Audio only

How to Talk about Books You Haven’t Read

By Pierre BayardNarrated by Grover Gardner
Length4h 29m

About this audiobook

In this delightfully tongue-in-cheek book, a #3 bestseller in France, literature professor Bayard contends that, in this age of infinite publication, the truly cultivated person is not the one who has read a book but the one who understands the book’s place in our culture. Using examples from works by Graham Greene, Umberto Eco, and others (and even the movie Groundhog Day), Bayard examines the many kinds of “non-reading” (forgotten books, books discussed by others, books we’ve skimmed briefly) and the many potentially nightmarish situations in which we are called upon to discuss our reading with others. The book urges everyone who’s ever felt guilty about missing some of the great books to consider what reading means, how we absorb books as a part of ourselves, and why we spend so much time talking about what we have, or haven’t, read.

Audiobook details

Rating★★★★ 3.5 (6.9K)
Includes Goodreads, LibraryThing, Amazon, StoryGraph
GenreLiterary Classics
Length4 hrs 29 mins
Narrated byGrover Gardner
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateOct 30, 2007
LanguageEnglish
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