Don't read this just bluff it

The other day the papers were full of articles about how people admitted to failing to finish various works of literature but there is an answer if you can live with faking it. At the weekend in the New York Times supplement that comes with The Observer there was an article about a french professor, Pierre Bayard, who has produced a guide: How to Talk about Books You haven’t Read?

“Students, he noted from experience, are skilled at opining about books they have not read, building on elements he may have provided in a lecture. This approach can also work in the more exposed arena of social gatherings: the book’s cover, reviews and other public reaction to it, gossip about the author and even the current conversation can all provide food for sounding informed.”

You have to wonder how many people will read this article and then claim to have read his book…