For Bayard, every book read is a book unread. That is to say, every choice to read something--because there are so many books to read--must entail a decision not to read something. This insight leads him to reflect upon the levels of reading and unreading, and the reasons why readers are not free to admit to what they haven't read. The great virtue of this book is that it thinks about what reading means, and what the various modes of reading mean. What does it mean to skim a book? What does it mean that we do not feel free to fess up to a book that we haven't read? What does it mean not to have finished a book? If every book read is a book unread, then there is no shame in not having read something. Of course, in the end, my having read this entertaining and reflective book means that I haven't read another one. And I can't help thinking about what I missed.

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