72. Pierre Bayard - How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read

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This episode of Backlisted was recoded live at the Port Eliot Festival in Cornwall on July 27th, 2018. Andy and John are joined on stage by writer, actor and comedian Ben Moor, author of More Trees to Climb (Granta) and whose latest comedy show ‘Book Talk Book Talk Book’ premeried at the Festival, and writer and journalist Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of  The Last Act of Love and A Manual for Heartache (both published by Picador) and is currently at work on her first novel. The book under discussion is Pierre Bayard’s How To Talk About Books You Haven’t Read, first published in France as Comment parler des livres que l'on n'a pas lus? by Editions du Minuit  in 2007, and in the UK by Granta in a translation by Jeffrey Mehlman.

Books mentioned:

Pierre Bayard – How To Talk About Books You Haven’t Read; Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?; Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong; How to Talk About Places You’ve Never Been
Pierre Bayard – Enquête sur Hamlet
Ben Moor - More Trees to Climb
Cathy Rentzenbrink - The Last Act of Love; A Manual for Heartache
Herman Melville – Moby Dick
Chuck Jones – Chuck Amuck: The Life & Times of an Animated Cartoonist
Andy Miller – The Year of Reading Dangerously
Nicholson Baker –  U & I
Michel Houellebecq – The Map & the Territory
Italo Calvino – If On a Winter’s Night a Traveller
Roland Barthes – S/Z
John Sutherland – Is Heathcliff a Murderer?
Diane Setterfield  - The Thirteenth Tale
T.S. Eliot - After Strange Gods

Other links:

Ben Moor’s website
Cathy Rentzenbrink’s blog
Pierre Bayard speaking at New York Public Library November 17, 2007
Hilary Mantel Guardian review of How to Talk About You Haven’t Read

Thanks to Spoke for sponsoring this episode - Spoke cut trousers in more sizes and custom finish for a flawless fit – delivered in two working days. For £20 off your first purchase, use the code BACKLISTED20 at checkout (valid to 30 September, 2018).