By: Chris Pritchett on October 12, 2017
The title of Bayard’s book is obviously compelling. I engaged the book specifically with the interest of learning practical skills that would help me absorb books in different ways in order to make better use of my time for this program. Additionally, parishioners are constantly peddling books to me, very few of which I am…
By: Jason Turbeville on October 12, 2017
That is the question at hand in How To Talk About Books You Haven’t Read by Pierre Bayard. I suppose I could hone in on the chapter about Groundhog Day, one of the best movies of the last 50 years, but there was a moment in my reading where I had to ask myself, did the…
By: Christal Jenkins Tanks on October 12, 2017
There are three discussion topics that will surely invoke a lively conversation at your next family dinner: religion, politics and the book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. Over the course of our learning in this program we have read other authors who have graveled with the most known historical narratives…
By: Jean Ollis on October 12, 2017
“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. For it is not the book itself that is at stake, but what it has become within the critical space in…
By: Katy Drage Lines on October 12, 2017
“Raise a glass to freedom, something they can never take away, no matter what they tell you. Raise a glass to the four of us, tomorrow they’ll be more of us, telling the story of tonight.” So sing four idealistic founders of America. Who is it that gets to tell our story? In many ways,…
By: Jennifer Williamson on October 12, 2017
Kirin lived far enough from Lakeridge High School that she could have taken the bus. But lucky for me, my best friend preferred to walk. I lived half way between Kirin’s house and the school, so each morning we met up at the bottom of Sunny Hill Drive to make our way together. We were…
By: Greg on October 12, 2017
Have you ever seen those television programs that reveal the hidden secrets behind magic? It begins with a masked figure hiding in the shadows of the set. Around him are devices seen on magic stages around the world. The hidden secrets of magic, the intrigue and illusion, will be lost on those that watch this…
By: Jake Dean-Hill on October 11, 2017
Pierre Bayard’s How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read was an interesting read, and contrary to the title, I did, in fact, read his book and found a few of the tips rather helpful. I also have to say, I loved the chapter where he talked about the movie Groundhog Day in detail.[1] Not…
By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on October 11, 2017
The origin of humans has been a highly debated topic. But since none of us were there when humans were formed, no one can confidently describe how we came to be. Were we created? Did we evolve? Did we evolve after creation? As a creationist, I find it comforting to consider myself created in the…
By: Mary Walker on October 11, 2017
Just as people were never created, neither, according to the science of biology, is there a ‘Creator’ who ‘endows’ them with anything. There is only a blind evolutionary process, devoid of any purpose, leading to the birth of individuals.”[1] It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in…
By: Jay Forseth on October 11, 2017
Seven short years ago, I threw my family of four into our Dodge mini-van and drove from Montana to Maine, and back again. Two teen-agers, our bird dog, a portable DVD player, and us crazy parents for 7752 miles! 26 United States later, people would ask my kids what their favorite part of the trip…
By: Jim Sabella on October 11, 2017
Some who argue from a Christian perspective in opposition to A Brief History of Humankind, focus on chapter 12 because it deals with religion and how in Harari’s analysis man created religion to “legitimise widespread social and political orders…” [210] Though I do not agree with Harari’s evolutionary position nor his analysis concerning religion, he…
By: Mike on October 11, 2017
Pierre Bayard’s, How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read is a shocking, non-traditional, and awe-inspiring reading approach that challenges readers not only on how to read, but specifically on how to not read books. Bayard says that “non-reading is not just the absence of reading, but a genuine activity” that keeps us from “drowning” in a…
By: Shawn Hart on October 10, 2017
So I must say that in Pierre Bayard’s book “How to Talk about Books You Haven’t Read,” I kept finding myself conflicted over the pure irony of the message. On one hand, I wanted to not read the pages simply to prove his point, and yet on the other hand, I kept feeling as though…
By: Kyle Chalko on October 6, 2017
Really? How To Read a Book? You’d think by the time someone was in the process of acquiring their terminal degree they would have already figured out how to read. Of course, this book title will only be surpassed in irony by our future reading requirement, How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read. I…
By: Christal Jenkins Tanks on October 6, 2017
I can recall reading the history textbooks in both primary and secondary school. In every historical account it seemed to praise or revere the Eurocentric formation of western civilization. I was told of this by my mother who was my first teacher. I was home schooled until I was in the 3rd grade. It was…
By: Trisha Welstad on October 5, 2017
If I had to describe Mortimer Adler’s How to Read a Book in one word, I would say it is ‘thorough’. As helpful as Adler attempts to be in sharing the methods and insights on reading productively and for various purposes, much of the content is so thorough with illustrations and redundancy, I found myself…
By: Shawn Hart on October 5, 2017
“There is clearly no difficulty of an intellectual sort about gaining new information in a course of reading if the new facts are of the same sort as those you already know.”[1] I must admit that these words were my biggest fear with this book; in other words, what is the challenge of reading a…
By: Kristin Hamilton on October 5, 2017
I thought my 6th grade history teacher was way off base until this week. I have a very clear memory of Mr. Spence telling us that, even though we would learn that Greece and Rome were the center of civilization, Persia should really have that title. In all of my years studying and teaching history,…
By: Chip Stapleton on October 5, 2017
When I went on Amazon.com six or so weeks ago to buy my books for this semester, I did so mostly laser focused on the task at hand (finding the exact correct title for the lowest possible price). Because of this focus, I didn’t notice much else on that visit to the world’s largest book…
