How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read

NEWS: Don't read, fake it

I know of someone who carries a book around to impress chicks. All he does is leave the book on his table, with the right facing side up, while he has his teh tarik -- talk about coffee-table books. The trick is to keep the stains away, he covers all his books in plastic. But then, he also reads.

Now, if only we could eliminate the reading bit. Jay McInery writes about a brand new book in the NY Times. (You have to register with NYT to read this story but it is free.)

A new book, How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read, is now on the best-seller lists in France, a country where books are still regarded as sacred objects and where, as described by McInery, '... the writer occupies a social position somewhere between the priest and the rock star.' According to him the '... anti-intellectualism of the title seems more Anglo-Saxon than Gallic ...' and he quotes Oscar Wilde: I never read a book I must review; it prejudices you so. (So is that where our anti-intellectualism comes from? We will blame the Brits for that one too. I have always wondered why French footballers look so much smarter than ... never mind.)

In reply to a question Pierre Baynard, the author has this to say: 'I know few areas of private life, with the exception of finance and sex, in which it's as difficult to obtain accurate information ...'

Bayard’s book says '... at times it seems like a tongue-in-cheek example of reader-response criticism, which emphasizes the reader's role in creating meaning. He wants to show us how much we lie about the way we read, to ourselves as well as to others, and to assuage our guilt about the way we actually read and talk about books ... (there) are many ways of relating to books that are not acknowledged in educated company, including skimming, skipping, forgetting and glancing at covers.'

This is one book we will be looking out for.


Meanwhile in the UK

From The Guardian Unlimited. A survey shows that '77% of UK readers revisit books they've enjoyed on first reading ... with 17% of readers polled claiming to have read a favourite book more than five times.'

And the reasons for re-reading: 59% return because they never tire of their favourite book, 34% find something new with each re-reading and 8% because they haven't read anything else as good.

Here is the top 20 revisited reads in the UK:

1. The Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling
2. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
3. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
4. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
5. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
6. 1984 by George Orwell
7. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
8. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis
9. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
10. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
11. Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
12. To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
13. Flowers in the Attic by Virginia Andrews
14. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
15. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
16. The Bible
17. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
18. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
19. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
20. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens


And in the US

Recent figures in the US suggest that the average reader tackles only four books a year, with 25% confessing to reading nothing at all.