about.  And if you want someone else’s word for it, check out this review by novelist Jay McInerney (another author I haven’t read) of it.

H/t. Byron for the Valery quote.

Filed under: books, experiences, literature , books, How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read, Pierre Bayard, reading