Reddit mentions of How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read

I think it's fine to admit that you developed a love of reading later in life! That said, while you scoop up some of the classics/recent favorites at your own pace, another book you might want to check out is "How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read," by Pierre Bayard.

>With so many important books out there, and thousands more being published each year, what are we supposed to do in those inevitable social situations where we’re forced to talk about books we haven’t read? Pierre Bayard argues that it doesn’t really matter if you’ve read a book or not. (In fact, in certain situations, reading the book is the worst thing you could do.) Championing the various forms of “non-reading,” How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read is really a celebration of books, for book lovers everywhere to enjoy, ponder, argue about—and perhaps even read.

I read it a couple years ago because I heard it was funny, and I've definitely noticed since reading it as a side effect I feel much less awkward talking to That One Guy who shows up at every book club I join and inevitably starts a thinly-veiled dick measuring contest of dropping the title of every "prestigious" book he can think of into conversation. It might be helpful in a similar way to you by providing some tips in general for approaching book discussions, and help you push aside some of those imposter syndrome-y feelings in the meantime while you keep working on building up your Goodreads "read" shelf for real.

Sounds like a review written by someone using the crib sheet from "how to talk about books you haven't read"
https://www.amazon.com/Talk-About-Books-Havent-Read/dp/1596915439

Personally I agree with the commenters who are arguing that you shouldn't read a book that you can reasonably foresee yourself disliking strongly. Life is short, and you should spend it reading things that you will enjoy.

However, I commented with a (slightly) more philosophical answer, about this comment in your title:

>is it worth it to slough through simply to understand its place in the literary canon?

To this, I would argue that you really don't need to read something in order to understand how it connects to literature, history, and the canon. Especially if you've read around it (i.e., other stuff by DFW, other postmoderns, other novelistic epics) and read about it (reviews, commentary, maybe articles). If you've read those things, you know pretty much all you need to know about the positioning of this novel in terms of its relationship to literature at large, and after that all you're missing is that actual content of the book, which is (arguably, obviously) secondary, if what you're interested in is its 'place,' impact or reception.

Oh! And I have a reallive book to back me up. The argument above is pretty much cribbed wholesale from How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard. Which I have actually read all of. Promise.

This is the only book you need to read.

I have a book for you.

Another approach

:)

>dogma- n. a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true

Ok, got it.

> "If you don't read a book, you can't review a book."

https://www.amazon.com/Talk-About-Books-Havent-Read/dp/1596915439

That's whole book about talking about books that you haven't read.

> "If you don't look both ways, then you're going to get hit and you won't be able to cross streets at all."

I've done this many times, and STILL I LIVE.

Both of those things are principles of yours that you have laid down as incontrovertibly true.

Come on, buddy. You're a smart guy.

How to talk about books you haven't read, by Pierre Bayard.

French lit prof., excellent read which taught me not to read every book in order to talk about them - he even confesses his not reading Proust while teaching it in university courses, and explains why it doesn't affect the quality of his teaching.

How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read is a fun book about books that leads to lots of interesting reading. It's nonfiction but relatively light reading.

There's a book that covers this feeling somewhat. It deals with the idea that not only is there an uncountable number of works that we can never experience in a lifetime, there's also no way to replicate the same experience of reading/watching/playing something every time. That is, you can never watch the same movie twice. It also covers how there are works that we've never read/seen that we can talk about because they're part of a sort of "collective library" that cultures share. Interesting read.

https://www.amazon.com/Talk-About-Books-Havent-Read/dp/1596915439

How to talk about books you haven't read.

Relevant: http://www.amazon.com/Talk-About-Books-Havent-Read/dp/1596915439

Wow, History subredditors really do their homework... Kudos! (It was my first submission to this subreddit)

FYI, I also own [this book][1].

PS: yes, I read the whole article before submitting; yes, I know it's completely misleading; yes, that was intentionally provocative

[1]: http://www.amazon.com/Talk-About-Books-Havent-Read/dp/1596915439/ "But I haven't read it yet, either... ;-)"

Or you can just read this one! Haha, I found this book at one of those giant library book sales a while ago, it is pretty amusing.

http://www.amazon.com/Talk-About-Books-Havent-Read/dp/1596915439/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417075572&sr=8-1&keywords=how+to+talk+about+books+you+haven%27t+read

I feel like we're like these people, except with anime.