For the bookish in the audience, I’d recommend reading “Books we have never read,” over on the Times Online site, a review of Pierre Bayard’s essay “How to discuss books that one hasn’t read.”
Too much to blog about right now, but this touches on a few themes of interest to me — namely, that the world is filled with literary works of value that many people will never, ever read. I’d love to have conversations about John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany, for instance — but not to quiz someone on the minutiae of the novel, but the grand themes of the novel. Sure, it’d be better to have read the novel (it’s a wonderful book) but couldn’t a person have an intelligent discussion having read (say) the Cliff Notes?
More on this topic later, I hope…
