How Not to Read: Harnessing the Power of a Literature-Free Life

Comedian and Brooklyn bookseller Wilbur gained some attention when he created BetterBookTitles.com, presenting a sort of Wacky Packages approach to novels, all cleverly retitled to succinctly sum up the contents of each book with “fake, more accurate covers.” Thus, Ian McEwan’s Atonement was retitled Kids Say the Darndest Things, and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale became Sarah Palin’s America. The witty concept successfully continues here in a 32-page section of book jacket redesigns, the centerpiece of this literature lampoon. Wilbur, who views books as “lengthy one-way conversations,” claims no one has time to read anymore (“I didn’t even take the time to profred this bokk”), so he offers tips on looking smarter while faking it: never reread, and buy used books because “someone already did the work of bending the spines and underlining smart quotes.” Listing activities that have distracted people from reading (“Meeting up for drinks at Applebee’s”), he examines banned books (“The Da Vinci Code: Banned for being a really poorly written book”), bestsellers, blurbs, book clubs, censorship, children’s books, classics, literary terms, poetry, screenplay adaptations, misleading titles (“John Updike’s Rabbit books are not about rabbits”), and graphic novels: “American Splendor: A long reminder to never move to Cleveland.” (Sept. 14)