In this delightfully witty, provocative book, literature professor and psychoanalyst Pierre Bayard argues that not having read a book need not be an impediment to having an interesting conversation about it. (In fact, he says, in certain situations reading the book is the worst thing you could do.) Using examples from such writers as Graham Greene, Oscar Wilde, Montaigne, and Umberto Eco, he describes the varieties of "non-reading"-from books that you''ve never heard of to books that you''ve read and forgotten-and offers advice on how to turn a sticky social situation into an occasion for creative brilliance. Practical, funny, and thought-provoking, How to Talk About Books You Haven''t Read-which became a favorite of readers everywhere in the hardcover edition-is in the end a love letter to books, offering a whole new perspective on how we read and absorb them.

Written in the irreverent style that made How to Talk About Books You Haven''t Read a critical and commercial success, Pierre Bayard takes readers on a trip around the world, giving us essential guidance on how to talk about all those fantastic places we''ve never been. Practical, funny, and thought-provoking, How to Talk About Places You''ve Never Been will delight and inform armchair globetrotters and jet-setters, all while never having to leave the comfort of the living room. Bayard examines the art of the “non-journey,” a tradition that a succession of writers and thinkers, unconcerned with moving away from their home turf, have employed in order to encounter the foreign cultures they wish to know and talk about. He describes concrete situations in which the reader might find himself having to speak about places he''s never been, and he chronicles some of his own experiences and offers practical advice. How to Talk About Places You Haven''t Been is a compelling and delightful book that will expand any travel enthusiast''s horizon well beyond the places it''s even possible to visit in a single lifetime.

Sie haben neulich Proust zitiert, ohne sein Werk zu kennen, über den neuen Nobelpreisträger geplaudert, obwohl Sie sich nicht mal an den Buchtitel erinnern konnten? Kein Problem, sagt der französische Literaturprofessor Pierre Bayard. Wie man auf hohem Niveau und schamfrei über Bücher spricht, die man nicht gelesen hat, zeigt uns dieses wunderbare Buch. Der versierte Nichtleser unterscheidet vier Haupttypen: unbekannte Bücher, Bücher, die man quergelesen hat, Bücher, die man nur vom Hörensagen kennt, und solche, deren Inhalt wir schon wieder vergessen haben - über alle lässt sich hervorragend reden. Dass Bayard seine Einladung zum unverfrorenen Umgang mit Büchern mit einer Fülle literarischer Beispiele untermauert, versteht sich von selbst: von Musils Bibliothekar, der kein Buch durch Lektüre bevorzugen will und deshalb gar nicht liest, über Ecos scharfsinnigen William von Baskerville bis zu David Lodge.

La fabulación es tan antigua como la humanidad, y su práctica, inherente a nuestra naturaleza, merece ser valorada. Pierre Bayard, conocido internacionalmente por su ensayo "Cómo hablar de los libros que no se han leído", nos advierte, apoyándose en maravillosos ejemplos (protagonizados por figuras como Hannah Arendt, Orson Welles o John Steinbeck), de los peligros de nuestra búsqueda obsesiva de la objetividad y la veracidad. Apelando a un lector crítico, defiende que, aunque está muy bien preocuparse por las informaciones falsas, es un error considerar el resto de las informaciones como "verdaderas" y como actos de fe en lugar de hipótesis e interpretaciones.

In this delightfully witty, provocative book, literature professor and psychoanalyst Pierre Bayard argues that not having read a book need not be an impediment to having an interesting conversation about it. (In fact, he says, in certain situations reading the book is the worst thing you could do.) Using examples from such writers as Graham Greene, Oscar Wilde, Montaigne, and Umberto Eco, he describes the varieties of "non-reading"-from books that you''ve never heard of to books that you''ve read and forgotten-and offers advice on how to turn a sticky social situation into an occasion for creative brilliance. Practical, funny, and thought-provoking, How to Talk About Books You Haven''t Read-which became a favorite of readers everywhere in the hardcover edition-is in the end a love letter to books, offering a whole new perspective on how we read and absorb them.

Written in the irreverent style that made How to Talk About Books You Haven''t Read a critical and commercial success, Pierre Bayard takes readers on a trip around the world, giving us essential guidance on how to talk about all those fantastic places we''ve never been. Practical, funny, and thought-provoking, How to Talk About Places You''ve Never Been will delight and inform armchair globetrotters and jet-setters, all while never having to leave the comfort of the living room. Bayard examines the art of the “non-journey,” a tradition that a succession of writers and thinkers, unconcerned with moving away from their home turf, have employed in order to encounter the foreign cultures they wish to know and talk about. He describes concrete situations in which the reader might find himself having to speak about places he''s never been, and he chronicles some of his own experiences and offers practical advice. How to Talk About Places You Haven''t Been is a compelling and delightful book that will expand any travel enthusiast''s horizon well beyond the places it''s even possible to visit in a single lifetime.

Sie haben neulich Proust zitiert, ohne sein Werk zu kennen, über den neuen Nobelpreisträger geplaudert, obwohl Sie sich nicht mal an den Buchtitel erinnern konnten? Kein Problem, sagt der französische Literaturprofessor Pierre Bayard. Wie man auf hohem Niveau und schamfrei über Bücher spricht, die man nicht gelesen hat, zeigt uns dieses wunderbare Buch. Der versierte Nichtleser unterscheidet vier Haupttypen: unbekannte Bücher, Bücher, die man quergelesen hat, Bücher, die man nur vom Hörensagen kennt, und solche, deren Inhalt wir schon wieder vergessen haben - über alle lässt sich hervorragend reden. Dass Bayard seine Einladung zum unverfrorenen Umgang mit Büchern mit einer Fülle literarischer Beispiele untermauert, versteht sich von selbst: von Musils Bibliothekar, der kein Buch durch Lektüre bevorzugen will und deshalb gar nicht liest, über Ecos scharfsinnigen William von Baskerville bis zu David Lodge.

La fabulación es tan antigua como la humanidad, y su práctica, inherente a nuestra naturaleza, merece ser valorada. Pierre Bayard, conocido internacionalmente por su ensayo "Cómo hablar de los libros que no se han leído", nos advierte, apoyándose en maravillosos ejemplos (protagonizados por figuras como Hannah Arendt, Orson Welles o John Steinbeck), de los peligros de nuestra búsqueda obsesiva de la objetividad y la veracidad. Apelando a un lector crítico, defiende que, aunque está muy bien preocuparse por las informaciones falsas, es un error considerar el resto de las informaciones como "verdaderas" y como actos de fe en lugar de hipótesis e interpretaciones.