Tag: ereader

Books On Books: How to talk about books about books

I love books. So much so, I even love books about books. And Pierre Bayard’s “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read” is among the best.

It is possible to have a passionate conversation about a book that one has not read, including, perhaps, especially, with someone else who has not read it…

Pierre Bayard, How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read

If, like me, you cannot fathom walking into a bookshop or library without thinking “how on earth will I read them all?”, this book is for you. It is a salve for this precise emotion.

Bayard argues the merits of not reading. In fact, the entire first section of the book describes “Ways of Not Reading“. “Unread” books are divided into books “you don’t know”, “you have skimmed”, “you have heard of”, and “you have forgotten”.

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The Growing Impossibility of Book Perving

One of the few perks of utilizing public transport has always been a spot of book perving. A discreet but leering glance to the side. An ogle from behind the pages of one’s own book, to discern the title and appraise the cover art of another’s. (I don’t go in much for reading-over-the-shoulder though, unless in dire circumstances.)

eReaders and liberation from book perving

It was awareness of my own propensity to indulge in book perving that made me somewhat shy about what I chose to read in public. eReaders, have, of course, changed all this. Now, freed of fear I’ll be the target of a subtle (or even not-so-subtle) book perve, I find myself reading books I would not otherwise have been caught dead reading in public.

Self-help books (that divulge my weaknesses to potential foes). High-brow books. Low-brow books. All these, I avoided in the past (at least, when out and about), in order to escape derision and/or conversation. eReaders have truly freed me.

But what a price there is to pay!

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