50 book challenge: #51, #52.

#51: Pierre Bayard, How to talk about books you haven't read.

The dominant mode of relating to books is, of course, by not reading them. The thesis of this short, brilliant work is that the notion of "not-reading" is more ambiguous than we usually admit. His job is to relieve the anxiety and shame that go along with "not having read a book," in order to liberate (non)readers to talk about them anyway. There is some overreaching here, but overall this is one of the best books I read this year, and one of the most stimulating books I have ever read (or at least as far as I can remember, which is kind of the point). For all you haters out there, yes, I did read most of this book - I probably skimmed only about a dozen pages altogether. If you have a problem with that last sentence, then I say to you, "Tolle, lege."

This interviewer from the N.Y. Times claims to have read the book before talking to Prof. Bayard; to judge from her questions, she has thereby confirmed Bayard's thesis that having read a book does not necessarily enable you to make intelligent observations based on it.

#52: Joshua Ferris, Then We Came to the End. Well, this book has appeared on several year-end "best of" lists, but it left me feeling a little meh. The characters have distinctive personalities, interests, and actions, but they all seemed to talk in the same casual, banter-y, bright-toned register. Also, hasn't this tale of cubicle life been done before? Why does the subject seem so familiar? It's not a particular novel I have in mind, though more knowledgeable readers (or non-readers!) may know more, but it's definitely been worked over in other mediums - comics (Dilbert, right?), TV and movies (The Office, Office Space, Clockwatchers, etc.) Enjoyable enough, if you've got nothing else to do at your cube farm.