Helpful Score: 4
Thought that this book would be funny, but it actually has many provoking ideas related to what is reading, and how to get context and content without reading the text under discussion. For example - if you read a book and forget most of it, can you still say you have read the book? What if you only skimmed it but remember what you skimmed? If you only know the book thru reviews or references to a book, can you infer enough as if you had read it? The author also has some funny ways of rating books based on whether he has "read" them, only heard of them, or never heard of them, which he uses thruout the book. A short read, good audio book. Recommend skimming ;-)
Helpful Score: 4
From France - where else? - comes this indispensable primer on how to BS about unread (or unreadable) books in a smug, patronizingly omniscient tone. It's an essential skill you must master if you want to make it through job interviews, blind dates, pseudo-intellectual Bohemian gatherings, or college. I couldn't recommend Pierre Bayard's little monograph more highly. It's so good, in fact, I may even read it someday.
