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French literary scholar Pierre Bayard has a theory: The less you read, the more you know. Frustrated that the French school system encourages students to think of books as "untouchable objects," creating "unconscious taboos that burden our notion of books," Bayard penned How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read, a study on reading, forgetting and inventing details of texts. He uses the book-within-book works of literary luminaries Paul Valéry, Umberto Eco and Graham Greene -- as well as Bill Murray's character in the movie Groundhog Day -- to back up his idea that readers should dismiss the set laws of literature and transform their relationship to books by simply not reading them.

How to Talk About Books encourages non-readers to draw inspiration "from deep within yourself" instead of relying on the text. The non-reader is able to bring something new to the fluid and forgettable text, while the reader is bound by literary law to discuss the book as it exists and not get creative in fear of breaking said law. When pressed to discuss a book you haven't read, create your own storyline, analysis and opinion. Who's going to call you out at a dinner party?

Bayard's theory gives high school students the go-ahead to read Cliffs Notes instead of the assigned classic. And face it, this wing-it theory has been put into practice by English-major grad students since the dawn of M.A. programs. But for all readers, forcing our own emotions, ideas and interpretations onto books as we read them is part of the deal. Bayard is certainly right when he asserts there's more to talk about than plot. But you don't need to actually read this murky translation of the French bestseller to understand that. After all, isn't that Bayard's point?