Books we have never read

Books we have never read, Pierre Bayard, Barcelona, Empúries, 2008 (2007)
Bayard’s book stems from the desire to break the taboos of all who read, who have the habit of reading, and often we do not dare express. It is true that some time ago and Daniel Pennac in Like a novel (1992), also published by the same publisher, helped us understand what were the rights that we as readers. Perhaps my generation of readers and teachers has been marked by the will of relative lack of complete knowledge of everything that is published, but at least helped us to understand that reading is primarily a pleasure. A continuous source of knowledge to be placed in the daily reality in which we operate. Bayard now goes further, from his personal experience as a teacher in Paris writing a book essential for readers determined to remain so but are full of complexes at the impossibility of capturing the entire publishing world, classic and contemporary. A book, then, charged with optimism and a little more relative stigmas in which all the readers we have ever felt under “you cannot talk about what you do not know.”
This is by no means an allegory to the ingenuity of speaking without knowledge, nothing further. Bayard deftly addresses limitations on the use that we have global knowledge of our literary tradition, without the requirement needed to absorb each text letter by letter. An essential reference, also made by Bayard, is that of The Man Without Qualities (1880-1942) by Robert Musil, with some very thought-provoking explanations of the librarian about the advantage of not reading any books to know them all. A book I recommend, therefore, for readers eager to read the frustration felt by the infinite nature of literature.
A few sentences to reflect, “being educated does not mean that you have read this book or another. To be educated means knowing a set of guide books and understand that these form a unity. Also, the educated person is able to put each item in this set in relation to the rest. ” (P. 27)