I’ve had this book on my shelf, ironically, unread for several years. In a recent resorting of my collection, I was going to put it directly in the donate pile, but a perusal of the chapter titles (done in the style of providing a short description, ala 19th century novels, which I love) and the book’s brevity compelled me to read it first. As someone who at various times has had to talk about books I haven’t read, I agree that there is both reason and a knack to doing so. The book has its appeal, but overall I found Bayard definitely speaks to a subset of reader, one who doesn’t read simply for pleasure, but for erudition or employment.