Book Club: How to Talk About (Fiction) Books You Haven't Read

Come join us under the (hopefully) pleasant weather for the easiest book club meeting of all time—you don’t even need to read a book for this one!

## What?! 🤔

Yep, you read that one right: you don’t need to read a book for this one! Just come up with your list and take it with you; actual copies of the books, ideal but optional. For the purposes of this meeting, you haven’t read a book if:

• you outright haven’t read the book (yet?)
• you’ve only skimmed the book or DNFed before reaching the climax
• you’ve last read the book a loooong time ago and by now only have at most vague recollections about the plot

## Who? 🧐

Have you ever had to bail on a book club meeting because you haven’t read enough of the book? Do you have a copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses gathering dust in your shelves? What about Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, still sealed and pristine as the day you bought it on impulse? Is there a yellowing bookmark soon to merge with page 42 of your Definitive Dune? Did you ever promise yourself that you’ll formulate an opinion on the exclusion of Tom Bombadil from Peter Jackson’s masterpiece of an adaptation but got side-tracked by The Three-Body Problem which you then had to set-aside because for the last two years you’ve been working through Infinite Jest?

Welcome to the (book) club. We won’t judge you for the books you haven’t read.

## HOW???? 🤯

It turns out, readers have a lot of things they can talk about even when the topic at hand is a book they haven’t read yet. I know we are extremely opinionated people. Some French dude even wrote a book about not reading books: How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read by Pierre Bayard. If the concept of a book club without a book to discuss feels strange to you, make this the one book you’ll read for this one.

Or not. It might be hard to find a copy. I heard marketing a book about not reading books was a task nigh-impossible.

Booktuber Cinzia Du Bois (aka "The Lady of the Library") coincidentally talked about this book recently.

## OK, When 📅 and Where 🗺️?

Planten un Blomen, June 27 2026. Bring picnic blankets and snacks! We'll try to get a spot close to a cafe. Stay tuned for more details.