I will read it. Honest

First, an admission. Before I start writing about How Do You Talk About Books You Haven't Read?, the Frenchman Pierre Bayard's latest volume, I should confess that I haven't read it. But I will. Honest - I've already ordered it from Amazon.fr.

And as Bayard himself surely should agree, not having read How Do You Talk About Books You Haven't Read? hardly disqualifies me from writing about it.

Over here, HDYTABYHR would be a half-hearted potboiler of the kind placed tactfully at Books etc checkouts before Christmas. To British ears, the title suggests a slim how-to volume along the lines of Does Anything Eat Wasps? with a dash of John Sutherland's So You Think You Know Jane Austen?

But a glance at Bayard's back catalogue suggests that something much more interesting is going on here. His Comment améliorer les oeuvres ratées? (How could we improve failed works?) suggested how parts of Victor Hugo and Molière might be made more compelling.