{"id":4856,"date":"2026-08-19T15:00:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T21:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=4856"},"modified":"2026-08-11T13:38:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T19:38:27","slug":"book-how-to-talk-about-books-you-havent-read-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/19\/book-how-to-talk-about-books-you-havent-read-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read (2007)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HowHow to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read
\n<\/u><\/strong>Year: 2007
\nAuthor: Pierre Bayard
\nLength: 269 minutes \/ 4.48 hours<\/p>\n

The title of the book, How to Talk About Books You Haven\u2019t Read<\/em> was intriguing to me because there\u2019s a huge litany of creative works out there that I haven\u2019t experienced yet, and I was curious how Pierre Bayard would address this challenge. Of course, the wit and humor that I\u2019m sure was present in the French version doesn\u2019t really come across in the translation, and the whole thing feels judgmental of those who can\u2019t improv their way through a conversation about a classic piece of art.<\/p>\n

If anything, the premise that people would feel guilty about not having consumed some piece of popular culture or classic literature is probably more indicative of the high society or intellectual circles that would shame someone for this gap in their knowledge. I\u2019d much rather be in a world that\u2019s like the XKCD comic<\/a><\/strong> that\u2019s about sharing these moments of discovery and providing a place for someone to express their excitement of learning\/experiencing a new thing that allegedly everyone else had already found.<\/p>\n

What felt more unnecessary about this book was that we are in an age of constant synopses. We don\u2019t have to read a book or watch a movie to know what it\u2019s about. Sure, the finer details might mold our experience with the work and our ultimate opinion of its execution, but that doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t have an opinion on something based on the limited information we have on it. The fact that more and more people are choosing to not read the literary greats or watch the classic movies just goes to show that nobody cares if you\u2019ve experienced them or not\u2014knowledge of them is enough.<\/p>\n

A dry, almost unnecessary primer on how to pretend you\u2019ve experienced art, I give How to Talk About Books You Haven\u2019t Read<\/em> 2.5 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n

\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" \"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" 1\/2<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read Year: 2007 Author: Pierre Bayard Length: 269 minutes \/ 4.48 hours The title of the book, How to Talk About Books You Haven\u2019t Read was intriguing to me because there\u2019s a huge litany of creative works out there that I haven\u2019t experienced yet, and I was curious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,54],"tags":[176,1556,55,4626,94,4623,4288,4624,4625,8],"class_list":["post-4856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2-5-stars","category-book","tag-176","tag-art","tag-book","tag-experience","tag-french","tag-how-to-talk-about-books-you-havent-read","tag-philosophy","tag-pierre-bayard","tag-reading","tag-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4856"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4862,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4856\/revisions\/4862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}