A review on Brain Pickings. Selected quotes from the book:
Non-reading is not just the absence of reading. It is a genuine activity, one that consists of adopting a stance in relation to the immense tide of books that protects you from drowning. On that basis, it deserves to be defended and even taught.
The book is an undefined object that we can discuss only in imprecise terms, an object forever buffeted by our fantasies and illusions.
Reading is not just acquainting ourselves with a text or acquiring knowledge; it is also, from its first moments, an inevitable process of forgetting.
The books we love offer a sketch of a whole universe that we secretly inhabit, and in which we desire the other person to assume a role.
If a book is less a book than it is the whole of the discussion about it, we must pay attention to that discussion in order to talk about the book without reading it.
Reviewer’s conclusion:
Ultimately, How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read isn’t permission to dismiss books but an ode to the very love of books, the totality of which we use as a powerful sensemaking mechanisms for the world.