Pierre Bayard & Umberto Eco in Conversation

Saturday | November 17, 2007
7:00 PM

New York Public Library
5th Ave and 42nd Street
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Remember the list of the 100 best novels and nonfiction of the 20th century compiled by the Modern Library board? Nine years ago it generated a well of millennial anxiety rivaled only by Y2K. Debate over what you read and how much you retained from English lit 101 raged at cocktail parties across the land. Evasive tactics were employed, copies of Ulysses dusted off.

Finally comes comforting words from an esteemed French literary scholar, Pierre Bayard. His new book, How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read, persuasively argues that the key to appreciating the classics is the quick skim, not deep immersion; cover to cover isn’t merely impractical, it’s downright passé.

Pierre Bayard & Umberto Eco in conversation with Paul Holdengraber